Introduction to
Shakespeare
Mrs. Macino
English 9 Honors
Type 1 Writing
In three minutes, list five facts that you
know about William Shakespeare, his
writing, or the Elizabethan Age.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Big Ideas: Culture, Love & Hate, Tragedy
& Romance, Fate, Mythology, Written
Expression
Essential Questions:
• How did the culture of Elizabethan England contribute to
Shakespeare’s writing and the performance of his plays?
• Are Shakespeare’s themes still relevant? What makes Romeo and
Juliet a classic story?
• Is love stronger than hate? Can a person’s life be permanently
changed by a relationship?
• Is Romeo and Juliet really a love story or is it a tragedy? Can a story
be both?
• What wisdom and knowledge can be gained from a “tragic”
experience?
• What role did mythology and fate play in the lives of the people during
the Elizabethan Era?
• What poetic conventions did Shakespeare employ to engage his
readers? Why did Shakespeare choose to write in both prose and
verse?
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Life
Born in April 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon
 Probably attended Stratford Grammar
School but thought to have left at age 15

Home of
Shakespeare’s
birth
Shakespeare’s Family
Married Anne
Hathaway (in 1582) –
Shakespeare was 18
and Anne was 26
 Daughter Susanna
was born in 1583
 Twins Judith and
Hamnet were born in
1585

Sketch of Anne Hathaway
Shakespeare in London
By 1592 he experienced success in London
as actor and playwright
 1592 – London theaters closed due to the
plague and Shakespeare did much of his
writing (poems and plays)
 Plays (three types) - wrote 37 plays

 Comedies
– As You Like It, Twelfth Night, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Tragedies – Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Julius
Caesar, Macbeth, Othello
 Histories – King John, Henry V, Richard II
Shakespeare’s Theater
Males played all roles, large outdoor
theaters, and little scenery
 Acting company – Lord Chamberlain’s Men
(later King’s Men)
 The Globe

 Built
in 1599
 Burned down in 1613 and rebuilt
 Closed in 1642 and taken down
Inside Shakespeare’s Theater







Example of an Elizabethan Theater
Holds 2,000- 3,000
Groundlings stood
Open thatch roof
Stage roof – “heavens”
Scene change verbally –
no curtains
Different levels of stage
All male actors
Shakespeare’s Death
Died April 23, 1616
 Buried at Holy Trinity
Church where he had
been baptized 52
years earlier
 Shakespeare
Memorial at
Southwark Cathedral

Shakespearean Language
Soliloquy
 long speech
expressing thoughts
of character
 alone on stage
 Pun
 Double meaning of
a word used for
humor

Shakespearean Language

Metaphors


Direct comparison of
unlike things
Allusion

a figure of speech that
makes a reference to,
or representation of,
people, places, events,
literary work, MYTHS,
or works of art, either
directly or by
implication
Look for mythological
allusions as you
read…
Shakespearean Language
Prose
ordinary speech with no regular pattern of
accentual rhythm or rhyme
 text like an ordinary paragraph with right and
left justification
 standard rules of capitalization are followed
Verse
 Poetry (can be blank or rhymed – see next two
slides)

Upper class use verse and lower class use prose
Shakespearean Language
Rhymed Verse


rhymed lines
Shakespeare uses many couplets, i.e. two
successive lines of verse of which the final
words rhyme with another






a
a
b
b
c
c
Shakespearean Language
Blank Verse



Unrhymed iambic pentameter (ten syllable line
with iambs – stress and unstressed)
the line of print does not extend to fill the
whole page
the first word of every line is capitalized
Shakespearean Language

Sonnet
 fourteen
lines
structured as
three quatrains
and a couplet
 rhyme scheme
is end-rhymed
a-b-a-b, c-d-cd, e-f-e-f, g-g
The End