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Shakespeare’s life experiences affected his views on the world and these are evident through the way he wrote Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and his many other plays. Literature is filled with emotions and Shakespeare dealt with many tragedies and multiple successes that swayed his emotions one way and the other. Our life experiences shape us into the people we grow to become and with these situations we make mistakes mostly by our impulses. Throughout many of Shakespeare’s novels many actions that are unplanned occur such as in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth kills King Duncan; this is an example of when emotions get the best of us sometimes.
For better or worse our emotions guide us in making decisions whether they lead us to greatness or sorrow its part of life.
Throughout Shakespeare’s life he experienced many deaths within his immediate family including his sisters and his son. These events contributed to the way Shakespeare wrote his stories of tragedy, namely Hamlet.
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Three of William’s sisters; Joan, Margaret, and Anne; died by getting infected by the Black Death (“William Shakespeare’s Family”).
These deaths were extremely difficult because William had to sit by and grieve these deaths and watch his parents and other siblings cope at such a young age. After surviving the tragedies of his childhood, Shakespeare did not have such good luck when he was having children of his own. His first son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11 of the Black Death (“William Shakespeare’s Family”). This was a rather ironic situation because his son died at the hand of the same disease that killed his sisters. Having to go through the death of people that he cared about and the number of them definitely messed with his psyche and even though this was fairly common back then. According to a psychological backed book, there are many stages of grief some of which are shock, frustration, depression and growth (Flatt, 8-18). Many have said that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet about his deceased son; it would make sense for his to do this because it would be part of the moving on process.
The birth order of someone will have an effect the way they view the world as well as how many children they will have. Back in the 15-1600s it was common to have many members in a family. In William Shakespeare’s family he had 7 siblings some psychologists have said that this may lead to mental and behavioral problems later in life. According to a scientific journal about the effects of siblings, it is said that older siblings are more likely to score higher on literature tests (Brody). This statement remains true in William’s family with his multiple novels that have received great recognition. While Shakespeare was beginning his own family Susana, his oldest child, had similar duties as her father. Similar to her father she had to assist her family including her parents through the coping of the loss of Hamnet. As the other descendants of William and Anne grew up and began to start their own families both children Judith and Susanne bore three children of their own (“William Shakespeare’s Family”). There is a lot of discrepancy about family dynamics and their affects, but one thing can be agreed upon and that is the love parents have for their children.
The way Shakespeare wrote stories about his children and siblings shows his feelings towards them. Comparatively, the way he wrote characters with parental roles are said to be based upon his own parenting style.
Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway led his romantic scenes to be more personal and detailed. Anne was roughly 8 years older than William; this could psychologically have held him back from verbally addressing his feelings towards her. Since he could not stand up to his wife and speak his feelings he then wrote them down which created his amazing novels. This sparked the writing of Romeo and Juliet; the quote, “My life were better ended by their hate than death prorogued, wanting of thy love” confirms this (Shakespeare). This quote from Act 2 Scene 2 shows how much love Romeo has for Juliet that he would rather die than be without her. There was so much meaning behind Shakespeare’s words and when people think of a romantic play the first thing that comes to mind is Romeo and Juliet. Some studies have shown that if both partners make impulsive decisions then the relationship will decline which was the true in Romeo and Juliet’s case because they both died (Borelli). This love is prevalent throughout William and Anne’s relationships and love for their children.
Whether a child’s parents are divorced, married or single it affects the way they live and how they make decisions in their own relationships. When most parents get divorced a main issue is what will happen to the children after going through this traumatic event. There have been studies conducted that show how children from broken homes go on in life. There is a connection of intellectual and behavioral issues after a child has lived through a divorce. Along with this fact it has been shown that it doesn’t matter if the parents get remarried there will still be a chance of behavioral outbursts. The national average of families living with two biological parents decreased over the course of 30 years by nearly 20 percent. It has also been shown that unhealthy marriages are no better than healthy divorces (Moore, Kristin A., Susan M. Jekielek, and Carol Emig). Little is known about Shakespeare’s parents except that they were married to each other. The same can be said about William and Anne’s descendants because they had a healthy relationship and that affected their children positively by having healthy marriages of their own.
The parenting styles Shakespeare’s parents chose affected his mental health which contributed to the genera of stories. There are three different types of parenting styles; authoritative, permissive and authoritarian. Authoritative is when parents do not explain why an action or behavior is wrong which leads to a child to lack social skills. Whereas permissive is “too lenient”, a child is not punished, which leads to immaturity. This leaves authoritarian which has the nickname of the “perfect” parenting style where a child gets an explanation why their action was wrong and gets a punishment for it (CITATION). Based off of this information there is a chance that William’s parents used the authoritarian style because there has not been anything recorded of childish behavior or awkwardness about him.
Overall, childhood events affect the way a person lives their life and in Shakespeare’s case it influenced his way of writing. Many of the plays William wrote were based off of his own feeling and members of his family. Our parents are a large part of how we live our lives and make decisions that will shape us into being the people that we become. Emotions are one of the largest factors of our lives and in William’s case it was through his works of literature. If Shakespeare did not have same childhood he did and went through the same events he did then there is a likely chance that we would not have the great plays that are performed and studied to this day.
The True In Romeo And Juliet’s Case. (2022, May 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-true-in-romeo-and-juliet-s-case-essay
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