William Shakespeare and His Contribution to The Renaissance

During the 14th century until the 17th century, the renaissance era was happening. This time gave birth to many artists, poets, and musicians and new ways to express their arts. In the mid-16th century, one of the most known poets was born. His name was William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was a famous poet from Europe during the time of the renaissance. He was born in April of 1564 and was baptized on the 26th of the same year. His birthday is unknown but thought to be on the 23rd of April. William grew up in Straton-upon-Avon with his parents, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. He also had seven siblings, two of whom were sisters who died before he was born. At 18, he married Anne Hathaway and had three kids: a daughter, Susanna, and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Their only son, Hamnet, died when he was eleven.

Today, he has no direct descendants because his grandchildren all died without an heir. His sister, Joan, is the only one that currently has living descendants. After he got married to Anne and had kids, he got into theater. While nobody is sure how, he became more and more popular. He prospered from both his acting and writing, along with his partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He invected a lot of his wealth in real-estate purchases and the second-largest house in town. He died on his supposed birthday, April 23, at the age of 52. William Shakespeare contributed to the renaissance by creating a new style of writing plays. He mixed comedy and tragedy which back then was a big deal. Another contribution Shakespeare made to the renaissance was the Globe Theatre. It was built by his playing company in 1599 but burned down in June of 1613. He often performed there among other actors. Even after he died, Shakespeare remained popular. He left behind many works that today are still read.

For example, in school, we study “Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”, and “Macbeth” which are his most popular. His sonnets and plays have even been performed in many of the major languages on every continent. Along with his plays and poems, he created expressions that are used even today. Many of the expressions and words he used in his plays are ones that, today, we say constantly. Some examples of this are “be all and end all”, “break the ice”, “not slept one wink”, “wild goose chase”, and “clothes make the man”. He also impacted several writers of later centuries such as Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Thomas Hardy, and William Faulkner. To conclude, Wiliam Shakespeare was one of the most popular people we hear about from renaissance times. He left behind numerous works and inspired many people. Without him, playwriting styles would be very different than how it is today.