Who Was Shakespeare?

     A lot of Shakespeare's life is unknown.  Almost everything society knows about him is disputed.  The generally accepted facts are as follows: "Shakespeare was born in 1564, the third child and first son of John Shakespeare and his wife Mary Arden, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.  In 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer from the nearby village of Shottery, and by 1581 they had three children.  Around 1588 Shakespeare and his family moved to London and within a few years he had achieved some success as an actor, a poet and a playwright…..The Sonnets especially established his reputation as a gifted and popular poet, but it is the 38 plays he wrote or collaborated on that have firmly established his reputation as the greatest dramatist who ever lived.  He died in 1616 at the age of 52 and was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford."1  His entire identity has often been disputed.  Notable candidates on who Shakespeare really was include Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, and Christopher Marlowe.
     Whenever students are given a work of Shakespeare for an assignment, they aren't too happy.  His writing is extremely difficult to understand, and time-consuming to read since you have to stop every few lines to try to figure out the message he's trying to get across.  I understand now that there are multiple ways to perceive Shakespeare's writings, which is why his works are greatly disputed over.  I still tend to struggle with the language.






1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html