William Shakespeare as a WriterWherever we go today, we just can't seem to get away from him. He is in cinema, theater and even on television. Whether modernized or dating back to Elizabethan times, its influence is omnipresent in the objects we use for entertainment. We think we know who he really was and what his life was like. He seems almost immortal to us. Who was William Shakespeare? Who was this man that we still place on a pedestal almost four thousand years after his life? Was he really the man glamorized by Hollywood? Shakespeare's life, work and controversies come together to form our conviction about the real identity of this great writer. William Shakespeare is clouded by mystery. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England in 1564. “Although his exact date of birth is not known, there is a record of his baptism on April 26, 1954” (Kay 13). “His date of birth would have fallen shortly before that day is traditionally considered April 23, 1954” (Campbell and Quinn 755). He was born to John Shakespeare and his wife, Mary Arden and was the eldest of three sons. He also had four sisters. “Little is known of Shakespeare's early life, although it is likely that he received an education at a good local grammar school” (Lawall 2110). Other than this, not much is known about Shakespeare's early life. The next piece of concrete evidence about Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November 1582, when he was only eighteen years old. It was a marriage of unpleasantness. Anne was eight years older than him and pregnant at the time, so they had no choice but to get married. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583 and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Sha...... middle of paper ...... little about him. People still love the man who knows how to entertain them almost four thousand years after his death. And it will always remain on that pedestal that it was placed on all those years ago. Works Cited Campbell, Oscar J. and Quinn, Edward G. The Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1834. Gray, Terry A. “1616 Death.” http://daphne.palomar.edu/Shakespeare/timeline/marriage.htm.Kay, Dennis. William Shakespeare: His Life and Times. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995. Lawall, Sarah et al. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Seventh edition. Volume One. “Socrates’ Apologies.” New York: WW Norton and Company, Inc., 1999. McMahon, Robert. “CobblerRob’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Sonnets.” http://www2.crosswinds.net/rapid-city/~cobblerrob/refdesk/Sonnets.txt.