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William Shakespeare Research Paper

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William Shakespeare is known as the greatest playwright and poet in the history of English literature. However, there is little information on his life. William Shakespeare’s birth date is still unknown but many believe that he was born in April 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon. His parents were John and Mary Shakespeare. “Shakespeare presumably attended the Stratford grammar school, where he would have received an education in Latin, but he did not go on to either Oxford or Cambridge universities” (Bloom 1). There is very little information on Shakespeare up until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. They had three children, the first born, Susanna, and a set of twins, Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare worked as an actor, playwright, and a poet. In …show more content…

Sonnets are a form of poetry that consists of fourteen lines with any number of formal rhyme schemes. Shakespeare’s sonnets consist of 154 sonnets and were broken down into two groups: sonnets 1-126 talked about a handsome friend and sonnets 127-152 talk about the “Dark Lady” which the poet loves. Shakespeare’s sonnets, composed probably sometime between 1590 and 1600, are very different than those of other contemporaries of Shakespeare’s time because “they are not based on the traditional Petrarchan theme of a proud, virtuous lady and an abject, scorned lover” (“Sonnets of Shakespeare”) and the sequence of the poems are unclear. His sonnets were also not traditional. “The emotions he expresses in his sonnets have a depth and complexity, an intensity, that can be encountered elsewhere only in the speeches of some of his greatest dramatic creations” (“Sonnets of Shakespeare”). Shakespeare had a way to convey a particular image with the right feeling or idea. He also developed his own sonnet form, the Shakespearean sonnet form, with which Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard Surrey experimented earlier in the century. The main reason that Shakespeare’s sonnets are so popular is because the sonnets never fail to show human experience in the best possible ways. “The opening lines of the sonnets show a remarkable number of questions and commands that heighten the reader’s sense” (“Sonnets of Shakespeare”) of the

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Shakespeare was a child of many with a merchant for a father, John Shakespeare, and a local heiress for a mother, Mary Arden. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and supposedly born on April 23, 1564. () Shakespeare’s childhood years a blurry, especially his education. According to bardweb.net, “Scholars surmise that Shakespeare attended the grammar school in Stratford.” Though there is no evidence for this claim, Shakespeare had a fond knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek, which was mandatory to learn then, that led people to believe this theory.

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William Shakespeare is a well known playwright, poet, and actor. He is perhaps the most famous writer of the English language for his plays and sonnets. Shakespeare lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Compared to the other great playwrights, no one’s plays have ever been produced or read as many times as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564.

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968 Words | 4 Pages

In 1564, a man who would revolutionize literature saw the world for the first time. William Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford, where he went to school and where his father made gloves. Later in his life, he wrote many groundbreaking plays. These include, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Some speculation has arisen about whether or not Shakespeare wrote his plays.

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886 Words | 4 Pages

Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your lordship, to whom I wish long life, still lengthened with all happiness”. Showing us that William Shakespeare truly respected Henry. Another possible reason that Henry could have been the person that the sonnets were dedicated to was because he was a visitor to the theatre. This has a major impact on why he could be the person the sonnets were dedicated to because William Shakespeare spent most of his time in the theatre before it shut down due to the spread of the plague. When the plague spread, William Shakespeare wrote the 154 sonnets and that has become some of the most influential pieces of

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421 Words | 2 Pages

Though no documents survived from Shakespeare's grade school years, he probably attended the Stratford grammar school. It is thought that he had to end his education at about thirteen to help his father make more money for the family. At age eighteen he married Anne Hathaway. There are no records of Shakespeare's activities between 1585 and 1592 though some have speculated that he was a traveling actor.

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945 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 28. They had 3 children; three daughters. One of their daughters died when she was 11. William Shakespeare disappeared from all records, and then he finally turned up again in London some time in 1592.

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797 Words | 4 Pages

William Shakespeare, one of the most famous- if not the most famous- poet and playwrights of all time, is said to have most likely been born on April 23, 1564. It is “most likely” that he was born on this day because “no birth records exist, church records indicate that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564” (Bio, 2). Shakespeare was the third child, but eldest surviving, born to John and Mary Shakespeare. William would have had two older sisters, though, they passed before he was born, and had three younger brothers that he grew up with.

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310 Words | 2 Pages

He had 3 brothers and 3 sisters. He married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18 and had 3 kids Hamnet Shakespeare, Susanna Hall, Judith Quiney. By 1590s, William Shakespeare was a managing partner in an acting company (Lord Chamberlain's Men) in London in with which he was attached for most of his career as a playwright. From 1590 to 1613 William Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays. Some of his most popular work were Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth.

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577 Words | 3 Pages

Shakespeare’s Marriage: Anne Hathaway was 26-year-old when she became the wife of Shakespeare, who was only 18-year-old. In the month of November, 1852 when Hathaway was three months pregnant the marriage took place in a church. After six months, a girl was born and they named her Susanna. Shakespeare was blessed with twins, Judith and Hamnet in February, 1585. 2.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

William Shakespeare stands as one of the most famous writers in the English Language (Christenbury 1 of 11). He was held up as a national ideal (“Shakespeare’s Career” 7 of 7), and proved himself to be the “Soul of the age” (Andrews 5 of 37). His work has been translated into more than one hundred languages, and his plays can be found in almost every country on earth (Kaston 1 of 7). No one else has projected a cultural influence as broad or as deep (Andrews 4 of 37). Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564 in Stratford Upon Avon, England (1 of 37).

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1351 Words | 6 Pages

William Shakespeare’s sonnets are closely related in the idea that the theme as well as the subject of the poem remain consistent. A distinctive factor among Shakespeare’s sonnets however, is that they each contain somewhat varying tones. Two specific sonnets that prove this are “Sonnet 71” and “Sonnet 73” respectively. Both sonnets refer to the same subject, what is seemingly the speaker of the poem’s lover or mistress. The theme of death and dying are ones which remain present throughout each text.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare outline: Thesis: The Sonnets hold a strange space in the Shakespeare works of literacy, for they are studied as often by literary historians searching for biographical clues to who the author was and whom he loved, as they are by readers finding solace and stimulation in his poetry. However as much as we try and read the poems as poems – at times flirtatious, at times romantic or feverishly passionate, often cynical, sometimes bitter and frequently mournful – lurking behind our readings are 400 years of rumour and speculation about Shakespeare’s sexuality and the identity of his addressees. Perhaps that is inevitable for a collection written in the first person, as the temptation to merge the narrator’s ‘I’ with the poet’s own

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1319 Words | 6 Pages

A Sonnet is a poem, expression of a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment. It is always containing 14 lines and is usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to one of certain definite schemes. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” is a poem about love in its most ideal form. He is devoted into explaining

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670 Words | 3 Pages

Having written one hundred and fifty-four sonnets in his lifetime, Shakespeare gives a fairly descriptive look into his head and emotions. The first chunk of sonnets all dedicated to “H.W.”, believed to be the prince of Shakespeare’s dreams, pour out the heart and feelings of the legendary writer. In sonnet 18 Shakespeare

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2302 Words | 10 Pages

In the first seventeen sonnets which are called the procreation sonnets, Shakespeare makes an earnest request to his beloved fair lord to find a woman to bear his child so that his beauty might be preserved for posterity. In all these seventeen sonnets, he presents the time as a powerful instrument and force. He establishes this fact through much imagery like military winter and the sun. In sonnets no. 2, the poet urges his friend to get married and beget a child who would inherit his beauty and keep it alive.

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