Biography of William Shakespeare :: William Shakespeare Writers Playwrights Essays

Biography of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a playwrite in England. The Merchant of Veniceis one of his many comedies. Some scholars however, have made the argument that the play is one of his tragedies. Other tragedies of Shakespeare allow in Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare lived in a time when Jews had been expelled from England for over three centuries. However, as a playwrite, Shakespeare in like manner probably faced much prejudice and hatred athletic field was banned from his home town of London during his lifetime and so the theaters had to move outside of the city walls. This situation may have made him sypathetic to the plight of Jews, hence the play as a work of tragedy. Shakespeare married a woman named Anne Whateley, but he may have also had a male lover during his lifetimea radiation pattern not uncommon for men of his era. Many of his sonnets suggest the possibility of this. Shakespeares comedies, performed at the Globe theater, we re played to an audience which include as many peasants as it did nobles and loyalty, and so the comedy appeals to this lower class as well. Shakespeares works are full of political humor, but also run rampant with sexual and scatalogical humor. Shakespeare lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth who had a man in her service who she cared for deeply (she never married during her reign, but was rumored to have lovers) and who was rumored to be a Jew. If this had been the case, Shakespeares play would have to have been sensitive to her favor. Hence, more evidence of the play as a tragedy. In Shakespeares time, it was the common practice for men to play the parts of women in most productions.