Shakespeare. Universally recognized as one of the most well known and influential playwrights in the history of literature, his works have lasted hundreds of years and will probably last for many more. But why is that? To answer that question, we must go back to the beginning. So who was Shakespeare? He was born in Stratford upon Avon in 1564, living until the year 1616. He married a woman named Anne Hathaway when he was 18, with the couple having three children. Shakespeare left his family in the countryside for London, where he quickly became extremely popular. Incredibly talented, he soon had an acting company- along with other shareholders- when the theatre they performed in came under fire from puritan city officials disliking what they …show more content…
so much so that they weren't even officially written down and compiled until after he died, with the total number of plays being 38. Many of these are commonly known by the general public- Romeo and Juliet, The Taming Of The Shrew, Henry V, and many more. He often drew his inspiration from other works, taking them and adapting them as his own. That is not to say that he did not write his own original works however, nor is it to say that he only wrote plays when in fact that is not true. Sonnets were often the name of Shakespeare's game, and are often just as well known as the plays are, such as Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”) and Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summers …show more content…
But why? He had a particular command of the English language, waxing poetic as well as wickedly humorous, sometimes in the same play. He wrote his plays and much of his poetry in iambic pentameter, which is a rhyme scheme that has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. With that command of the English language, he ended up changing it. He coined new words and phrases, creating and adapting over 1700- many of which are still in use today, or are at least recognizable such as “the world is my oyster”, “break the ice” and- perhaps the most humorous one- “in a pickle”. He put words together in ways they never had been before, changing their form to fit his purposes, and penning not only some of the most recognizable quotes, but also those that had an incredible weight to them. The plays were often filled with tragedy, stories about love and power where everyone falls-like Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. But not all of the plays were so solemn. Plays like As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing and many others were Shakespearean comedies- full of lightheartedness and while there is tension in the story, ultimately there was a happy ending. Comedies were the spring in Shakespeare’s plays, compared to the winter of the