Shakepeare's+Life+and+its+Relation+to+Hamlet

Shakepeare's Life and its Relation to Hamlet Samantha Krohn - Hour 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

As you can plainly see from certain exerpts of Shakespeare's biography, it could certainly be argued that there are many aspects of his life which pertain to his playwriting, //Hamlet// in particular. As mentioned in the biography, Shakespeare's parents came from very different backgrounds; his mother from money, his father not. This is similarly seen in //Hamlet//, when Hamlet's mother moves from husband to husband based off of royalty and wealth. After his father dies, his mother marries his uncle (heir to the throne) shortly thereafter. Having had a parent of wealth and royalty himself, Shakespeare must have seen some importance in this aspect of his life, and clearly wrote about it often. As Shakespeare's parents' marriage progressed, however, and Shakespeare grew older, a financial struggle began to set in. Seeing as //Hamlet// is certainly not lacking money, wealth, or fame, it seems safe to assume that money and materialism were two very important things to Shakespeare. We might also make the connection that, because William Shakespeare did not seem to have an overabundance of money or wealth, this was the reason these particular things were so important to him. It is also a little known fact that Shakespeare had two twin children, Judith and Hamnet. While Judith grew up, Hamnet died at age eleven. Shortly after, the play //Hamlet// was written. While the name connection is pretty obvious to most Shakespeare experts, I would venture a guess that the meaning behind the play //Hamlet// has more to do with Shakespeare's life than most people think. Because this particular play is a revenge tragedy that involves a son seeking revenge for his dad's benefit, it seems obvious that Hamlet in the play must have some connection with Hamnet Shakespeare. Because Hamnet was only eleven when he died, we can assume that he was probably not king of a major nation or out to seek revenge by forming an antagonistic army in his father's name, but maybe Shakespeare felt a special loyalty from his son, and imagined this type of situation would be possible in his household. The more we, as readers, know about Shakespeare and his life, the easier it is for us to understand his works, writings, and plays. When we are able to establish a connection between his writing and his life, we can identify deeper meanings and fully understand what Shakespeare was originally trying to portray.