Shakespeare’s Early Life

Although we have many records of his emotional state as a citizen of Stratford, including marriage and birth certificates, little is known about William Shakespeares early life and formal education. Due to his success, many would assume that Shakespeare was innate(p) and raised in a wealthy noble family but he was actually raised in what would have been considered a middle class family in their time. He was born to middle class parents who lived in Henley Street, Stratford. His father, John, a local businessman made a living as a glove maker and owned his own leather shop.He was a well-known and much respected man that held some(prenominal) important local governmental positions including that of Borough ale-taster to bailiff, the highest public position of office in Stratford. William spent most of his childhood in the small English town of Stratford-upon-Avon. In the sixteenth century, the town was an important agricultural center and market place. It is safe to assume that Shake speare attended the local grammar school that was built and maintained expressly for the social function of educating the sons of prominent citizens with the sons of burgesses attending free.The Kings brisk School was staffed with a faculty of teachers who held Oxford degrees, and whose curriculum included mathematics, natural sciences, Latin language and rhetoric, logic, Christian ethics, and classical publications. 2 As well as a strong grounding at grammar school, the other significant educational opportunity afforded all middle-class Elizabethans was the mandatory attendance at church where they read either the Geneva or the Bishops Bible. The Authorized or King James Bible was non studied by William, as it was not published until the year 1611.Shakespeare did not continue his education and attend the university, since university education was reserved for prospective clergymen and was not a particularly mind-opening experience. However, the education he stock at grammar sc hool was excellent, as evidenced by the numerous classical and literary references in his plays. More impressive than his formal education, however, is the wealth of general cognition exhibited in his works, from a working knowledge of many professions to a vocabulary that is far greater than any other English writer.William Shakespeare married his wife, twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway, at the age of eighteen. Their first daughter, Susanna, was baptized only six months later, which has given rise to much speculation concerning the circumstances surrounding the marriage. In 1585, twins, Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare, were born to the couple. Hamnet died at the young age of eleven by which time Shakespeare had already become a successful playwright. Around 1589, Shakespeare wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part 1. former(prenominal) between his marriage and writing this play, he and his wife moved to London, where he pursued a vocation as a playwright and actor.In London, he formed an acting company in which he was shareholder, actor, and playwright. 1 In 1594 Shakespeare became a charter member of The Lord Chamberlains Men, a group of actors who later changed their wee-wee to The Kings Men when they gained the sponsorship of King James I. Just a few years later he was considered the confidential information comedian for the troupe and then later became the principal tragedian. Despite the fact that during this time acting and playwriting were not considered noble professions successful and prosperous actors were relatively well respected.Shakespeare was, in fact, very successful in his career and he became quite wealthy in the process. He invested his money in Stratford real estate and was able to purchase the second largest house in Stratford, the New Place, for his parents. In 1596, Shakespeare applied for a coat of arms for his family, in effect making himself into a gentleman, and his daughters married successfully and wealthily. William Shakespeare l ived until 1616 while his wife Anna died in 1623 at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried in the chancel of his church at Stratford.While Shakespeare is best known for his plays, he also wrote some of the most well-favored sonnets ever produced in the English language. His sonnets employ-and occasionally mock-such traditional Petrarchan themes as blind devotion, the value of friendship, and loves enslaving power. 1 Together Shakespeares plays and sonnets have had an rattling(a) influence on the development on the Modern English language. More famous than his sonnets, Shakespeares plays constitute the most significant corpus of dramatic literature in the world.Secular drama was Renaissance Englands most original contribution to the kind-heartedistic tradition. Shakespeare took the plots for most of his plays from classical history, medieval chronicles, and contemporary romances, but he used such stories merely as springboards for the exploration of human nature-the favorite pursui t of all Renaissance humanists. 1 Love, sex, jealousy, greed, ambition, and self-deception are among the definitive human experiences Shakespeare examined in his plays. It can be concluded that Shakespeares drama is the first Western Literature to probe the psychological focus that motivates human action.His plays communicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior as revealed in his masterful characterizations of a wide gamut of humanity. The skillful use of poetic and dramatic means to pull in a unified aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity of vocal expressions and actions is recognized as an achievement unequaled in other literature. Finally, Shakespeares employment of poetry within the plays to express the deepest levels of human motivation in relation to individual, social, and universal situations is considered one of the most astounding accomplishments of the human intellect.