historical biographical information for shakespeare

William Shakespeare who's birth date is unknown but was baptized on April 26th 1564 but was born in Stratford- upon- Avon in Warwickshire, England which is about 90 miles from London. when he turned 18 he married Anne Hathaway. they had 3 children Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith (Hamnet i thing being a reason for the title of the play hamlet). in 1585 he started a career as a playwright and and actor, and became part owner of the play company lord chamberlains men. which later became known as the kings men. from 1589 Shakespeare wrote comedies such as the comedy of errors, a midsummer night dream, and the two gentlemen of Verona. At the beginning of the early 17th century he started writing Tragedies such as Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth until about 1608. After William was tired of writing plays we retired to Statford-upon-Avon to spend the rest of his life there until his death on April 23rd 1616 at the age of 52.

visual arts

this is a great painting by a painter named henry fuseli depicting the first act scene five of the pay in which hamlet takes haratio to meet his dead father. the painting was created for the Boydell
shakespeare gallery in London, England. the gallery was filled with shakespeare paintings by some of the most important artistes of the period.

this is an image of ophelia from act 4 scene 7 when in which ophelia drowns herself in the river. the image is painted in black and white and not very historically correct because ophelia her hair up and had a sash made out of flowers and she was laying belly up but it is still a very good image to get into your head.

Study tools for hamlet

http://www.artsalive.ca/pdf/eth/activities/hamlet_guide.pdf



This resource is a very good study guide. it is a very long PDF that I that was created to be used at a play that was being put on at a theater but if you skim through it a bit you will find some very useful information to character plots, the plot of the play, major themes, famous lines, and major scenes to look for.


http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/

anyone you ask will tell you that spark notes is always a good place to go if you need help understanding a book. They have a full list of context understandings, plot overviews,  a full list of characters, themes and symbols, and a full summary of each act and scene.

A Blog on hamlet

http://thehamletweblog.blogspot.com/

One of the better blogs that i have found on the internet.this blog goes in depth with more of the play and production of hamlet rather the understanding aspect. it also goes in depth with shakespeare and his lifestyle.


http://hamletswb.blogspot.com/

this one is very good because it was created by a 12th grade class for a 12th grade class. also the class is an honors english class. each post has its own quote at the beginning and then the post goes in depth on the post and explains the quote and the scene in its self.

political cartoons

To blog or not to blog is perfect. he is asking the question should he or should he not.

This political cartoon shows the irony of the fact the the play hamlet is a tragity