William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare
Go Blue!

• 1564 - 1616

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William Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare was born on April 26th, 1564.
• Shakespeare died on April 26th, 1616.
• Williams father was John, a local business man,
  and his mother was Mary.
• William was the third oldest child. Shakespeare
  had seven brothers and sisters.

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William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare and his family lived in Stratford
  Upon Avon.
• Stratford is about 100 miles outside of London.
• Shakespeare had a fourth grade education and
  never attended a university.

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William Shakespeare

• In 1582 Shakespeare, then 18, married 26 year old
  Anne Hathaway.
• The eight year age gap was unusual for the time.
• At the time they were married Hathaway was
  pregnant with their first child, Susanna.
• Shakespeare did not like his wife

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William Shakespeare

• Anne and William had two other children, twins
  Judith and Hamnet.
• At the age of eleven Hamnet passed away.
• Shakespeare was very distraught by the death of
  his son and paid tribute to him in the play
  Hamlet.

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William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare had a very small family for the time,
  usually people had larger families due to high
  child mortality rates.
• Though Shakespeares family resided in Stratford
  Shakespeare spent the majority of his time in
  London.
• Shakespeare resided in Stratford only during the
  winter.

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Shakespeares Poetry

• Shakespeare is know for his invention of the
  Shakespearean sonnet.
• This sonnets are 14 lines long.
• Have an ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG rhyme scheme.
• Are all written in Iambic Pentameter.
• Iambic Pentameter has 10 syllables per line and
  follow an unstressed/stressed pattern.
• The last two rhyming lines are called a Heroic
  Couplet

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art
more lovely and more temperateRough winds do
shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease
hath all too short a dateSometime too hot the
eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold
complexion dimm'dAnd every fair from fair
sometime declines,By chance or nature's changing
course untrimm'dBut thy eternal summer shall
not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou
owestNor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his
shade,When in eternal lines to time thou
growestSo long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,So long lives this and this gives life to
thee.
A
B
A
B
/
/
/
U
/
U
U
U
U
/
C
2
4
6
8
10
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G
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Shakespeares Poetry

• Shakespeare wrote 154 Shakespearean Sonnets
• Shakespeare also wrote poetry that didnt follow
  the Shakespearean sonnet format however he is
  most famous for the Shakespearean Sonnet.

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Shakespeares Plays

• Shakespeare wrote three main types of plays.
• Comedies
• Histories
• Tragedies
• Shakespeare began his career with the comedies
  and ended with the tragedies.

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Shakespeares Comedy

• Shakespeares comedy generally involves some sort
  of romantic folly where there are mismatched
  romantic pairings.
• One trait of Shakespeares comedy is that nobody
  will die.
• There is a dark side to Shakespeares comedy,
  characters will often go through a dramatic
  series of events.

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Shakespeares Tragedy

• Shakespeares tragedy involves a main character
  who is a prominent figure in his/her society.
• There is always a flaw in this persons character
  that he/she doesnt realize.
• The main character will always fall from power.
• The main character will always die.

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Shakespeares History

• Shakespeares histories are both a comment on
  previous rulers as well as current rulers.
• Shakespeare would often point out what he thought
  was wrong with the government in his plays.
• Because he was sponsored by the king he needed to
  hide this fact, which he did by writing about
  fictional or past rulers.

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Shakespeares Plays

• Shakespeare wrote 13 Comedies.
• Shakespeare wrote 10 Histories.
• Shakespeare wrote 15 Tragedies.
• As Shakespeare got older his writing became
  darker and darker, thus he ended his career
  writing tragedies.

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Shakespeares Plays

• Shakespeares plays typically have five acts.
• Typically there is a character of lower class who
  can see through all of the confusion in the play
  and tells the audience what is really going on.
• Shakespeare also relies on soliloquies and asides
  to inform the audience of plot.

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Soliloquy

• A soliloquy is anytime where a character is alone
  on stage and talking to the audience.
• The character will break the fourth wall and tell
  the audience what he/she is thinking.
• Typically in tragedy this is where we learn the
  main characters tragic flaw.

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Aside

• An aside is similar to a soliloquy but the
  character is not alone on the stage.
• Again the fourth wall is broken, but only the
  audience knows what is going on.
• Modern examples of the aside can be seen in TV
  shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Saved by the
  Bell.

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Shakespeares Life

• Shakespeare was a wealthy man for his time. He
  owned part of his theatre, The Globe, so he
  received a portion of the profits from his plays.
• Shakespeare became the official playwright of the
  king. His performance group was originally Lord
  Chamberlains Men and later became The Kings Men.

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Shakespeares Theatre

• The Globe Theatre was built outside of London,
  theatre was performed here due to the Puritans.
• The original Globe burned down during
  Shakespeares time.
• During a performance of Henry the VIII in 1613 an
  errant cannon shot caught the thatch roof on fire.

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Shakespeares Theatre

• A second Globe was built less than 60 miles from
  the site of the original Globe in 1614.
• This second Globe also burned down (though after
  Shakespeares death).
• A third Globe was built in 1997 outside of London
  at the site of the original Globe.

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Shakespeares Theatre

• At the time women were not allowed to act on
  stage.
• Because of this men performed all the roles.
  Boys below the age of thirteen performed the
  roles of women.
• To compensate for this romantic scenes were often
  conducted behind a curtain.

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Shakespeares Theatre

• Shakespeare did not write down any of his plays.
• Actors memorized the lines as they performed the
  plays.
• After Shakespeares death The Kings Men recorded
  all of his plays on paper to pay tribute to
  Shakespeare.
• Because of this there are slight differences in
  the various copies of his plays.

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Why was Shakespeare so popular?