WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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ENGLISH LESSONS in primary school – 6TH

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Who 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 SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare’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.