How did Shakespeares life affect his writing?
I’d say it wasn’t so much his life as the times he lived in that affected his writing. Living in Elizabethan England was a very interesting time in England’s history. With the Reformation, Queen Mary having tried to re-institute Catholicism and then the second Reformation under Elizabeth I, there was much happening in the society. It was also the time of the Renaissance, and that had a profound impact on his works. The past was retold in a way that made it more personal. Shakespeare relied heavily on the humanistic approach; his commentary on religion (Romeo and Juliet), social structure (the Merry Wives of Windsor) and the monarchy were swathed in the theatrical use of history, metaphor, allusion and rhetoric.
