William Shakespeares Hamlet Part I Elizabethan England Queen

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Part I: Elizabethan England • Queen Elizabeth ruled England • Daughter of Henry VIII • Mother was beheaded • Ruled England for 44 years

Interesting Elizabethan Facts • People thought that bad smells were the cause of diseases. In order to get rid of germs and disease, they had to get rid of the smells. • People carried flowers and herbs to ward off diseases.

Elizabethan Facts Cont. • Purple clothes was a symbol or royalty. People outside of royalty were not allowed to wear purple.

Gossips? • Women gossips were placed in a harsh cage called brank, wherein your head and arms were held by a sharpened metal band that fit your mouth. Any tongue movement damaged the tongue.

Elizabethan Hygiene • Low class citizens would bathe a few times a year. • Upper class citizens were able to bath once every couple of weeks.

Hygiene Cont. • Instead of toilet paper, people would use clumps of grass or hay for cleaning. • People would also dump contents of chamber pots in the streets.

Crime • Boiling a prisoner to death was called for when the crime committed was poisoning. • Cutting off the right hand, plucking out eyes and tearing off fingers was the punishment for stealing.

Education • Only boys went to school. Because of the Renaissance, people took an interest in art, poetry and writing.

Part II: Shakespeare • Shakespeare’s actual birthday is unknown, but April 23 rd has been generally used. Strangely, April 23 rd is also used as the date of his death.

Pictures • Not one picture of Shakespeare was painted of him when he was alive.

Copyrights • Most of his plays were published years after his death. • Since there were no copyright laws, many people made money off his work. This lead to different versions of his plays

Scandal! • Shakespeare married an older woman. This was uncommon during this time. Rumor was that she was pregnant and the families were furious. • He was 18, she was 26.

Globe Theater • The theater that Shakespeare built. • It allowed for better viewing, by placing seating on the sides, as well as the front of the stage.

Globe Theater Cont. • Actors had to yell lines in order to be heard. • Women were not allowed to act, so young boys had to play the parts of women. • Successful plays had nonstop action, as the audiences would riot if they felt they weren’t being entertained.

Globe Theater Cont. • The theater eventually burnt down! • It was rebuilt in 1614. • However, it was destroyed again by the Puritans in 1644.

Shakespeare’s Plays • Divided into 3 types: – Histories – Comedies – Tragedies – (scene from Macbeth)

Hamlet Written: 1599 -1601 Set in Denmark Recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet’s Mother (Gertrude)

Hamlet Cont. • The longest play Shakespeare wrote. • Critics claim the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English Language.