Art Is Personal and Great Art Is Even More Personal - Research Paper Example

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was an English script and poet born on 23 April 1564 where hisbaptism occurred three days after his birth. He wrote about thirty-eight plays and a hundred and fifty four sonnets. In addition, he also wrote two long poems and some epitaphs. In essence, translations of his various plays are in many different languages across the globe. Ironically, most of his personal issues are subject to guesswork as his life was secretive as compared to that of his fellow artist. In this regard, art becomes a very personal aspect as artists try to deliver messages through their artistic creations. Ideally, artists may use their pieces to portray their real life situations instead of showing the real aspect. Usually, an artist’s life may be in the core of what their pieces are showing. Sequentially, it becomes the role of the audience to unravel the artist’s life in order to establish the nature of these artists. In essence, this essay will zone in on the life of William Shakespeare to establish the connection between his life and his artistic works. Seemingly, the life of Shakespeare did not have any documented notes or journals to analyze how he led his life. However, his plays may give an insight on his life was, and his other artistic pieces that this paper will seek to establish. Religious affiliation According to the Play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare emerges as a Catholic faithful in to which his parents belonged. However, many argue that his religious faith and affiliation was not Catholic, but this depiction was heavy in his plays. Certain scholars believe that he was too much of an artist to consider him either protestant or catholic. In essence, there are no documents proving that Shakespeare was indeed Catholic since he did not document it. However, the inclusion of Friar as a clergyman to give advice to Romeo and Juliet is proof enough hat Shakespeare had affiliation to Catholics. For Romeo and Juliet, theirs was religion of love because of their undying love for one another. Friar’s presence in the play as Romeo’s adviser since childhood may somehow relate Shakespeare’s life since he lived part of his life with a religious family where he acquired the name William Shake shaft. Ideally, his religious aspect becomes questionable because as per the Romeo and Juliet he portrays the religious aspect in a way that Juliet becomes a shrine to which Romeo worships. In addition, in one of his sonnets he praises the manly figure of his desire saying that Mother Nature created a beautiful creation in the form of a woman, but gave her a male sexual organ. This means that he had deviated from his prior belief in his childhood God to another spiritual being. This proves that his religious affiliation was one that is subject to controversy and debate (Ray 175). Subsequently, Shakespeare’s religious inclination in his childhood was different from that of his adult life simply because of his curiosity. Relationship and sexuality Ideally, Shakespeare married his wife while he was still a teenager. His wife was eight years older than he was which was subject to debate. Their marriage was in haste since six months after their wedding; Anne gave birth to their first-born daughter (Morris & Beal 13). Therefore, the implication of the hasty marriage was because Anne was three months pregnant for Shakespeare. Essentially, the hasty marriage plan showed Shakespeare’s undying love for Anne since he mentions her in his a hundred and fifty fifth sonnet as the woman who saved him from himself. Seemingly, the play Romeo and Juliet was about a heated love affair between the two had obstacles. The two marry in secret through Friar’s help to avoid Juliet from getting married to Paris. In the end, the two die on different occasions because of their ill-fated love. In comparison, this may bring speculation around Shakespeare’s marriage implying that and his wife might have suffered the same fate if they did not marry. This portrays that the life of Shakespeare presented itself through this factor. The play was a tragic love story. In addition, is similar to William’s real life situation as the marriage between him and his older wife occurred in a private ceremony in the privacy of his parent’s home. On the other hand, his sexuality was also in question although he married one wife and bore three children with her. According to his sonnets, his portrayal of a ‘Dark Lady’ implied that he probably had love affairs outside his marriage (Muir 122). In contrast, others scholars also analyzed his sonnets and found some aspects of him being bisexual. In essence, Sonnet eighteen as part of his work was a love poem that addressed to a man. For instance, the words used in this sonnet are words that display sexual attraction to men and not to women (Matz 88). Ironically, a hundred and twenty six out of the total number of sonnets inclined towards a manly figure named Fair Lord. For instance, Shakespeare referred to him as my dear lover in sonnet fifteen. This man appears to have been younger than Shakespeare has and that his curiosity heightened when he moved to London leaving his family. Perhaps, the reason cited for his liking for men was for the reason that Anne had trapped him in to marrying her at a tender age. He writes in one of his sonnets that the opposite sex brought him bad luck since he obtained responsibilities while young. Moreover, his description of the Fair Lord’s beauty also implies that he was probably bisexual because it is queer for a man to appreciate another if they are heterosexual. In the subsequent years, scholars altered the original version of the sonnets to hide the fact then British hero was a possible sodomite. In this regard, the masculine aspects in the original version of the sonnets did not feature, but instead they had feminine traits embedded instead. However, the sonnets saw their reprinting in their original form later years to portray the real side of Shakespeare. The loss of his son and his father Grief appears to have been Shakespeare’s companion for the better part of his life as