Biography

William Shakespeare was an English poet, play writer and actor of the
Renaissance era. He was an important member of the king’s Men Company of
theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.

Known throughout the world, Shakespeare’s Writings capture the range of

human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400
years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.

There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life.
One is his work-the plays, poems and sonnets and the other is official
documentation such as church and court record. However, these provide only
brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man
himself.

When was Shakespeare Born?

No birth record exists, but an old church record indicates that a William
Shakespeare was baptized at holy trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April
26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564 and this is
the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday.

Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare’s time

Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and
bisected by a country road.

Family
Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant
and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan
and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert Richard and Edmund.

Before Shakespeare’s Birth his father became a successful merchant and held
official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor.
However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometimes in the late 1570s.

Childhood and Education

Scan record exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none
regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended
the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the
classics.

Being a public official’s child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified

for free tuition. But this uncertainly regarding his education has led some to raise
questions about the authorship of his work land even about whether or not
Shakespeare really existed.

Wife and Children

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in
Worcester in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from shottery a small village a
mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out,
pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on My 26,
1583. Two years later, on Judith were born. Ham net later died of unknown
causes at age 11.

Shakespeare’s lost year

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no record exists after
the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the “lost years” and there is
wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One theory is what
he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord. Sir
Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an
assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as

the author of plays such as the two Gentleman of Verona. The Comedy of Errors
and king John.

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a

member of the King’s Men Theater Company and a Groom of the Chamber by
the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of
Shakespeare’s plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by

contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy
What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the
dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17
centuries. But his reputations as a dramatic genius wasn’t recognized until the
19th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing
through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his
work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and
performance have rediscovered and adopted his work.
 Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and
reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The
genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human
being in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in
Elizabethan England.
Themes
The Forcefulness of love

Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English Literary Tradition,
love is naturally the play’s dominant and most important theme. The play
focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first
sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic,
overpowering force what supersedes all other values, Loyalties and emotions. In
the course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy their entire social
world: Families (“Deny thy father and refuse they name”). Juliet asks, “or if they
with not, be but sworn my love. And I’ll no longer be a capulet”) friends (Romeo
abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in order to go to Juliet’s
garden) and ruler (Romeo returns to Verona for Juliet’s sake after being exiled
by the prince on pain of death in 2.1. 76-78). Love is the overriding theme of the
play, but a reader should always remember that Shakespeare is uninterested in
portraying a prettied-up, dainty version of the emotion the kind that bad poetry
Romeo reads while pining for Rosaline, Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal,
powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their
world, and at times against themselves.

The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described or more
accurately the way descriptions of it so consistently fail to capture it’s entirely. At
times love is described in the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines when
Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is described as a sort of magic:”A like be
witched by the charm of looks”.

Plot
During the late middle Ages in Verona, two wealthy families, the
Mentagues and capulets, have been feuding for centuries. One day at the
market place, the feuding families start a brawl which infuriates the Prince and
he threatens that if the peace of Verona is disturbed again, he shall take their
lives. Meanwhile, Romeo, a young Montague reveals that he is in love with Lord
Capulet’s niece, Rosaline. Romeo’s cousin, Benvolio persuades him to forget
Rosaline but Romeo rebuffs him.

Later that night, there is a party held by lord capulet. Romeo sneaks in
with Benvolio and Mercutio hoping to meet Rosaline. Instead, Romeo sees Juliet
who is lord Capulet’s daughter and falls in love with her. Juliet feels the same
and they share a dance. They go together to a quiet place and share a
passionate kiss. Juliet’s nurse interrupts and when Romeo talks to the nurse he
discovers that Juliet is a Capulet.
 After the party ends, Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s garden secretly where he
witnesses Juliet expressing her love for him. He climbs the balcony and they
quickly decide to get married the next day. Romeo seeks help from Friar
Laurence to wed them and the Friar agrees thinking that their love may end the
violent war between capulet’s and Monatgues. They perform the ceremony
and afterwards Juliet returns home. Romeo catches up with Mercutio and
Benvolio but they meet tybalt and his men on the way. This starts another violent
brawl during which tybalt stabs Mercutio. Romeo is enraged and runs after
tybalt seeking revenge. They fight and Romeo slays Tybalt. As the result of this
loss the Prince banishes Romeo from Verona.

