William Shakespeare

1. Parker Presents William Shakespeare

2. Life of William Shakespeare A. Family • Born around April 23, 1564 in Stratford–on–Avon • 3rd of 8 children • Family was well off • Most quoted, other than the Bible

3. Life of William Shakespeare B. The Dirt ! • Teenage father • Married Anne Hathaway at 18 - she was 26! • Absentee father

4. Stratford-on-Avon

5. Stratford-on-Avon

6. Life of William Shakespeare C. Schooling • Attended grammar school, where he studied . . . • Latin grammar and literature • Use of language • No further formal education!

7. London During Shakespeare’s Days A. The City • Thames River polluted with raw sewage • No running water or electricity • Poverty

8. London During Shakespeare’s Days B. Hygiene? (Part One) • Bathing considered dangerous • Body odor strong • Childhood diseases • Children often died young • Small Pox • Bubonic Plague

9. London During Shakespeare’s Days B. Hygiene? (Part Two) • No running water • Chamber Pots • Open Sewers • Crowded

10. London During Shakespeare’s Days C. Clothes • One set used all year long, rarely washed • Underclothing slept in, rarely changed • Clothes handed down from rich to poor

11. Theater in London A. The Theater • First public theater • Demolished in 1599

12. Theater in London

13. Theater in London

14. Theater in London B. The Globe • Shakespeare and his acting company used materials salvaged from The Theater to build the Globe Theater in 1599 • Penny admission • Hard to believe? Think about admission to the movie theater in the ‘50s

15. Theater in London

16. Actors • All men • Female parts played by young boys • No actual kissing or hugging on stage

17. Audience • 2000-3000 people from all walks of life • Rich audience sat in covered galleries around stage • Most stood in yard around platform stage – “groundlings”

18. The groundling • Poor audience member • Stood around stage in “the pit” • Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

19. The Plays • Tragedy • Ends in the death of one or more of the main characters • Most of Shakespeare’s tragedies involved historical individuals or events. Shakespeare sometimes altered what he found in the history books to suit his own dramatic purposes and make the plays more exciting… Can you think of a time when alterations are made to history/events to merely entertain audiences?

20. Tragic Endings • Although most tragic heroes are partly to blame for their own fates, death can be a very high price to pay for what may have seemed initially like a small failing. • But in most tragedies, there is also a feeling that some good may have come out of the terrible suffering.

21. Tragic Heroes • All of Shakespeare’s tragedies have a tragic hero. • What is the name of the main character in a story? • What is the name of the character in opposition to the main character? • The hero is often a man of high rank, such as a king or prince.

22. Line References The scene is in small Roman numerals Plays are divided into sections called acts and scenes. When quotations from Shakespeare’s plays are used, line references like this show which section they come from in the play. The play’s title is written in italics Julius Caesar, II. i. 35 The act is written in capital Roman numerals The line number is written as a normal number

23. New Words • In Shakespeare’s time, there were no dictionaries. • People could spell words however they wanted and sometimes they even made up new words. • Over 2,000 of the words Shakespeare used had not been recorded before.

24. Shakespeare’s Words Lonely Leapfrog Submerged First used by Shakespeare and still used today!!! Dwindle Countless Fretful