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Essay on Shakespeare as a Real Man in Shakespeare in Love

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Shakespeare as a Real Man in Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare has been presented in myriad versions, from the traditional to the almost unrecognizable. Directors and actors have adapted him as long as his plays have been performed. Some feel that without Shakespeare´s original poetry, audiences are robbed of the opportunity to experience the cleverness, poetry, and majesty of the language - Shakespeare´s genius. Others feel that modern adaptations don´t challenge viewers and offer weaker plots and less complex characters. Shakespeare in Love combines in a way both. The film applauds the brilliance of Shakespearean writing through the lines directly taken from Shakespeare, while at the same time …show more content…

The Anti-Stratfordians take up the other side of the debate: they insist that a man of such humble circumstances could never have written the works within the Shakespearean canon. In fact, they posit that Shakespeare, the actor, agreed to publish the work under his own name for a fee, and did so to protect the identity of the true author. The Anti-Stratfordians believe that Shakespeare was simply a "paid" player (The Shakespeare Question). The film effectively undermines this Anti-Stratfordian argument by explaining how Shakespeare could have afforded to become a "sharer" in Richard Burbage´s The Lord Chamberlain´s Men. Throughout Shakespeare in Love, Will tries to raise the capital needed to buy his way into the company. In fact, when Lord Wessex makes a bet with Queen Elizabeth I about whether or not a play can show the real truth and beauty of love, the prize wagered is fifty pounds -- the exact amount Will needs to achieve his goal. Of course, by the end of the film, Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet has proven both the bittersweet truth and unwavering romance of true love, and Queen Elizabeth determines that Will´s play has won the bet. Nevertheless, whatever the side we take (either the purist or the Anti-Stratfordian), few facts do exist about the life of William

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