preview

How Did Shakespeare Impact The World

Good Essays
Open Document

The 16th Century was a time in history that produced a great amount of people that contributed to different aspects that affect the world we see to day. The technology, entertainment and education of today was greatly impacted by important individuals. Entertainment evolved from what had originally been know at the time. An individual that contributed to that was, William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was a famous playwright and poet that was born in the 16th Century, lived in London for some of his life and influenced literature, theater and the English language in multiple ways. Shakespeare was a man of incredible talent and in his life had over 193 works. Shakespeare paved the way for a new generation of writers with the influence his …show more content…

Shakespeare expanded what could be accomplished through characterization, plot and genre. At the time plays were with characters and plots that were symbolic rather than realistic. Shakespeare made changes that resonated on emotional levels with audiences. “In a play like Hamlet… Shakespeare ‘integrated characterization with plot’ in a matter that plot becomes dependent upon the development of characters.”( ). In Romeo and Juliet, the new genre romantic tragedy was created. Shakespeare mixed tragedy and comedy to create the genre. The romance genre had not been a topic under tragedy prior to Shakespeare doing this. Shakespeare’s main categories had included: tragedies, comedies and histories. Shakespeare had written 37 plays, 2 narrative poems, and 154 sonnets. All of these works were created in a time span of approximately 30 years. He was the first at the time to merge together: verse, poetry and drama. He used a blank verse his whole career and perfecting the way we see it today. With the combination of those three, the beginning of the modernization of English literature was marked. Shakespeare gave us new ways to express hope, despair and sorrow with his styles of writing. The English language was also enriched by Shakespeare as he made it more expressive and colorful. “… He is credited with introducing nearly 3,000 words to the English language.”( ). It has been said he used 15,000 words in his plays, a portion of these he created by merging existing words together and anglicizing vocabulary from foreign languages. His works are the second most often quoted after the Bible. With that title to his name, he is the most quoted playwright of all-time with fellow writer trailing behind him. Shakespeare’s works are also continually performed in non-English speaking nations. The writings are usually literally translated in order the true originality to Shakespeare’s

Get Access