How Did Plutarch Influence William Shakespeare

Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest playwrights and poets of all time. He introduced many new styles to the language arts and wrote many plays and poems, which today in our generation are still beloved. On April 23, 1564, William Shakespeare was born. He was a great playwright and poet and is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom and grew up with 7 other siblings. He then married at 18 to Anne Hathaway and has 3 children; a daughter and a set of twins named Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Shakespeare had many influences throughout his work. He was influenced by Geoffrey Chaucer and Plutarch two amazing playwrights and poets. However, Shakespeare influenced many

authors and took the world by storm through his poems and dramatic plays which is why he is labeled as the best playwright ever. He introduced 1700 words to the English language and wrote many songs and sonnets which are still very popular in our generation today. Shakespeare has a huge impact on the world today by his many influences and his tragedies in his plays, that influenced many writers today.
Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, and since they had no type of birth records many scholars believed he was born on the 23th of April in 1564. He was best known as England’s National Poet, and the “Bard of Avon”. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at 18 years old. Anne grew up outside of Stratford in the village of shottery. After she married shakespeare, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford. Hamnet , Shakespeare's only son, died at 11 years old. His older daughter, Susanna, later married a Stratford doctor, John Hall. She later had a daughter, the first grandchild of William Shakespeare. Judith also married and had 3 sons, Richard, Shakespeare, and Thomas Quiney. The rest of the family died out, without leaving no form of descendants of Shakespeare's. In order to get any type of background on William, scholars used the plays, poems, sonnets, and church records. His early plays were “Venus and Adonis”, “Titus Andronicus”, and “The Taming of the Shrew”, just something to get his career started. He wrote mainly about murder, life, love, revenge, death, mystery, and many other things throughout all of his plays and poems. He wanted to connect with his audience and capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. The characters that he presents in his many plays, present a vivid impression of what human emotions and feelings about what goes on in everyone's everyday lives. His life affected his plays. William Shakespeare’s sexuality has been discussed a lot because of his many sonnets (1-126) ,discussed homosexual relations. Many scholars believed that Shakespeare is homosexual because of his plays and sonnets. His three years of marriage sonnets are cited as evidence of his bisexuality. The first 126 sonnets appear to be directed to a young man known as the “fair lord”. He states in one of his sonnets (sonnet 20) that this young man is the master-mistress, of his passion, which would give researchers an idea that he was bisexual. Sonnet 18, a love poem addresses a man, the “fair lord” and features a play on words relating to sexual desire between men. His last sonnets (127-54), are addressed to a scheming woman who is known to be “The Dark Lady”. Shakespeare's masterpieces have been performed for more than 400 years and he has also performed in many of them. Later on his life, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theatre on the south bank of the Thames River which they called, the Globe, where many performances were performed there. Later on in Shakespeare's life, his family's home was left for him in 1597. In 1759, the house was demolished and a registered garden had been designed to commemorate the importance of the site and allow visitors to make their own personal connection with shakespeare. Elements of the Great Garden, the largest surviving part of shakespeares estate, will be conserved and further developed over time. William Shakespeare is believed to have written his very first play, Henry VI Part 1 in the year of 1590-91. He is again believed to have written Henry VI, part two, and Henry VI, part three in 1592. His first comedy was the “comedy of errors” written in 1589-1594.
Shakespeare had many influences.

He was influenced by Geoffrey Chaucer and Plutarch. Chaucer was known as the father of english literature and is considered to be the greatest poet of the middle ages. Chaucer’s work “Troilus and Criseyde” inspired shakespeare's play “Troilus and Cressida” and Chaucer poem “The Knights Tales” sparked Shakespeare to craft “The Noble Kinsmen”. Another influence was Plutarch, a greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. Shakespeare used North's translation of Parallel Lives as the primary source of “Antony and Cleopatra”, “Julius Caesar”, “Coriotanus”, and “Timon of Athens”. Not only did he have influences, he also influenced many writers today; such as Aldous Huxley, John Keats and Maya Angelou. Many authors have used phrases from shakespeare work as title for their own novels like Aldous Huxley did for “Brave New World”. The Romantic poet John Keats was so influenced by shakespeare that he kept a bust of bard beside him while writing, hoping shakespeare would inspire him to do great things with his writings. Many writers have admired and been influenced by shakespeare. In the 18th century, Alexander Pope, one of the greatest poets of the enlightenment. Pope wrote an edition of shakespeare on 1725, with significant commentary. He has also influenced major novelists such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and William Fulcher. Charles used many of shakespeare's quotations throughout his works. Melville was even more influenced by shakespeare because he used devices such as formal stage directions and extended soliloquies in Moby-Dick. George Bernard ridiculed those who worshipped shakespeare, inventing the term bardolatry, to denote the study of Shakespeare. Scholars believed he secretly admired Shakespeare. “West Side Story” was influenced by Romeo And Juliet, when one group doesn't get along with another group and someone ends up falling in love from opposite sides. Romeo claims his love

for juliet, “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,/ who is already sick pale with grief, that thou, her maid,art far more fair than she”. (2.2 5-7) Both stories are unrequited love that end tragically, by someone dying over a little foolish rivalry between two families. Shakespeare has created some of the most honored plays, that he influenced many writers and poets today, so he had a huge influence on the world today.
Shakespeare's introduction of new vocabulary has a huge impact on the world today, by his words and phrases that have enlightened the english language by making it more articulate and stylish. Scholars claimed, he uses 17,677 words in all of his works, and 1700 of them were created by himself. He created most of his word by changing “nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, adding prefixes and suffixes”, and just putting words together. Some of the words made up, we use today as slang like swagger. Lack of prescribed grammatical rules introduced vagueness in literature, it also expressed feelings with profound vividness and emotion, which created, ¨freedom of expression¨ and ¨vividness of presentment¨. The words coined by Shakespeare are explained with their full origins and meanings. One of the words he invented was swagger which he meant it to be force by blustering language, but today most people would use it as a compliment. Shakespeare wrote many tragedies including the top four most famous plays, “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, and “King Lear”. He started writing tragedies because he thought the tragic plots used by other english writers were lacking artistic purpose and form. He added suspense and climax to his plays to draw the audience in and capture their attention. He used the fall of a noble person as the main focus of his tragedies. “King Lear is a tragic story of an old man’s descent into madness as his world crumbles around him”, this is one of his best tragedies that attracted his audience and built suspense so they would want to keep watching and wouldn't get bored.
Shakespeare had many accomplishments, from 1594-1608, Shakespeare worked for the London Theatre world. In 1609, shakespeare’s 154 sonnets were published; 126 sonnets were to a young man and the other 26 were concentrated on a woman. He made up spelling and a very lyrical language. His invented words are still being used by this generation today. “His development of world renowned writings, working as an actor and identification as england's national poet are 3 major accomplishments of William Shakespeare”. By the early 1590s documents show shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's men, an acting company in London. By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partner built their own theatre on the south bank of Thames River which they called it The Globe.In 1609, his sonnets were published and in 1611 he returned to stratford where his wife and daughters lived. In 1613, Shakespeare composes his final play-Henry VIII, Two Noble Kinsmen, and the Cardenio- in collaboration with John Fletcher. The Globe catches on fire during a performance of Henry VIII and burns to the ground. While The Globe closed down, because of the big fire that took place there, he took to writing poetry. Besides his poetry, much of Shakespeare's early work consist of histories and comedies. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased lease of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year.