WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 26 APRIL 1564- 23 APRIL 1616 ENGLISH LESSONS in primary school – 6TH
Dec 24, 2015
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
2 6 A P R I L 1 5 6 4 - 2 3 A P R I L 1 6 1 6
ENGLISH LESSONS in primary school – 6TH
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Who was William Shapespeare? He was an English poet and
playwright.
He was the greatest writer in the English language, famous all over
the world.
At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three
children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet, and Judith.
Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an
actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare’s plays
Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays.
Shakespeare wrote comedies, stories with a happy ending. These plays
often have people falling in love, wearing disguises, and generally
getting mixed up. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy with fairies
and humans.
He wrote tragedies, stories with a sad ending. Romeo and Juliet is a
tragedy, because the young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, both die.
Shakespeare's history plays are about real people, such as Julius Caesar,
the Roman general, or the English kings Henry V and Richard III.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREShakespeare’s plays : HAMLET
Hamlet is a story of murder and revenge. The ghost of dead King
Hamlet visits his young son to tell him that his brother Claudius
murdered him.
He orders his son, Prince Hamlet, to avenge his murder. Prince
Hamlet’s uncle,
Claudius, has not only killed his brother, he has also claimed the
throne of Denmark and shortly after his brother’s death married
Hamlet’s mother.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREShakespeare’s plays : HAMLET
In this speech, Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts and considers
the arguments for and against taking his own life as a way out of his
unhappiness, “To be, or not to be”. First he considers which is the
more honourable course of action – to commit suicide, “to take arms
against a sea of troubles/And by opposing end them”, or to struggle on
“to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.
He then imagines what it might be like after death: ”To die, to sleep”,
but then worries that if he kills himself, his Christian faith damns his
soul. Hamlet is torn between wanting to end his hard life on earth,
and worrying that by doing so he might end up in hell.