English Literature Project

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Shakespeare’s Literary Background and Achievements during Elizabethan Age

Table of Content

1 Introduc on

2 Writing Career
3 His Style
4 William Shakespeare’s Works

5 Achievements of William Shakespeare’s

6 William Shakespeare’s Contribution

7 William Shakespeare’s Legacy

9 Bibliography

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special gratitude to my English teacher Mrs

Rachna BHatnagar as well as my Principal Mr Louis Lopaz, who gave
me this opportunity to do this wonderful project on the very special
topic “Shakespeare’s Literary Background and Achievements during Elizabethan
Age”.

ti

 I am indebted to my teacher who gave valuable suggestions and

guidance for completion of my project. This project helped me in doing
a lot of research and also gives me an opportunity to learn several new
things during the process of research work.

I am extremely grateful to my parents and friends who was always

available to me for help and guidance during writing of this project

I acknowledge the help of all those who have directly or indirectly

helped me during my English research work.

Shakespeare’s Literary Background and Achievements during Elizabethan Age

1 Introduction

The Elizabethan Age is the time period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–
1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. It was an age considered to
be the height of the English Renaissance, and saw the full flowering of English literature and
English poetry. In Elizabethan theater, William Shakespeare, among others, composed and staged
plays in a variety of settings that broke away from England's past style of plays.

The Elizabethan age saw the flowering of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic
blank verse), was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare), and inspired a
wide variety of splendid prose (from historical chronicles, versions of the Holy Scriptures,
pamphlets, and literary criticism to the first English novels).

 William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time as well as the most
influential writer in the history of the English language. He originated hundreds of words and
phrases that English speakers use to this day.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were
mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work
produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608,
including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the
English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and
collaborated with other playwrights.

2 Writing Career

Shakespeare won unprecedented popularity due to his outstanding literary work. He continued
producing masterpieces after masterpieces until his death. In 1593, he started working on his
124 sonnet collection. Despite facing criticism patiently, he never let himself derail from the
literary path. He established himself as an excellent poet and a great playwright with
masterpieces such as The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Othello, Venus and Adonis’, The Rapre
of Lurence and Hamlet to his credit.

3 His Style

Shakespeare established his career as an actor first and then as a playwright. Shakespeare
stepped into the world of literature and theatre, leaving lasting impressions. He became popular
due to his traditional writing style in the early part of his career. First, he strictly followed
iambic pentameter in his blank verse plays, but gradually he moved toward more conventional
practices, adopting his own distinctly personal style in writing based on minute observation of
human life and nature. It is stated that he added almost 1700 new words to English vocabulary
during the depiction of the university of human nature and experience. The recurring themes of
most of his poems and plays are love, death, betrayal, and jealousy. Regarding literary devices,
he often used extended metaphors, heavy diction, conceits and soliloquies to create a unique
style in his plays and poems.

 4 William Shakespeare’s Works

William Shakespeare has tried his hands in both plays as well as poetry. Some of his best plays
include; The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Othello, King Lear, Mid-
Summer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Some of the best poems he has written includes; “The Rapre of Lurence,” “The Phoenix and the
Turtle”, “Sonnet 20”, “Sonnet 1”, “Sonnet 73”, “Venus and Adonis”, “Sonnet 29”, “Sonnet 130”,
“Sonnet 116” and “Sonnet 18.”

Above all other dramatists stands William Shakespeare, a supreme genius whom it is impossible
to characterize briefly. Shakespeare is unequaled as poet and intellect, but he remains elusive.
His capacity for assimilation—what the poet John Keats called his “negative capability”—means
that his work is comprehensively accommodating; every attitude or ideology finds its
resemblance there yet also finds itself subject to criticism and interrogation. In part, Shakespeare
achieved this by the total inclusiveness of his aesthetic, by putting clowns in his tragedies and
kings in his comedies, juxtaposing public and private, and mingling the artful with the
spontaneous; his plays imitate the counterchange of values occurring at large in his society. The
sureness and profound popularity of his taste enabled him to lead the
English Renaissance without privileging or prejudicing any one of its divergent aspects, while he
—as actor, dramatist, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s players—was involved in the
Elizabethan theatre at every level. His career (dated from 1589 to 1613) corresponded exactly to
the period of greatest literary flourishing, and only in his work are the total possibilities of the
Renaissance fully realized.

Shakespeare’s achievements during the Elizabethan Era

Shakespeare and Theatre in the Elizabethan era
Each time the audience watched his play there was something different for them to watch than
the previous play. Shakespeare worked for the London Theatre World. The name of his company
was renamed as The Kings Men in 1603 and it became the official player for King James I.

 Shakespeare’s contribution to theatre cannot be ignored. Shakespeare through his plays created
new characters and each character had a role to play. His plays had been written to essay
different themes and none of them had similar or common theme than the other. Thus, there was
a variation of ideas and characters.

Shakespeare’s Distinctive Literature during this period

As a writer and poet William Shakespeare wrote over 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 narrative
poems. A complied collection of his poems known as Sonnets was published in 1609. The two
narrative poems, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrene had erotic theme. Of the several plays
written by him, King Lear was recognized as his artistic achievement.

King Lear essays the relationship between parents and their children. The theme of his play
varied from love and beauty, tragedy, comedy and friendship and betrayal. Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet and Macbeth are some of the popular tragedies written by Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s contribution to Vocabulary

During his career Shakespeare was also known to have coined or invented more than 1700
words. Several of the phrases that we commonly used today in our lives were used for the first
time by Shakespeare in his plays. The following are some of the words and phrases invented by
him:

Addiction (Othello), Academe (Love’s Labour’s Lost), Bedroom (A Midsummer’s Night’s

Dream), Fitful and Dauntless (Macbeth). Some of the phrases invented by Shakespeare were- All
that glitters is not gold, Brave new world, In a pickle, Live long day and many more.

The words and phrases used by Shakespeare in his plays were becoming increasingly popular
and were even official added to the English language. He invented many words and used them in
his plays and poems. He invented new words by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives
or by simply adding pre-fixes and suffixes to the existing words

7 William Shakespeare’s Legacy

 William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 narrative poems. For his plays he used
conventional topic like love. He also used themes like tragedy and comedy in his plays. Of the
several plays written by him Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,
Macbeth had become extremely popular.

He coined many words that are used by us today. His plays helped standardize English language.
Shakespeare’s works have influenced several of the popular writers like Charles Dickens. It is
evident from the fact that he mentions Shakespeare in his books. Even today his sonnets and
plays are admired by people across the world.

9 Bibliography

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Elizabethan_age assessed on 7-06-2022 at 5:00

pm

http://elizabethanenglandlife.com/william-shakespeares-achievements-contribution-and-
legacy.html assessed on 7-06-2022 at 6:00 pm

https://falmeprincill2.wordpress.com/achievements/ assessed on 7-06-2022 at 6:30 pm

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/william-
shakespeare-biography/ assessed on 7-06-2022 at 7:30 pm

https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/Playwrights-after-Shakespeare assessed on
7-06-2022 at 8:30 pm