William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is ubiquitous. Surely you had heard of one of his sonnets and plays? Having written at least 40 plays and 150 poems, he is the most famous playwright, poet, and possibly the most notable English writer of all time. He is undoubtedly influential. His works have inspired many classical musicians and authors. Thus, how can it be that a playwright and poet inspire innumerable people and influence yet further?

Shakespeare's words are adapted and used everyday as they are relevant to our daily situations. His plays present people we relate to. Just a few of his invented words include: compromised, laughable, assassination, bandit, excitement, and critic. His plays depict love between rival families, as portrayed in the play Romeo and Juliet, and the fear of mortality and death, which still exists today as they did at least over 4 centuries ago. Shakespeare is also influential for a different reason: his characters and scenes. Read on to find out more.

Shakespeare’s work often illustrates his characters and scenes with an imperfect setting, thus intriguing the reader continuously throughout Shakespeare’s plays and works. For instance, Hamlet, a troubled Danish prince and play written by William Shakespeare, is a character who vows to avenge his father’s untimely death. Some readers hail Hamlet as a hero whilst other believe that Hamlet is nothing more than a bloody tyrant who sacrifices almost everyone in the end, including himself. William Shakespeare doesn’t really specify if the character is a hero or a villain. It is the same for other works and plays written by Shakespeare. The constant questioning of the reader is what makes an ordinary writing and play, “extraordinary”. This is one of the reasons why William Shakespeare still remains influential to authors and people today.

William Shakespeare is taught in the classroom still today as it provides insight into the medieval ages and its history. For example, the works of Shakespeare contain a clue about tennis, and reflects a scene of Juliet standing on the balcony that makes us infer balconies existed during the medieval ages. In addition, we can deduce that there was such a thing as a pandemic like Covid-19 in the past: the Black Plague. This left Shakespeare without any performances as the playhouses were closed. Further, only males were enabled to act for an extended period of time before females were officially allowed to participate in the industry. Be that as it may, Shakespeare treated both his male and female characters equally in his works. We can therefore assume that William Shakespeare was a gender equality advocate.

Although Shakespeare publicized his many sonnets and poems, he never got a chance to reveal a single volume of his plays to the world in his life. The First Folio, a series of 36 plays, is a window into a past epoch. This famous book was released posthumously by William’s fellow actors in a big warehouse. Many other books were being made at the time, so there were only a handful of machines to complete The First Folio. This resulted in common writing errors. From this, we can draw if any metal machines were used in the printing industry. It often depended on both the quality of paper and the text layout. With its 36 plays inscribed inside it, 18 that were never published by William Shakespeare. Only 250 copies remain today.

Surely, William Shakespeare’s plays continue to never fail to amaze people both present and future. Let’s have fun to have a conversation with William Shakespeare’s words. If someone annoys you, be sure to send that person away with Shakespeare’s insults.

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