Merchant of VeniceDone by: Tay Wei Sheng (26)

Shakespeare’s lifeIs an English poet and playwright

Is 52 years old

Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church

During his life, Shakespeare wrote 36 plays and 154 sonnets

Almost four hundred years after Shakespeare's death there are 15 million pages referring to him on Google

The football club Tottenham Hotspur was named by one of Shakespeare's characters, Harry Hotspur

Shakespeare’s lifeShakespeare probably attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford from the age of seven

On 29 November 1582, Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway November the 27th at Temple Grafton, a village near Stratford

They then had their first child, Susanna baptisized on 26 May 1583, twin children, a son, Hamnet and a daughter, Judith, were baptised on 2 February 1585

Between 1589 and 1592, Shakespeare began his writing career and he was inspired to write by nature and by some novelists like Ovid and Seneca

Shakespeare’s life

Shakespeare's family was about at the middle of the social system in money and status

His wife was considered as one of the small farmers while his father was one of the craftsmen

Hence, his family was considered as middle class

England in Shakespeare’s time

England in Shakespeare’s time

•During the Elizabethan Age, when Queen Elizabeth ruled England

•There were three big epidemics of plague, the first occurred between 1592 and 1594

•The second one happened when Shakespeare was growing old, between 1603 and 1604, which was caused by narrow dirty streets and no clean water

England in Shakespeare’s timeMajor divisions:

NOBILITY, who came from families with titles and high positions;

GENTRY, who owned and managed landed estates but did not otherwise work;

MERCHANTS, who conducted large businesses;

SMALL FARMERS (Shakespeare's wife's family was in this social group);

CRAFTSMEN, who were expert workers in one particular form of manufacture (Shakespeare's father was in this social group);

SMALL FARMERS, who rented land from the nobility and gentry;SERVANTS,

VAGRANTS, people roaming around with no means of support

England in Shakespeare’s time

•The globe theatre had features like trap doors where supernatural characters can pop out suddenly and had a ceiling where they can descend from heaven to earth

Renaissance• Cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe

The Black Death•Brought to Italy in the Autumn of 1347 by Genoese ships from the East, where the disease carried by fleas on rat hosts had savagely depopulated vast areas.

Renaissance• Cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe

The Black Death•Brought to Italy in the Autumn of 1347 by Genoese ships from the East, where the disease carried by fleas on rat hosts had savagely depopulated vast areas.

RenaissanceThe Black Death•Brought to Italy in the Autumn of 1347 by Genoese ships from the East, where the disease carried by fleas on rat hosts had savagely depopulated vast areas.

Gunpowder, Siege Engines and Chinese Inventions•Weapons were invented in China before they were “discovered” in Europe

RenaissanceInfluence

•allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity of every character regardless of their social position

•knowledge of Greek and Roman classics applied

•“human” characters with psychologically complexity were created