Meanwhile, both families are filled with grief over their losses, especially
Juliet. The Friar sends Romeo to Juliet so he can spend one last night with her.
Romeo goes to Juliet and they consummate their marriage. Romeo leaves in
haste the next morning. But Juliet is shocked when her father brings news of
planning to wed Juliet with count Paris. Juliet is resistant but her father threatens
to disown her if she does not wed Paris. Juliet goes to Friar Laurence for help,
threatening to kill herself if the Friar Does not have a solution. The Friar in return,
gives her a potion that will put her in a deathlike sleep temporarily while he will
inform Romeo about this and they shall run away together to Mantua. Juliet
drinks the potion that night. Her parents are devastated when they find her next
morning, and instead of her marriage her funeral is planned. During the funeral,
Benvolio sees Juliet and thinks she is dead and immediately runs off to tell
Romeo.

Friar’s letter however, does not reach Romeo and Benvonlio tells Romeo
that Juliet’s is dead. Romeo is shocked and devastated and plans to take his
life. He buys poison and goes to Juliet. Paris tries to stop him, but is killed in a
sword fight. Romeo kisses Juliet one last time then he drinks the potion unaware
that Juliet has awakened. Juliet is overjoyed to see him and they kiss but Romeo
took poison, he dies in her arms. The Friar arrives to find a heartbroken Juliet
weeping over Romeo’s dead body. He hears some guard coming and leaves to
hold them off, trying to persuade Juliet to come with him, without success. When
Juliet hears the approaching watch men, she finds and stabs herself with
Romeo’s dagger. The Friar returns to finds them both dead.

Their funeral is held together and the Capulet’s and Montangues finally
reconcile, ending their feud. During the Procession, Benvolio steps forward and
joins their hands. Hatred and violence that rages between their families. At the
play’s end, the love share and the violence that separates them become one
and the same. Though they shall be buried together, laying forever in each
other’s arms, the lovers will also remain forever apart, separated by death.
Prince Escalus underscores this unity of love and death when he chastises
capulet and montague. ” see what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that
Heaven finds means to kill you joys with love!”. (V.iii. 292-93). The Prince thus
informs the men that they have killed their own children, and the instrument of
their murder has been Romeo and Juliet love for each other.

In addition to unifying that play’s themes of love and violence, the ending
also brings an end to the longstanding feud between the Capulet and
Montague families. However, peace between the families may turn out only to
be temporary. After the Prince blames capulet and Montague for their
children’s deaths, the two men pledge their desire to resolve their conflict.
Capulet begins by addressing Montague as his “Brother,” then asks for his hand
in friendship. Montague responds by one-upping Capulet. He claims that he will
commission a statue of Juliet to be fashioned from pure gold and he concludes
with a boat. “While Verona by that name is known, there shall no figure at such
rate be set as that of true and faithful Juliet. Capulet’s immediately retorts” As
Rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie, Poor sacrifices of our enmity”. Reconciliation
quickly becomes corrupted by a contest of wealth, indicating that Romeo and
Juliet’s tragedy will not bring full reconciliation so much as what the Prince culls
“A glooming peace”.

Characters

Romeo – The son and heir of Montague and lady Montague. A young man of
about sixteen, Romeo is handsome, intelligent and sensitive. Though impulsive
and immature his idealism and passion make him an extremely likable
character. He lives in the middle of a violet feud between his family and the
capulet, but he is not all interested in violence. His only interested is love. But the
instant he lays eyes on Juliet, he falls in love with her and forgets Rosaline. Thus,
Shakespeare gives us very reason to question how real Romeo’s new love is, but
Romeo goes to extremes to prove the seriousness of his feelings. He secretly
marries Juliet, the daughter of his father’s worst enemy, he happily takes abuse
from Tybalt, and he would rather die than live without his beloved. Romeo is also
an affectionate and devoted friend to his relative Benvolio, and Friar Lawrence.

Juliet – The daughter of Capulet and lady Capulet a beautiful thirteen year old
girl. Juliet begins the play as a naïve child who has thought little about love and
marriage, but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo the son of
her family’s great enemy. Because she is a girl in an aristocratic family, she has
none of the freedom Romeo has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the
middle of the night or get into sword fights. Never less, she shows amazing
courage in trusting her entire life and future to Romeo even refusing to believe
the worst reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her cousin.
Juliet’s closest friend and confidant is her nurse, though she’s willing to shut the
Nurse turns against Romeo.