Shakespeare's Manipulation of History Through Literature

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Recommended: Analysis of Macbeth

In some of William Shakespeare's most famous works, he deviates from the historical truth to create the final product of his works. He does this to please loyalty, as well as appeal to his audience at the time. At the same time, Shakespeare also does this to help create a stronger bond between the reader and the characters. To satisfy this, he implements many fictional pieces to his famous works. Macbeth was one of these works as he wrote this in 1606 to honor James I becoming the king of England. To please him, he altered many features of characters, as well as add in fictional characters. This changed the plot of the story greatly, making it very different from the story Shakespeare bases it off of. In addition, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar also features these fictional pieces to avoid complicating the plot of the story. The assassination of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is still, to this day, one of the greatest and complicated murder cases in history. Because of this, Shakespeare does manipulate what really happened. By cutting out details he felt were unnecessary, this allows for him to delve into what is more important. Shakespeare also wanted to write more of a political play, which is why he left out some critical information that he felt wasn't important. The changes that Shakespeare makes are critical, as there are many historical inaccuracies that change the plot greatly.
As the new king of England, James I came to reign, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth to honor him. Shakespeare bases this work off of an old history book, Holinshield's Chronicle, which he also uses as a basis for his other pieces. For starters, he made the Scottish king, Duncan, "old and venerable instead of young and weak" to make the king seem more of a re...

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...th and the fictional plays Macbeth and The Tragedy of Julius Caesar that William Shakespeare implemented for many reasons.

Works Cited

Andersen, Richard. Macbeth. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009. Print.
Black, Sarah. "The Historical Inaccuracies of Shakespeare's Macbeth." Teen Ink. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Jan. 2014.
Nardo, Don. Julius Caesar. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Print.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The tragedy of Macbeth.
New York: Washington Square Press, 2002. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar and related readings. Evanston, IL: McDougal
Littell, 1997. Print.
Sobran, Joseph. Julius Caesar. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2009. Print
Vernon, Jennifer. "Ides of March Marked Murder of Julius Caesar." National
Geographic. National Geographic Society, 12 Aug. 2004. Web. 04 Jan. 2014.

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