What environment did William Shakespeare grow up in?

Answer 1

There is a school of literary criticism which holds that writers only write about their own lives, and that you can only understand a literary work by knowing all about the life of the author. This school of thought was eclipsed during most of the twentieth century when the dominant school of thought was New Criticism which holds that literary works should be analysed only by reviewing their content, but it's back with a vengeance.

Of course, if you hold it as axiomatic that writers only write about their lives, then of course Shakespeare's life affected his writing. The real problem is that we know so little about Shakespeare's life that it is hard to get hold of details we could attach to the plays and sonnets. The answer of many of them is to deny that the author was Shakespeare and say instead that it was someone whose life was better documented--the Earl of Oxford, for example.

Those who are not prepared to go so far say things like Shakespeare's play Hamlet was inspired by his son, Hamnet. The problem is that Shakespeare didn't write Hamlet until about five years after his son died, during which five years he wrote a bunch of happy cheerful comedies. Nor does Hamlet have anything in it about a parent grieving for a dead child. You do find a lot of that in the play King John which was written about the time of Hamnet's death, but not in Hamlet. Finally, people find the coincidence of names irresistable but it is nothing more than coincidence: Hamlet in the play was called that for centuries long before Shakespeare was born, whereas Hamnet Shakespeare was named after the Shakespeares' neighbour and friend Hamnet Sadler. It's like concluding that Shakespeare must have written the character of Anne Bullen in Henry VIII because his own wife's name was Anne.

Generally, it is safer to conclude that if Shakespeare's personal life helped shaped his plays, we have no idea how it might have done.

Answer 2

William Shakespeare lived during a period of transition. England and the world were shifting away from a Medieval world view and moving toward Renaissance thought. Both Medieval and Renaissance ideas are reflected in his plays, as is the conflict between such ideas.

During Medieval times, people believed that their fate was predetermined at that they should fulfill the role in life that they were born into. If you were born a farmer, you did your duty and farmed. If you were born a king, you ruled. People believed that if an individual tried to change his station in life, it would disturb the order of the universe (the "Great Chain of Being") and cause catastrophes.

During the Renaissance, people believed that they could determine their own fate. People tried to understand the world through rational thought and science rather than simply accepting the church's explanations for natural phenomena. People became more individualistic during the Renaissance. The Catholic church lost power during the Renaissance as people became disillusioned with it and somewhat more skeptical of religion.

In the play Macbeth, three witches tempt Macbeth with the idea that he could become king. In response, Macbeth tries to kill the king so he can become king. Macbeth is unsuccessful in his attempt to take over and dies at the end of the play, having lost everything, including his honor. When Macbeth kills the king, it shakes up everything-- the natural environment in the play reflects the disturbance in the order of things. Dogs and horses act strangely and the weather turns nasty. Macbeth is a parable of Medieval ideas.

In the play Othello, there is a similar sort of conflict. The villain of the play, Iago, does not believe in fate. He tries to get a higher position in the military by manipulating his commander, Othello. His attempt to take fate into his own hands ends disastrously, with most of the characters dead at the end of the play. Still, Iago's motivations are ambiguous, reflecting the confusion that most people in Shakespeare's time felt over the transition from the Medieval to Renaissance era.

Shakespeare's plays reflected the reality of his times. Many were poor, sanitation was practically nonexistent. Women had little say in their own lives.

Answer 3

Actually, Shakespeare's English was noticeably different from that of his urban colleagues. Shakespeare used the "thee-thy-thou" forms much more often than other writers of his time, which must have made his writing seem old-fashioned or rustic to his London audiences. This is due to his Warwickshire dialect.

Answer 4

We know so little about Shakespeare's life that we cannot tell whether, how or how much his own experiences affected him. Indeed, people try to guess at what his life was like by what he says in the plays and poetry. We can say for sure that he was a keen observer of human nature.