The Mind of William Shakespeare

            For my second book, I read Soul of the Age by Jonathan Bate. Soul of the Age was very similar to my first book, but went more in depth in regards to the mind behind Shakespeare. In other words, Bate went into greater detail of how each of Shakespeare's experiences affected his work. He used his plays as a platform to express his political and social perspectives in comparison to what it was at the time he was living. The experiences mentioned in Soul of the Age are the same as in Will in the World, my first book, but how Bate portrayed them and the relation to Shakespeare's work was quite unique. 

           Bate's rendition of Shakespeare's life was also quite different in that he separated, or divided, each stage of life - these are known as the Seven Stages, and is a reference to one of Shakespeare's most well-known monologues in As You Like It. Bate uses these to reference Shakespeare's work and tap into the mind of the world's most famous playwright. It helped to understand how Shakespeare viewed the world around him and how subtle, or not subtle, he placed his perspectives within his plays. Often, his characters were representations of said perspectives. 

           I believe that Soul of the Age will help me better portray how Shakespeare's experiences affected the philosophy or themes within Hamlet. By having a clear understanding of how he viewed his world and life, I will hopefully be able to show how it affected characters, specifically Hamlet. I think that Shakespeare truly emulated the idea that we incorporate our experiences into everything that we create, or onto further experiences that we may encounter later in life.