AP+2013+William+Shakespeare

=William Shakespeare=

__**Aim - Jordan**__
William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26th, 1564. No one knows his birthdate, but he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. He was an important person of Lord Chamberlain's men. Throughout the first 20 years of his life, he wrote mainly of conflict between man versus man. His themes are tragedy, love, death, and devastating emotion. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28th, 1582. Before his birth, his father became wealthy and was holding official positions as bailiff and alderman. Shakespeare used this extra time he had to begin writing these plays he came up with. His first plays consisted of elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that did not necessarily align with the rest of the play. But, this is what set him apart from anyone else that had written before. " With the exception of //Romeo and Juliet//, William Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories written in the early 1590s. //Richard II//,//Henry VI// (parts 1, 2 and 3) and //Henry V// dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers, and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty" (A&E Network). His early plays consisted merely of comedies and histories because he had not yet experienced much tragedy in his life, enough to be able to write a solid story or play based on destruction and/or have an ending completely based on death. Later in his life, after experiencing death " It was in William Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies //Hamlet//, //King Lear//, //Othello// and //Macbeth//. In these, Shakespeare's characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is //Hamlet//, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those he loves" (A&E Network). He had began to write plays that had a death plot as the ending. For example, in Hamlet, most of the characters die in the end, except one lone character which could show many themes as to why he chose that. In the end, his last plays such as //Cymbeline//, //The Winter's Tale// and//The Tempest, have somewhat of a happier ending and much more happy than Hamlet or Othello. The end consists of a reconciliation between the characters as the play goes. They do not have a tragic ending. The aim for Shakespeare here is to exemplify that death in someone's life can inspire them to write incredibly cynical works that can easily express someone's emotions and bring out other hidden emotions in someone else.//

"William Shakespeare." //- Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.//N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.

"William Shakespeare Biography." //Bio.com//. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.

Vanessa Hyde


The name William Shakespeare is commonly known today throughout the world for his literary contributions, that are still highly utilized and respected today, as well as his achievements during his 52 years. According to the History Channel, "To this day, countless theater festivals around the world honor his work, students memorize his eloquent poems and scholars reinterpret the million words of text he composed. They also hunt for clues about the life of the man who inspires such “bardolatry” (as George Bernard Shaw derisively called it), much of which remains shrouded in mystery" (The History Channel Website 2013). William Shakespeare's thoughts, life, and the mysteries of his life still fascinate individuals all over the world. There are "theater festivals" and his many plays are utilized in high school, college, and even middle school classes because how "eloquent" his works are. As the text says, "much of which remains shrouded in mystery". His life alone, inspires and fascinates many individuals today because much of his work inspires intrigue and thought, and its even more intriguing to understand the writer than his works. The background of the writer matters as much as what he writes because much of what occurs in their life and that had influenced them can be identified in their work. Understanding the individual contributes to understanding his motivation to write amazing literary work. However, in William Shakespeare's case, the fact that even his identity is a mystery, makes his work a mystery and so much more intriguing as well. According to Jumana Farouky of Time Magazine, "'Our interpretation of Shakespeare's works would be entirely different if we knew who wrote them," says Bill Rubinstein, history professor at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and an academic adviser for the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition. "If he was heavily involved in politics, for example, every line in every play would have a different motivation'" (Farouky). Hundreds of people are enraptured at the idea of Shakespeare not really being the man who wrote all the great and respected plays that have survived hundreds of years of literary criticism. Like many other people, Rubinstein sees the significance in connected the author to the work because the motivation behind a joke or a symbol matters to the overall theme of a work. Shakespeare's essence and his mystery surrounds his work and even surpasses it in terms of influential history. His works, such as Othello, may leave thousands inspired, but the theories surrounding whether or not he even exists, captivates all those people and more. William Shakespeare has been a standing influential figure of literary history for centuries and will continue to be because of his plays but also because of how simply his presence has interested thousands of fans. 

//Works Cited//
“William Shakespeare.” //The History Channel website //. 2013. Web. 12 February 2013. Farouky, Jumana. "The Mystery of Shakespeare's Identity." //Time's Magazine//. 13 September 2007. Web. 12 February 2013.

Cultural - Marco

Shakespeare had a tremendous cultural effect. His works “capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict,” (Biography.com). The effect that his plays had on the history of the arts is even seen today: countless movies, plays, and books are based on his works. An example of such a book/movie would be Twilight: it takes the forbidden love element of //Romeo and Juliet//. Some of the lines of his plays (Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”) are household knowledge. His works “have been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities, and metropolises for over 400 years,” (Biography.com). The overarching themes in his plays can easily be tailored to fit popular culture.

Interestingly enough, Shakespeare himself has also had cultural effect. His works are extremely transcendental, but “the personal history of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery,” (Biography.com). Shakespeare was a character himself; he has written countless plays in the twenty years he was active, and because of his large success, controversy has arisen. Was he really the one who wrote all of these plays? Theorists today have speculated many different things, and this controversy has grown so big that a film titled //Anonymous// was released, depicting the idea that someone had on the subject.

Shakespeare’s works have withstood the test of time, largely due to their versatility and malleability to fit the culture of the times.

Works Cited:

=William Shakespeare - Audience=

Enna Tran
===William Shakespeare's works captured the minds of many audiences. Through their transcendence of time and culture, audiences young, old, rich, poor, post-modern and contemporary have continued to "adapt Shakespeare's tales to suit our modern world, whether it be the tale of Lear on a farm in Iowa, Romeo and Juliet on the mean streets of New Yorks City, or Macbeth in feudal Japan" ("Why Study Shakespeare?"). His vast works reveal to the struggles of the common man as well as satirizing the upper societies. Shake's stories - comedies, tragedies, histories, dramas, adventures, and romances - in some way or another were able to relate to all audiences. Historically however, it was more apparent that Shakespeare's audience was "far more boisterous than are patrons of the theatre today. They were loud and hot-tempered and as interested in the happenings off stage as on" ("Shakespeare's Audience"). Although the audiences and their appreciation of Shakespeare today has not altered too far from earlier times, audiences during the Shakespearean Era had a deeper understanding. His works portrayed realistic problems in a non-threatening manner, fabricating and embodying the lives of peasants and royalty. In conclusion, William Shakespeare's audience consisted of diverse spectators, all of whom came to watch the classic Shakespearean performances.===