Tuesday 21 May 2024

The Context of Shakespearean Drama

The Context of Shakespearean Drama

In Shakespeare's time, the Renaissance was a time of learning, ideas were revived from Rome and classical Greece and spread across Europe. Since there were lots of new ideas, lots of talented artists and creators were born, for example, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Donatello and of course Shakespeare. The reason Shakespeare became so popular was because there was a big surge in poems and entertainment such as plays and Shakespeare was a really good writer of plays and poems. 

Queen Elizabeth I became the Queen in 1558 6 years before Shakespeare was born so a lot of his plays and poems were influenced by this. This was mainly to look good to the higher beings because back then being King or Queen was second to God, so a big deal. But also he had to appeal to the groundlings too so he added some humour to appeal to all so everyone would like and enjoy his plays. Religion was also a big factor in his writing because England was a Catholic country until 1533 when Henry VIII broke away from the church because he couldn't divorce his wife. Henry then went on to create a protestant church. After a while of back and forth with Catholics and Protestants it became split so Shakespeare related to this debate in some of his plays.