Life Of William Shakespeare English Literature Essay

William Shakespeare is arguably one of the most famous writers of all time. He has written thirty eight plays, two narrative poems, several other poems and one hundred fifty four sonnets. Some of his most famous poems are Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Those two poems are just a few of the many poems Shakespeare wrote. I think Shakespeare is a remarkable person because he accomplished so much in just fifty two years of his life.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1564 to his parents Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. Shakespeare was the third child of eight. He was the oldest surviving son, because in the time Shakespeare was born there was a plague going around called the Bubonic Plague. This is also known as Black Death because it killed so many people in the middle ages. It supposedly killed about one out of every seven people. Not very much is known about Shakespeare’s early years in life, the only way historians found about his early life were based on church records, and court settlements. It was thought that Shakespeare got his education at a grammar school called King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon. When Shakespeare was eighteen, he married a woman who was eight years older than him, her name was Anne Hathaway. Together they had three children. The first was a girl named Susanna and then two years later they had twins, one boy name Hamnet and a daughter named Judith. Hamnet died at the age of 11 of unknown causes. After the death of Shakespeare’s only son supposedly Shakespeare was never the same. Historians have no clue what happened in Shakespeare’s life between the years of 1585-1592. Historians call this time of his life the “lost years.” No one is really sure when Shakespeare started writing but they think it was in 1592 when some of his plays were starting to be performed on stage in London.

Shakespeare has had a lot of numerous plays and almost all of them were performed in his time. Some of his first works include Richard III and parts of Henry VI. No one really knows when a lot of Shakespeare’s plays were written, but most historians think it was sometime in the early 1590s. Shakespeare has two really famous narrative poems that many people read today, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

Hamlet was first printed in 1601 and could possibly be one of Shakespeare’s most famous stories. This story is pretty much about Prince Hamlet planning revenge on Claudius for murdering King Hamlet. When he does kill Claudius he takes over the throne of his father. One of the most famous quotes from the book Hamlet written by Shakespeare is, “To be or not to be that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them.” This is Shakespeare’s longest narrative poem, and maybe one of his most tragic, but the story Romeo and Juliet is right up there with Hamlet.

Romeo and Juliet is a story that everyone in their life is going to read, especially in high school. If you ask people that have graduated from high school, what book they remember reading. I guarantee you that most of them will mention Romeo and Juliet. That just shows you how powerful Shakespeare’s writings are. The story Romeo and Juliet is about two people who become to love each other but where they come from, they are truly enemies. It is dramatic irony because since they cannot be together, but they love each other so much, they end up killing themselves together. Romeo and Juliet is to me one of his greatest pieces of work.

You would think that from all of Shakespeare’s accomplishments and all of the writing he had done, that there would be a big influence in his life but really there is no known influence in his life. I think that the only thing he knew was writing, so he did what he did best and was really good at it. There aren’t many authors from that time that you read from these days but everyone knows Shakespeare and his work. Even though Shakespeare might have not had a big influence in his life, he has influenced a lot of people today in there writing. I know there are people out there that look up to Shakespeare and study his writing so that they can be writers someday. Unfortunately, Shakespeare isn’t alive and we really cannot find out all of this information about him.

Shakespeare ended up moving back to his home in Stratford and ended up passing away on April 23, 1616. This is ironic because he died on his birthday in the exact same place he was born. Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, and is still buried there today. According to Petri Liukkonen from www.kirjasto.sci.fi/shakespe.htm, these are the four lines that are written on Shakespeare’s tomb, “Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbeare / To digg the dust enclosed here! / Blest be ye man that spares thes stones / And curst be he that moues my bones.” It was said that his wife and two girls wanted to be buried in the same grave when they died but never did. Shakespeare is today still arguably one of the best poets/writers in our history. His writings are still being read all over the world four hundred years later, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. He lived a life of fifty two years, accomplished so much and dedicated his life to writing.