To fully understand the works of Shakespeare, it is important to know about his life and the society he lived in. Authors’ writings often reflect the beliefs and living conditions of their time, Shakespeare included. Shakespeare was a man of the Elizabethan Age, a period that began in the mid to late 1500s and ended in the early 1600s. The Elizabethan Age in London, England and present day are both similar in some ways, while being different in others. In this essay, I will focus mostly on the arts during Shakespeare’s time, because that was the area he was most influential in.
It’s been eight years to the day since Mama died of lung cancer, and I’m still stuck in this dead-end town managing her little diner. Of course, my big brother hasn’t been much of a help since he took up the bottle, but to be frank, I can’t much blame him for wanting to drown his sorrows. He turned thirty years old last month and he’s never had a steady girlfriend or a good job. A man’s missing something in his life when he hasn’t traveled thirty miles from the place he was born. He was trapped here from the day Mama brought him into the world, and he’ll be stuck here ‘til the good Lord decides to take him home.
Few can rival Christine de Pisan’s success in writing. A woman in the early 1300’s and late 1400’s, she challenged the social standards of women in France. Her unprecedented work showed critics that women are just as intelligent as men, and are entitled to their own political opinions.
