Historical+Events


 * __,__3**. __Shakespeare wrote many plays based on issues of the time. How did key historical events in England and around the world influence his writing?__
 * //What are some important historical events from that time (political/social…)?//
 * //What examples are there in his plays that reflect his interest in history?//
 * //What was the role of religion at the time?//

=**Historical Events and Their Influence on Shakespeare's Writing**=

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Historical events influence the arts in a drastic way. Music, art, and literature are all affected by historical events. The arts would reflect the events, meaning that a sad song would be written at a sad time in the composer's life, and a happy painting would reflect the happy times in the painter's life. These events would have shaped great writers, such as Shakespeare, and mirror his life. These events have showed up in his writings and plays. There are various different kinds of events that affect Shakespeare's writing. There are social and political events. Religious views, rules, and affects were all key factors in Shakespeare's works. With all of these important elements to his writing, Shakespeare became known as the greatest writer of the English language. As the world's "preeminent dramatist", he wrote approximately 38 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. ======

Shakespeare's social life had its ups and downs like the rest of us. From the time he left grammer school in 1578 to the time he married Anne Hathaway in 1582, he was unheard of and nobody knows what happened to him during that time. The same goes for 1585 to 1592, where Shakespeare may have been raising his family and writing parts one, two, and three of Henry VI. From 1982 to 1985 he had three children: Susanna, Hamnet and Judith, who were twins. In 1596, Shakespeare's son, Hamnet Shakespeare, died, which may have influenced his tragic plays. While in 1599, the Globe Theater opened, which might have caused him to write more plays and show them to an audience in that theater to show off his work. This also might have enabled him to throw himself more into his work to forget the death of his only son. In 1601, his father, John Shakespeare, died, leaving Shakespeare's mother, Mary, a widow for seven more years until her death in 1608. His daughter, Susanna, was married to Dr. John Hall in 1607, and in 1608, Shakespeare's first grandchild, Elizabeth Hall, was born and baptized. Then disaster struck the Globe Theater in 1613 when a fire burnt the theater to the ground. Shakespeare was probably distressed for a while, but the theater was rebuilt in 1614, bringing everything back to normal. Judith Shakespeare, though, changed that by going off and marrying a man who wasn't upright. As a result, Shakespeare excommunicated her. Later, Judith's husband was found guilty of loving another woman, and he was then sentenced to a fine and private penance, or confession.



 Another influence on Shakespeare's writing was political influence. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) greatly influenced Shakespeare's plays. As it was Queen Elizabeth that Shakespeare's writing had to impress, Shakespeare, in a way, was forced to have less vulgarity in his writings. To impress a woman of such might and power as the Queen, Shakespeare had to think like a woman to be able to write to impress a woman. Also, under Queen Elizabeth I's rule, the English navy became a leading power of the European world. The popularity of the navy influenced Shakespeare's plays in that almost every play has a reference to the navy or the sea (such as how __The Twelfth Night__, starts with a shipwreck). For one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, __Romeo and Juliet__, it seems as though the scandalous relationship between the young couple was influenced by Henry VIII and his politically matched wife Catherine (of Aragon) and his affair with Anne Boleyn. At the time, Henry's desire to divorce Catherine was as shocking as Juliet's desire to not marry Paris. The outrageous political gossip of the English royalty fueled many of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays, some more obviously than others.





=**__What was the role of religion at the time?__**=

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Shakespeare was immensely open-minded when it came to religion. He assimilated the ideas, histories, and rules of religion into his works. Shakespeare was surrounded by other playwrights who wrote about emperors and priest's laws and actions in their works. Authors also put their own religious views into their works. In Geoffrey Chaucer's __Canterbury Tales__, Chaucer "adopts a warm, personal tone of familiarity, respect, and reverence toward the Holy Church”. Shakespeare, like Chaucer, allowed religion to impact his writing. He added Catholic and Protestant views from his time and age into his plays in order to make them more realistic for the audience. Shakespeare's plays were the outline of his culture and reflect the daily life of Elizabethans. In William Shakespeare's __The Merchant of Venice__, a Jewish moneylender is vilified by an anti-Semitic society. Shakespeare presented this character in a stereotypical view and used reverse psychology in order to prove to his audience that not all Jewish people are a certain way. Shakespeare’s works were popular in the way that they expressed the beauty of theatrical art in the religions of Elizabethan times. His entire family and his self were Anglican. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, came from a primordial family of landed gentry. Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, came from a family of yeomen, and he gained many influential statuses in his society. Religion was the mainstay for Shakespeare’s life, as well as some of his most popular works. ======

"Shakespeare's plays, listed by genre". George Mason University. 2003-2010 < []>. Best, Michael. "Policy on Quality Content." Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria, 2005. < []>.

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Absolute Shakespeare, 2000-2005 <[]>. ====== Baker, Christopher. "Religion in the Age of Shakespeare." Web. [].

"Shakespeare and Religion." The Trustees of Boston College. Web. .