Blog 1

Ivett Gelencser

Shakespeare ENG266

9-15-08

       1. Shakespeare In Love is a romantic comedy made in 1998. The movie is about William Shakespeare who is struggling with his newest work at the time called "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" which later changes into "Romeo and Juliet" when young Shakespeare falls in love with the wealthy Viola who was just sold by her father to Lord Wessex who she was to marry. 

        William Shakespeare was a young writer in London during the Elizabethan age who wrote "Romeo and Juliet" in the summer of 1593. People at that time were not allowed to wear what they wanted regardless of how wealthy they were, by law they had to wear clothing according to their position, this law was called Sumptuary Laws. William was not different from everybody else, he was not a wealthy man he was actually poor just as it shows in the movie. He wanted money even before he started writing his play. He did not dress in fancy clothes. At that time he was not considered a great writer unlike Christopher Marlowe who was already considered a successful writer, William was  just a poor  with a passion for writing who eventually became more recognized.

         2. The three facts in "Shakespeare's World" that stood out for me were: 1- bubonic plague which rapidly spread throughout London and was almost always lethal. To try to stop the spreading London ordered that anyone infected should be locked into their homes for a month so that the streets can be kept clean. The way this could of affected Shakespeare's writing was that it might of made him write sad plays since there was not much to be happy about with so many dieing. 2- The English divided the population into four classes rather then the three major ones we have today, which is rich, middle class, and poor. They had the "richer" or "wiser" or "better" and the rest was "poorer", "ruder" and "meaner". This could of affected his work because he was not considered a rich man, he was actually quite  poor and for this he got paid less for his plays which made him write plays he might of not even really want to but had to for the money. 3-English women had more freedom than women elsewhere in the world at that time. For example they could go to the theater and just walk on the streets without having a man by her side. Having women to be more free then elsewhere might of helped him because he had more opportunities to talk or I guess even be with women. Being around or with women can help a writer write a better romantic play.