Shakespeare the Man (eBook)

These essays investigate the political, cultural, and religious mores of the time and how these societal factors may have pressured or influenced Shakespeare and his work. Hamlet speaks of “the very age and body of the time his form and pressure,” a discussion that challenges the reader to decipher the links between cultural history and their manifestations in various forms and how they give us glimpses of Shakespeare, the man behind his works.

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While over the past four hundred years numerous opinions have been voiced as to Shakespeares identity, these eleven essays widen the scope of the investigation by regarding Shakespeare, his world, and his works in their interaction with one another. Instead of restricting the search for bits and pieces of evidence from his works that seem to match what he may have experienced, these essays focus on the contemporary milieupolitical developments, social and theater history, and cultural and religious pressuresas well as the domestic conditions within Shakespeares family that shaped his personality and are featured in his works. The authors of these essays, employing the tenets of critical theory and practice as well as intuitive and informed insight, endeavor to look behind the masks, thus challenging the reader to adjudicate among the possible, the probable, the likely, and the unlikely. With the exception of the editor's own piece on Hamlet, Shakespeare the Man: New Decipherings presents previously unpublished essays, inviting the reader to embark upon an intellectual adventure into the fascinating terrain of Shakespeares mind and art.