WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Balaur Radu
Cosnita Alexandru
Chivu Daniel
Hornea Dorian
Iancu Ovidiu Alexandru
Lorena Stirbet
 WHAT DO WE KNOW

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in

1564. Nobody is exactly sure which day he was born, but we do know
he was baptised on 26 April that year. In 1582 he married Anne
Hathaway and the couple went on to have three children. Shakespeare
lived in London for 25 years and wrote most of his plays here. He
died at his home in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616, aged 52.
SHAKESPEARE THE WRITER
His many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy,
murder, magic and mystery. He wrote the blockbuster plays of his day -
some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. It
has been almost 400 years since he died, but people still celebrate his work
all around the world. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (though some experts
think it may have been more). He wrote three different types of plays (
Histories, Comedies and Tragedies), plenty of poetry and in 1609
published a book of 154 sonnets.
 WORDS SHAKESPEARE
INVENTED
He had an incredible influence on the English language and invented
hundreds of words we still use today. Some good examples would be:
amazement, bedroom, champion, dawn, eyeball, fashionable, gossip,
puking, unreal, zany, swagger, olympian and many others.
 QUICK FACTS

 More than 80 spelling variations are recorded for Shakespeare's name, from
"Shappere" to "Shaxberd".
 In the few signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelled his name "Willm
Shaksp", "William Shakespe", "Wm Shakspe", "William Shakspere" but never
"William Shakespeare".
 There is no evidence for what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592, the
period when he moved to London and began his writing career. Thus, there is no
record of how his career began or how quickly he rose to fame.
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Macbeth (The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to

have been first performed in 1606.[a] It dramatises the damaging physical and
psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. A
brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that
one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action
by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He
is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to
protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The
bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the
realms of madness and death.
Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland;
Macduff; and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England,
Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the
events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events
of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for
complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In the backstage world of theatre, some
believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it
instead as "The Scottish Play". Over the course of many centuries, the play has
attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, and other
media.
 PLOT SUMMARY

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a brave and loyal Thane to King
Duncan. After hearing a prophecy that he will become king himself,
Macbeth is overcome by ambition and greed. Bolstered by the prophecy
and his wife’s encouragement, he kills King Duncan and takes the throne.
Afterwards, Macbeth’s guilt, fear, and paranoia lead him to commit even
more murders to secure his power. His confidence in the prophecies
eventually leads to his downfall and he is overthrown and killed by those
he has wronged.