SHAKESPEARE RESEARCH PROJECT
BY: STUDENTS
MRS. JESTICE
ENGLISH 1/ PERIOD 1
MAY 7TH 2013
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Shakespeare was born a Catholic
Born April 23rd 1864 - Died April 23rd 1616
He married Anne Hathaway, and had three kids.
Shakespeare had a secretive love life, and difficult family relations
During his life the Bubonic Plague and Religious dilemmas were occurring
The Elizabethan Era was the high point of Shakespeare’s career.
Shakespeare wrote over thirty plays and over one-hundred and fifty sonnets!
We study Shakespeare because he was a famous writer, producer, screenplay
writer, actor, choreographer, director, and literate- his works today are still
educated literary pieces that have an enriched culture, brilliant themes,
enlightened literature, and prolonged biblical references.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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How is the personal life of William Shakespeare and England’s cultural society and inspirations
reflected in Shakespeare’s literate work?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
CLAIM
Claim #1-Shakespeare hardly ever showed his
personal love affairs in his work.
• Shakespeare rarely wrote sonnets about his wife, but he once said she was
“the second best bed with the furniture…”
• After three years of living with Anne and his children he left to go to
London because he felt trapped.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S MARRIAGE
RECORDS TO ANNE HATHAWAY
• Shakespeare had a romantic view on Romeo and Juliet based off one of
his love affairs with an unknown women
• Later in his work he shows that he doesn’t bring his love lives into his work
because he wants to do stories that would relate to his audiences.
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
• Shakespeare wrote a total of 154 poems in his lifetime and 27 of them
were about a women named “The Dark Lady”
• The Dark Lady is a women Shakespeare supposedly had affairs with when
he was in London.
“MY MISTRESS, WHEN SHE WALKS, TREADS
ON THE GROUND: AND YET BY HEAVEN, I
THINK MY LOVE IS RARE, AS ANY SHE
BELIED WITH FALSE COMPARE.”
(SHAKESPEARE, SONNET CXXX)
Claim #2-Shakespeare hardly brought his family into his
work
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S
BAPTISM RECORDS.
SHAKESPEARE'S FATHER HAD
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
“HOW I MAY BE DELIVER’D OF THESE WOES,
AND TEACHES ME TO KILL OR HANG
MYSELF…” (SHAKESPEARE, KING JOHN, ACT 3,
SCENE 4)
The deadly bubonic/black plague was occurring
during Shakespeare’s life and this epidemic had
tremendous impact on his play works as seen in
his famous play,
Romeo and Juliet.
CLAIM
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THE
BUBONIC
PLAGUE http://www2.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/spri
ngfield/eliz/images/plague2eolmper1
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The doctors were aware of the harsh fullness of the disease as they covered
themselves to protect themselves from airborne diseases.
The disease itself was cruel literally killing you from a black death as seen by
the photo of the infected hand.
The photo of dead bodies shows the realism and the severity of the plague as it
was one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest, epidemic of England.
The last photo, Ring- Around a Rosie, shows that the plague still effects
children/ people today as urban has it that this nursery rhyme refers to the
black plague
William Shakespeare lived in the time of the harsh black plague which clearly
had influence on his work
EXPLANATION
• Bubonic Plague tormented Europe from 1348- 1690’s
• Germs for plague were on fleas that lived on black rats, people lived to be about fifty
• Plague gave people fevers, chills and black painful bumps
• Person who caught disease were almost certain to die and spread it
• Lack of medicine, illnesses common among children and families
• Laws were passed to stop people from gathering in groups (EX. Theaters)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PLAYWRIGHT
AND POET BY PAMELA HILL
NETTLETON
“There were high mortality (death) rates amongst
Elizabethan children and this was true of the brothers and
sisters of Shakespeare some of whom were struck down
by the Bubonic plague”
The Black Death
Bubonic Plague During
the Elizabethan Era By L.K. Alchin
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• Pamela Hill Nettleton shows people that the plague was a deadly outbreak
• People lived to be very young and the plague was common in families and very
contagious
• Theatres/ large groups would shut down Globe Theater Shakespeare
• There was no stopping the plague as there was lack of medicine
Living in these conditions influenced Shakespeare to include his environment in his works
L.K Achin shows people that the bubonic plague took the lives of people very close to
Shakespeare which perhaps made the writer want to include this environmental factor in his
work even more.
EXPLANATION
“I am hurt. A plague o’ both your houses!” (Act 3, Scene 1, 94-95) - Mercutio says this multiple times (Redrick) and this is seen as a terrible insult, as if someone
todat were to say I hope a gunman shoots your family.
“And too soon marred are those so early made. The Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she...” (Act 1, Scene 2, 12-14) -This shows the reader that Lord Capulet’s hopes and aspirations (children) most likely died from the plague Also explains age difference and marriage at young age to reproduce and recover the lost population
“Here in this city, visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the won, suspecting that we both were in a house, where the infectious pestilence did reign, sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth, So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed.” (Act 5, Scene 3, 8-13) - The plague infected the town as Friar went to visit. Furthermore, the plague was contagious
which caused guardsmen to deny Friar the ability to leave the town. This delayed Friar to deliver the message to Romeo which indirectly resulted in the death of Romeo and Juliet.
