Shakespeare's Philosophy

         When I first began to explore the vast world of Shakespeare, I thought it would be easy to specify on a particular work of his and connect it to his life in regards to philosophy. I have found it much more difficult. I have tweaked my subject slightly to focusing on how Shakespeare's life experiences influenced Hamlet. This incorporates Shakespeare's ideas in reference to death, court politics, and mental illness just to name a few themes that are explored in Hamlet. He saw things in an interesting light and this light is definitely represented in all his works. Hamlet being my favorite piece of Shakespearean literature, I felt it would be much more interesting for me, anyway, to analyze. I found that Shakespeare's life and especially his childhood really instilled a sense of longing and love for the theatre and the teachings and plays he learned at school inspired some of his best works. Shakespeare's later life is what really encouraged the creation of Hamlet and the themes that are expressed in it. He experienced the death of his son, Hamnet, and his father in the same year, or around the same year, thus adding to the idea of a son grieving over a father or vice versa. Because of this experience, he was able to explore death and not just in a general sense, but deeper and more philosophical. What was happening around him during his lifetime inspired other themes as well. As one can tell by reading his work, Shakespeare had strong opinions and viewpoints of the social and political issues of his time. By incorporating them into plays, he was able to express them more strongly. With the second book that I read for his project, I found even more of a sense of how Shakespeare's life really impacted his work. This is why I am deciding to focus more on that than philosophy, as I have much more information and sources. 
         In my paper, I hope to clearly analyze the topics I mentioned at the beginning of this post, and how those relate to Shakespeare's life and the time period in which he lived. I also want to connect them to see how he incorporated those into Hamlet. How did Hamlet deal with the death of his father? Is death simple or more complex than we believe? Other questions I hope to address are questions such as "Is Denmark's court influenced by the Elizabethan court?", etc. By reading my paper, I hope that viewers/readers will see the connection of history (Shakespeare's experiences) and art, or in this case, Hamlet.