Summer Brief- About The Author Part 3. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare 

William Shakespeare has been seen as a revolutionary writer within the western literature.

His Plays looked at conflict, corruption, manipulation , race and a plethora of other issues that weren't as deeply explored by other playwrights at the time.

 Though his work reflected a lot of the patriarchal anglocentric values of the english public. His portrayal of othello tried to show as a three dimensional character struggling with his race and trying to become more than the colour of his skin, however Othello's character still played to many western stereotypes such as the brutal violence and anger of black men. 

Shakespeare's female characters also reflect the misogynistic views of elizabethan and jacobean times. Most of the female characters fall into unflattering tropes and stereotypes such as the vain empty headed beauty, the virginal naive one and the angry woman. Ones that seem to have more dimension such as emilia in othello or beatrice in much ado about nothing show independant thoughts which may be grey in morals but show a complexity and intelligence to their  character. But even then it's shown that even the more independant of women have their lives and views effected by the men around them.

What I like about shakespearian plays and the way shakespeare writes is that it reveals to you what english society and it's culture was like in the 16th century. The fact that Shakespeare sets his plays in Italy because  "In those days, Italy was known to have very devious and sophisticated people which went well with comedies amongst other types of plays like tragedies and histories that depended mainly on things like deception and even sexual passion to run the plot of the plays."[1]

The thematic side of shakespeare's writings interest me the most, because topics such as lust and conflict should be contextualised to the 15th and 16th century rather than seen as modern interpretations of the same themes. Back then a lot of shakespeare's works were interwoven with biblical messages and motifs.

Summary Of What I Found Out About William Shakespeare

• Slight Biblical influence within his plays (not really in his poems though, they were more about a bi shakespeare talking about how hot men and women are and how hot he is for them)
• His plays reflect the times they were set in and give you a look at the moral and social inclinations of the english public in that era.
• Shakespeare was starting to question race and gender stereotypes within some of his plays.
• Everything is a Metaphor , Simile ,and Dick or fart joke.
• And if it's not that then there is an 70% chance it's about oral sex