WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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ENGLISH LESSONS in primary school – 6TH

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREWho was William Shapespeare? He was an English poet and

playwright.

He was the greatest writer in the English language, famous all over the world.

At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet, and Judith.

Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREShakespeare’s plays

Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays.

Shakespeare wrote comedies, stories with a happy ending. These plays often have people falling in love, wearing disguises, and generally getting

mixed up. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy with fairies and humans.

He wrote tragedies, stories with a sad ending. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, because the young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, both die.

Shakespeare's history plays are about real people, such as Julius Caesar, the Roman general, or the English kings Henry V and Richard III.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREShakespeare’s plays : HAMLET

Hamlet is a story of murder and revenge. The ghost of dead King Hamlet visits his young son to tell him that his brother Claudius murdered him.

He orders his son, Prince Hamlet, to avenge his murder. Prince Hamlet’s uncle,

Claudius, has not only killed his brother, he has also claimed the throne of Denmark and shortly after his brother’s death married Hamlet’s mother.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREShakespeare’s plays : HAMLET

In this speech, Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts and considers the arguments for and against taking his own life as a way out of his unhappiness, “To be, or not to be”. First he considers which is the more honourable course of action – to commit suicide, “to take arms against a sea of troubles/And by opposing end them”, or to struggle on

“to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.

He then imagines what it might be like after death: ”To die, to sleep”, but then worries that if he kills himself, his Christian faith damns his soul. Hamlet is torn between wanting to end his hard life on earth, and worrying that by doing so he might end up in hell.