William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets that are considered the finest works in English literature. Shakespeare attended grammar school as a child where he studied Latin and Greek. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and had three children, but also pursued a career in London as an actor and playwright for various theater companies. His plays include comedies, tragedies and histories and explored themes of love, betrayal, revenge and fate through complex characters and dramatic language. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52 in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.

2. A famous and
influential author in
English literature
His actual date of birth
remains unknown, but is
traditionally observed on
23 April, Saint George's
DO YOU
KNOW

3. As a child William was sent to the local grammar
school that he had attended for six years. He
studied Latin and Greek and read widely the
books current in his day. When Shakespeare was
fourteen, his father fell into debt, and the boy
probably left school and became a country
schoolmaster to help support his family. In 1582,
William Shakespeare, then eighteen, was married
to Anne Hathaway, eight years of his elder. Six
months later, Susanna was born; in 1585, their
twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized.

4. William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor,
widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and
the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called
England'snational poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works,
including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154
sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses
Fact : William Shakespeare was the only
member of his family that could read or write!
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man
knows himself to be a fool."
William Shakespeare

5. William Shakespeare
Born Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date
unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon,Warwickshire, West
Midlands,England
Died 23 April 1616 (aged 52)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,
England
Occupation Playwright, poet, actor
Period English Renaissance,Elizabethan Era
Spouse Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Children  Susanna Hall
 Hamnet Shakespeare
 Judith Quiney

6. Before moving to London to become an actor at age
21. Shakespeare wrote different genres of plays
throughout his career, starting out mainly with
comedies and histories before moving on to
tragedies as he grew older.
William Shakespeare was a very well-known
character in Tudor England. It is thought
that Elizabeth I was a fan of his plays.
Some of Shakespeare’s better known plays
include ‘Romeo & JULIET’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Much
Ado About Nothing’.

7. His Script Style

8. Shakespeare
comedies
Tragedy
And romance in his plays are popular
Tragedy is about the break-up of civilization.
Comedy is about the establishment of social
harmony.
Both are dramatic terms of art: thus “tragedy” is not
the same as “horrible” and comedies can be
bittersweet as well as funny.
Drama is not life, but ritual: thus Shakespeare ends
comedies in weddings as a sign, not a proof, of social
stability, for example, 3 weddings in the Midsummers
Night Dreams

9. TRAGEDIES
A tragedy is a dramatic play of human actions that
produces exceptional suffering, ending in the death of
a tragic hero.
A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy who
makes an error in his actions that leads to his or her
downfall. It can also be a flawed character trait.

10. In a Shakespearean drama, each of the five acts
corresponds with the following five components.
1. Introduction
2. Complication
3. Climax
4. Falling Action
5. Catastrophe

11. Shakespeare’sLanguage
•Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English”
•Old English is the language of Beowulf:
Hwaet!We Gardena in geardagum
Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!

12. •Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English”
•Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
Gawain-poet, and Malory:
We redeth oft and findeth y-write—
And this clerkes wele it wite—
Layes that ben in harping
Ben y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)

13. •Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English”
•EME was not very different from “Modern
English,” except that it had some old holdovers.
•Beginning about 200 years before Shakespeare,
and largely complete by his day, long vowel
pronunciation shifted: ex: good, name, life

14. Shakespeare’s Language
•Shakespeare coined many words we still use
today:
•Critical
•Majestic
•Dwindle
And quite a few phrases as well:
•One fell swoop
•Flesh and blood
•Vanish into thin air

15. Poems
In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare
published two narrative poems on erotic themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape
of Lucerne. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In
Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while
in The Rape of Lucerne, the virtuous wife Lucerne is raped by the lustful Tarquin.
Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral
confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often
reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's
Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor,
was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that
Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are
marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's
1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the
faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The
Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his
permission.

16. The End
* Actor
* Playwright
* Poet
Died April 23, 1616 -52

17. PRESENTATION IS
DONE BY ANUSHKA
ANSHUL
DEEPU
JAYASIMHA REDDY
GAUTAM