Transcript Shakespeare In His Time English poet and

 English poet and playwright
 Greatest writer in England
 World’s pre-eminent
dramatist
Interesting Facts:
 Nobody knows Shakespeare’s actual birthday
 Shakespeare never published any of his plays
 Shakespeare’s family were all illiterate
 William Arden, a relative of
Shakespeare's mother Mary
Arden, was arrested for
plotting against Queen
Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the
Tower of London and
executed. An “enemy of the
state”
His Education
 Loved to write.
 Most probably educated at
King’s New School in
Stratford. Received
intensive education in Latin
grammar and the classics
Inspired by
1. Birds
2. Great writers
 Geoffrey Chaucer
 Plutarch
 Plays were extremely dramatic, which led to his
success
 Drama was the ideal means to capture the
diverse interests of his time
 Elizabethan England, ruled by Queen Elizabeth I
 Writers were deeply influenced by Italian sonnets
 List of Significant Historical Events
 Crowning of Queen Elizabeth (1558)
 Putting to death of Mary Queen of Scots (1587)
 The defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)
 The Essex Rebellion (1601)
 The people in power had a heavy impact on
Shakespeare’s works
 Queen Elizabeth, a great patron of arts, aided
Shakespeare by quashing Puritans, who wanted
to shut down theatres, and changing the
dominant language in England from Latin to
English, leading to Shakespeare writing most of
his plays in English
 People in England during that time had a strong
sense of social class, classified according to
wealth, occupation and ancestry
 Social classes determined many factors, from
what a person could wear, what he could do, and
even what jobs his children could take on.
Social Classes
 The Nobility; rich and powerful
 55 rich families, led by a duke, baron or earl
 The Gentry; most important
social class
 5% of the population, knights,
squires, and gentlemen who did
not work with their hands
Social Classes
 The Yeomanry; middle-class people
 Could survive comfortably, but could also be wracked
by disease or misfortune
 Yeomen farmers, tradesmen and craft workers
 The Poor
 The sick, disabled, old
and feeble and wounded
soldiers
 Due to exposure
 Theatres
 English Renaissance Theatre,
also known as Elizabethan
Theatre
 Globe Theatre, where most of his
plays were held in the mid
afternoon
 No lighting
 Weather permitting
 Open-air theatres during that era compelled
actors to shout out their lines, stress their
enunciation, engage in exaggerated theatrical
gestures
 Despite costumes and props being utilized,
changes in scenes were not made during curtain
closings, as there were no curtains or
stagehands
 These changes were made during speeches and
narrative situations
 A cultural movement from the 14th to the 17th
Century in art and literature
 Marked the transition from the medieval era to
modern era
 Significant events and changes
 The Black Death
 Reduced the population of Europe by over 50%
 1st Printing press in the world was invented
 Columbus almost discovers America
 Granada, the last Moslem presence in Spain, falls
 The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy
allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity of
every character regardless of social position
 Even the high-ranking monarchs were given
human emotions and were capable of making
mistakes
 After the Renaissance, Shakespeare was able to
utilize Greek and Roman classics when writing
his plays
The End