THE PLAGUE IN ROMEO AND JULIET BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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Shakespeare portrays his undecided belief of fate versus
freewill incorporating them into each other through Catholicism
and other religions in his play Romeo and Juliet.
Claim #5-William Shakespeare portrays fate in freewill situations
Claim #6 -William Shakespeare portrays freewill in fate situation
CLAIM(S)
FATE VERSUS FREEWILL
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• Tragedy- A dramatic or literary work depicting a protagonist engaged in a morally significant struggle that usually ends in death.
• A tragedy usually includes…
• Suicide- An act or instance of intentionally killing oneself
• Murder- the act of killing a person deliberately
-The struggles in a tragedy often reflect a person’s….
• Wyrd- one’s corresponding to their fate or personal destiny
• Freewill- done of your own accord
CAMBRIDGE ACADEMIC CONTENT
DICTIONARY
"a worldly thing . . . that belongs
to the realm of government"
Martin Luther Declaring
marriage as…
"Each man should give what he has decided in
his heart to give, not reluctantly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
2 Cor. 9:7, The bible discussing freewill in
every aspect…
VS.
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• People believe in fate as a way to make their lives simpler
• People chose to make their own decisions (freewill) to make their lives
simpler
• The quotes provide background that during the time of William
Shakespeare their was the religion of England (Protestant) and his own
religion (Catholic) which had different perspectives he captured and
wrote about
• Definitions provide information and background of some of the aspects
William Shakespeare includes in his work
EXPLANATION
O, what more favor can I do to thee than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain to sunder his that was thine enemy?” (Act 5, Scene 3, 101-103)
*This is considered freewill by the audience since Romeo is choosing to recompensate Tybalt by committing suicide and putting Tybalt’s enemy to rest
But.. Is it fate that because Romeo sinned and killed Tybalt, Romeo would have to die because he committed murder?
“My poverty but not my will consents” (Act 5, Scene 1, 80) *This is considered freewill by the audience since Apothecary is making the choice to do it for the money and not because he thinks its morally correct.
But.. Is it fate that a poor underclass citizen would sell an illegal substance for money regardless his belief.
“An if a man did need a poison now whose sale is present in death in Mantua, here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.” (Act 5, Scene 1, 53-55) *This is considered freewill by the audience because regardless that it is an illegal crime to sell the poison, Apothecary the caitiff wretch (miserable person) choses to sell it for the money.
But.. Is it fate that Apothecary, the miserable, poor man, would sell Romeo and sabotage the upper-class gentlemen with the poison that is illegal for the money?
SHAKESPEARE INCORPORATING FATE
INSIDE OF FREEWILL IN ROMEO AND JULIET
SHAKESPEARE INCORPORATING
FREEWILL INSIDE OF FATE IN
ROMEO AND JULIET
• “this day’s black fate on more days doth depended. This but begins the woe others must end.” (Act 3, scene
1, 126-127) *This is seen as fate by the audience since it says so, and it says that fate will bring more bad luck
- But… isn’t it freewill by the characters because they chose to do the actions they did to get themselves in a worsening
feud/ situation
• “O, I am fortune’s fool!” (Act 3, Scene 1, 145)
*This is seen as fate by the audience since he is referring to it as his fate which got him in the situation
- But… isn’t it freewill because he got himself in the situation because of the choices he made on his own accord?
• “a plague on both your houses” (Act 3, Scene 1, ) *This is considered fate by the audience because it reminds people of the fate that both houses will receive Romeo
and Juliet's death indirectly from the plague
-But… Isn’t it the freewill by Juliet and Friar that truly made the plague effect the houses because they chose to do go
against Juliet’s wyrd and fake her death
CONCLUSION
WORK(S) CITED
• Applebee. Evansten, IL: McDougal Littell Inc. 2006. 990-1102. Print.
• Dunton-Downer, Leslie, and Alan Riding. Essential Shakespeare Handbook. New York, NY: DK Pub., 2004. Print.
• Nettleton, Pamela Hill. William Shakespeare: Playwright and Poet. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point, 2005. Print.
• Shakespeare, William, Sidney Lamb, and Kate Maurer. Shakespeare's Othello. Foster City, CA: IDG, 2000. Print
• Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. The Language of Literature. Ed. Arthur N.
• Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary. New York: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.
• "THE HISTORY BEHIND THE HISTORY PLAYS." THE HISTORY BEHIND THE HISTORY PLAYS. N.p., n.d.
Web. 11 May 2013.
• "The History of Suicide." Jacob Crouch Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2013.
•
"Shakespeare Online." Shakespeare Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2013.
• “William Shakespeare.” 2000-2005. Web. May 7, 2013. <AbsoluteShakespeare.com>
• http://images.google.com/
