Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English
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Romeo and Juliet - Historic Context


Romeo and Juliet was written around the year 1595 by the man many consider to be the best writer in the history of English.  William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon; a small town northwest of London, England.  He wrote many unforgettable dramas, both comedies and tragedies, and also wrote poetry in sonnet form.  In many ways, little is known about the man. There are even those who believe that he did not write the plays due to his relatively humble background and lack of higher education.

William Shakespeare came from a middle-class family.  He was the son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.  His father made gloves for a living but his mother came from a slightly higher social class because the Ardens had owned land in the area for many generations. 

The Shakespeares could afford to send their son to the local grammar school, which gave him a good education for the time.  He did not, however, go on to university, as his family had experienced hard times during his adolescence.
​
Later, William became involved with Anne Hathaway. Anee was older and in his late teens became pregnant.  They married and came to have three children, including twins.  Their two daughters lived to adulthood but his son, Hamnet, died young.  This tragedy affected William deeply.

At some point early in his marriage, William decided to go to London.  His reasons for going have been lost to time, and his biographers and admirers have speculated as to why he went to the city, leaving his family behind in Stratford.  It will probably never be known why he did so, but he continued to support his wife and children and ultimately returned to Stratford in his mid-age to buy a property.  He lived there for the rest of his life and died in his home town in 1616.

William became heavily involved in theatre life in London and joined a theatrical company.  London was renowned for its plays and theatre and England itself was just embarking on its golden age, which would last for centuries, beginning under the reign of Elizabeth I.  Shakespeare was eager for her support and patronage and is thought to have written certain aspects of his plays in a fashion that would win her favor.

When Shakespeare penned Romeo and Juliet in the mid-1590’s it was a change of pace for him.  Up to that point he had mostly written comedies and historical plays.   

​Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy filled with action, suspense, laughter, and tears and at the core of it was a love story that all but the most hardened could relate to; the story of two adolescents thwarted in their love by the enmity of their parents’ families.   Shakespeare did not come up with the plot of the play himself because over thirty years earlier a poem by Arthur Brooke had appeared and its title was: “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet”.  Shakespeare took Brooke’s basic plot and fashioned it into his own play. 

Ever since its first performance, Romeo and Juliet has been one of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays.  Several movie versions have been made, and the play and musical movie adaption of ‘West Side Story’ resonated with audiences in the 1950s and 1960s.  This version of the ‘star-crossed’ lovers changed the time and setting to mid-20th century New York City and portrayed the love of a young man and woman from rival street gangs.  Romeo and Juliet is truly a story for all times and places.
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  • Home
    • William Shakespeare Biography
  • Apps
    • SwipeSpeare
    • SwipeBook
  • Books
    • Comedies >
      • All's Well That Ends Well
      • As You Like It
      • The Comedy of Errors
      • Love's Labour Lost
      • Measure for Measure
      • The Merchant of Venice
      • The Merry Wives of Windsor
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • A Midsummer Nights Dream
      • Pericles, Prince of Tyre
      • The Taming of the Shrew
      • The Tempest
      • Twelfth Night
      • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
      • The Two Noble Kinsmen
      • The Winter's Tale
      • The Comedies of Shakespeare
    • Histories >
      • Henry V
      • Henry IV, Part 1
      • Henry IV, Part 2
      • Henry VIII
      • King John
      • King Richard the Second
      • King Henry VI: Part One
      • King Henry VI: Part Two
      • King Henry VI: Part Three
      • Richard III
      • The Histories of Shakespeare
    • Tragedies >
      • Anthony and Cleopatra
      • Coriolanus
      • Cymbeline
      • Hamlet
      • Julius Caesar
      • King Lear
      • Macbeth
      • Othello
      • Romeo and Juliet
      • Timon of Athens
      • Titus Andronicus
      • Troilus and Cressida
      • The Tragedies of Shakespeare
    • Sonnets
    • Shakespeare's Apocrypha >
      • A Yorkshire Tragedy
    • Shakespeare the Novel >
      • Macbeth
      • Hamlet
      • The Merchant of Venice
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      • Antony and Cleopatra
    • Lesson Plans >
      • Lesson Plans: Coriolanus
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      • Lesson Plans: Julius Caesar
      • Lesson Plans: Romeo and Juliet
      • Lesson Plans: As You Like It
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      • Lesson Plans: Anthony and Cleopatra
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      • Lesson Plans: A Midsummer's Nights Dream
      • Lesson Plans: Love's Labour's Lost
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