he lost his father and his son at different times of his life. Ideally, he portrayed his grief in his play Hamlet, which had heavy aspects of death and sorrow (Smith 75). Remarkably, Hamlet was somehow similar to the name of Shakespeare deceased son, Hamlet. In essence, the dominant male character in the play showed how well a man deal with grief, which implied how Shakespeare dealt with his loss. In essence, Shakespeare’s play portrayed how he had come to accept the deaths in his life and how he moved on after the bereavement. This gave the impression that William had undergone healing and transformation by making his loss part of his masterpieces. Hamlet drew origin from Shakespeare’s inward transformation and spiritual reconstruction to which his grief had affected. In this regard, the death of William’s son at the age of eleven forever changed his perception of life that triggered a moral crisis within him (Pogue 17). Arguably, Shakespeare’s plays after this fateful event became weightier and more profound in content and significance. According to Leming and Dickinson (508), a son carries the dreams and aspirations that a father could not have achieved. Sequentially, Hamlet depicted the dreams that Shakespeare had for his son and did not come to fruition due to his premature death. It was the inner reflection of what Shakespeare dreamed his son would be hence bringing it out to the world to express his inner dreams. Although the cause for his son’s death is a mystery, Shakespeare in his play portrayed Hamlet’s quest to establish his father’s cause of death. In linkage, this could mean that Shakespeare did not have any contentment in the death of his father and son. In one of his speeches, he said that if he were angry he would be angry and not at any one else for the deaths in his life. This shows that he constantly sought for justification for the cause of deaths for his priced fragments of this life. Therefore, Hamlet was part of Shakespeare’s grieving process for Hamlet and for his father, which portrayed his transformative abilities to heal and accept reality. Shakespeare’s political depiction and interest Ideally, William existed at a time when Queen Elizabeth the first reigned in England. The Queen was the last monarch of the House of Tudor. In essence, Shakespeare’s historical plays revolved around the Tudor dynasty, which was the Queen’s lineage. However, his plays became propaganda since they depicted that the population appreciated their reign that was quite contrary. His plays emphasized the collapse of the medieval era in which plays had to please the kings and their patriarchs. During this time, the artists in this time found themselves in jail for writing pieces that were not appealing to the kings and their subjects. Remarkably, Shakespeare chose to stay away from jail by writing pieces that passed the judgment scale of the British entertainment. Ideally, Shakespeare wrote lays based upon King James the sixth ideologies and not on his reflections. In essence, this king wanted to portray that his reign had relation to prior reigns. He used these plays to advertise his rule that was not popular among his subjects. On the other hand, Shakespeare showed the ease in which adherence to political regimes without intentionally taking any political side. For instance, his play Hamlet portrayed the kingship aspect present in ancient England. Failure to this, artists were subject to treason charges that attracted severe penalties. In contrast, some ill-motive individuals paid off actors to act out Richard the seconds play that portrayed treacherous aspects. This occurred in an attempt to start up a rebellion. Subsequently, those that attended the play met their deaths as they attracted treason charges. On the contrary, Shakespeare’s theatre had remarkable traits since it was able to provoke society in to seeing the ills of the then society. The public saw the need to inquire on matters related to governance due to the provocative aspect of the play. In this regard, William was able to make bold political depictions without attracting any accusations of being treasonous. Conclusion Shakespeare’s life is one that many have studied, but have not come to any conclusion about how he actually lived. His religious aspects were contradictory since they were different at all both times of his life. In addition, his sexuality is one that many may not desire since it had traits of bisexuality and immorality as per the theatric masterpieces attached to his name and success. On the other hand, his plays and sonnets depicted the life that he lived and the sorrows he underwent at different times of his life. In essence, the Hamlet reflected his battle with the loss of his father and son, which he managed to enshrined. Moreover, Romeo and Juliet emphasized how William married his wife in haste due to circumstances just as the lovebirds in the plays did. Politically, Shakespeare did not have any political inclination, but he only wrote plays as per the needs of the political regime of that time and not asp per his ideologies. He was subject to the laws of the land and did not was not to attract any criminal sentencing to his life. Subsequently, Shakespeare’s life is visible in his artistic plays although an audience needs to visualize the hidden aspects of his life within the play to understand the trueness of this statement. Works Cited Leming, Michael R, and George E. Dickinson. Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Matz, Robert. The World of Shakespeares Sonnets: An Introduction. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2008. Print. Morris, Mark. Duncan Beal. Romeo and Juliet. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2003. Print. Muir, Kenneth. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. London : Routledge, 2005. Print. Pogue, Kate. Shakespeares Friends: Shakespeares Life Illuminated by His Friendships. S.l: s.n, 2003. Print. Ray, Ratri. William Shakespeares the Tempest. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributers, 2007. Print. Smith, Keverne. Shakespeare and Son: A Journey in Writing and Grieving. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, 2011. Print. Read More