EFFECT O N CONT. THEATER Essay, Research Paper

William Shakespeare?s Effect on Contemporary Theater

William Shakespeare and all of his works greatly contributed to contemporary theater in many ways. His understanding of other people allowed him to fully grasp the quality he wrote of. The works of Shakespeare contain a strong and constant truth, touching emotional and supernatural aspects of life. These realities make Shakespeare?s works vital, even on toady?s learning institutions and theatrical realms, accounting for his enormous success.

Shakespeare was born in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire on April 23rd, 1564. Though his family fell into hard times financially, young William?s education was not neglected. He attended local schools in Stratford. Shakespeare viewed annual plays and travelling artists at a young age. It is possible that these plays and performances ignited a spark that continued to burn.

During the winter of 1582, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway who was 26 and already six months pregnant by him. Two years later Anne gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. With a wife and three children to maintain, things were getting a bit difficult. Shakespeare moved to London in 1585, where he was very successful.

In London Shakespeare worked as an actor and a writer and even owned his own playhouse. He was a very respected man there. He was the first playwright to have his formal biography written and published with his works.

Between 1592 and 1594, all theaters were closed due to an outbreak of the plague. During this time Shakespeare turned to poetry, writing sonnets and long narrative poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. When the theaters reopened in 1594, Shakespeare joined the newly formed Lord Chamberlains Men, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth. Being an important part of the troupe, he eventually became an honored senior member. Writing plays soon became a demanding business. Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays, which were separated into three basic categories, comedy, tragedy, and history. Shakespeare retired t Stratford and became one of its leading citizens. In April of 1616, William Shakespeare at fifty-two years of age was laid to rest.

Without William Shakespeare and his many great works, contemporary theater would not be anything like it is today. His verse, especially the power of his metaphors and his characters, so well rounded and carefully detailed that they often seem like living people. He was also a master of plot construction, notably episodic plot structure, which stands alongside climatic structure as one of the two main forms that have been predominant throughout the history of western theater. With Shakespear’s vast influence on many different cultures, he tried and tested variations of grammar and word usage. He experimented so the stuffy English language would not be so common and boring. Shakespeare was to be a writer for all time, to be highly acclaimed. He deserves applause by all playwrights, past and present. His works are timeless and vary according to the interest of the reader, making him universal. In Shakespear’s own day and time, no one ever imagined what a huge success his works would become. No writer since William Shakespeare has ever been as well known. No other writer has evoked so many emendations, speculations, and commentaries than Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was indeed an Elizabethan who took advantage of his time and talents, in turn changing today?s time and talents of contemporary theater.