William Shakespeare and His Works

William Shakespeare, the figure to whom the most influential works of literature in history are credited, was born in April of 1564 (the exact date is approximated as April 23rd, also the date given as his death fifty-two years later) in Stratford, England to John and Mary Shakespeare. He grew up in relatively middle-class surroundings, attending grammar school and studying Latin, logic, and literature, from which he graduated to marry a woman by the name of Anne Hathaway. With Hathaway he had three children, two girls and a son, and as a playwright and poet, Shakespeare went on to enjoy moderate success in his time, writing thirty-seven (known) plays and several works of poetry. Of course his plays would be well underappreciated during his time (as with all great artists), but later, such titles as King Lear, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth would only begin a list of some of the most appraised scripts ever written (Armstrong, 1-5).

While these plays carry the weight of Shakespeare’s legacy, he was also a dedicated poet. During the years of the black plague in the late 16th century, theaters were closed from 1592 until 1594, and Shakespeare spent his time writing lengthy poetry, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucree, and continued work on his sonnets, a volume of poems which he wrote over a span of about a decade. This book of sonnets has raised some of the most captivating questions in all of literature, as their vagueness and mysterious allusions have puzzled critics for centuries, who attempt to use them to piece together parts of Shakespeare’s life, of which relatively little is known. One of the most frequently investigated questions is that of Shakespeare’s sexuality; the so...

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...ne or the other, some fascinating truth about the author himself, as though he intended to leave it there. After all, when one gives the book of sonnets to a loved one as a traditional gift, does one bare in mind that the sonnets praising love and beauty are more than likely written to a man, while those written to a woman are of darkness and remorse? Certainly, at least hopefully, not.

Whatever the case may be, the sonnets were written from the heart, with an honest pen and a true heart, something that can be appreciated by any generation. It has been said that Shakespeare can be seen as “nothing less than the inventor of the human,” (Keevak, 68).

What Shakespeare did intend to leave us with was something beautiful that can be appreciated in whatever context we may chose to present it, so long as the humanity that these works contain is preserved.