What is history without literature? What is art with the words of an author? When we think of words, poems, stories, of plays, the only name that comes as a flashcard in our head is Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, a magnificent author, poet, known for his famous plays all over the world but what do we know of his life? 

William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564, in the Elizabethan era, to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden Shakespeare and was the third child out of his eight siblings. Seeing the proof of his extraordinary work, Shakespeare was an enthusiast for reading, writing, and even acting. Literature had played an important role in his life, from the very first of his learnings. Latin was the language that used to go around in those times and William being a curious student learned Latin and hence most of his texts, plays and other writings are in Latin and then have been translated into English. Eventually, he started writing in English as he was fluent in the historic native English that he spoke in his everyday life. 

William Shakespeare got married when he was 18 years old to Anne Hathaway who was 26-year-old at that time. Soon after they were blessed with a daughter named Susanna in 1583. After another two years, Anne Hathaway gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s son Hamnet died when he was 11 years old due to an unknown illness. 

William Shakespeare lived a life filled with astonishing wordplay and interesting theories about life in a tragedy which he depicted in his writing, leaving a trace for upcoming authors, writers, poets to continue a dramatic course of literature around the world. His work was indeed a work of art. Writing plays about kings and queens, about betrayal, about revenge were his best works till today. Writing plays like Romeo and Juliet, which became a world classic story of romance in the Elizabethan era, made him the most astounding writer globally. 

Hamlet, one of his longest plays, has been his most famous after Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare found humor in most of his writings. He wrote plays like Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to imbibe the role of tragic comedy in society giving a new view and perspective to the world and encouraging by implying that there is nothing wrong in finding humor in difficult times, just like in his plays. 

William Shakespeare was an inspiration for many forthcoming writers and even today he has been inspiring young authors and poets to write something that is out of this world. Shakespeare gave words meaning and gave people hope to write imaginary stories and make a new world of fiction through words, whether fantasy or just politically strong made-up scenarios. To all the book lovers, to all the blooming writers, to all the daydreamers, there is a place that can make you feel like the main character and that place is not a place but it is in the plays written by William Shakespeare. As T.S. Elliot rightfully said, “The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink”

“HELL IS EMPTY AND ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE”

-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.