Art Imitates Life for Shakespeare
There has been much speculation about many aspects of the life of William Shakespeare, the “Bard of Avon.” His mysterious persona could be attributed to the fact that there are only two primary sources of information about his personal history. These are the legal and church documents that have survived through the centuries and some facets of his life which he incorporated in the plays he created.
The lines in the play, “King John,” that talked about the grief that the character felt for losing his son was seen as a reflection of the sorrow that Shakespeare must have felt after his son, Hamnet, died at such a young. Moreover, in the play, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the comical scene between a Welsh headmaster and a pupil named William was speculated to be based on the experience of Shakespeare as a young student. The mysterious circumstances behind the death of Ophelia, one of the characters in the play “Hamlet,” were also based on an experience of Shakespeare when he was 15. A woman from a nearby village drowned and though it was deemed an accident, many suspect that the she may have committed suicide. These facets in Shakespeare’s life as revealed through his plays somehow gave us a glimpse of how he was as a person.
Related posts from this site:
The Life of William Shakespeare
The Childhood of William Shakespeare
Macbeth
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