Film adaptations of Shakespeare's works and life have become very popular in recent decades. There are some that describe Bard's plays and society in a very precise way, although there are others that take some liberties. For this reason, I would like to focus this essay on Shakespeare in love, a 1998 film directed by John Madden and whose soundtrack is the work of Stephen Warbeck, and how it presents the society surrounding Shakespeare. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay But first things first: Shakespeare in love was not intended to be a real representation. This film shows us a young William Shakespeare, struggling to satisfy the demand for plays from two theaters. Meanwhile Guglielmo falls in love with Viola, a court lady fascinated by the theatre. They both live a passionate love story that closely resembles the one depicted in Romeo and Juliet. Most people would think that through centuries of research there must be enough information about Shakespeare to fill a complete library. Unfortunately, the things we know for sure about him may only fit half a sheet of paper. So I would like to talk above all about the things we know with certainty about his life: aspects concerning society, history and culture. Society As regards society, we must consider that the film revolves around the world of theatre, that is, plays, how it works, actors (not actresses). This last point is quite interesting because women were not allowed to perform on stage as actresses. It was prohibited by law, so men (usually boys) dressed up in costumes to play the role of a woman. The actors were normally aged between 13 and 19 when their voices had a high pitch. It is believed that the voices of Elizabethan boys would break much more lately than today, due to the difference in lifestyle and diet. So, an actor might play the role of a woman in her late teens. Speaking of this situation, Viola, one of the film's protagonists, complains about it: “He had red fingers from fighting (we're talking about the man who played Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona) and he spoke like a schoolboy in class. . Stage love will never be true love as long as the law of the land requires that our heroines be played by boys in skirts. Apart from that, high class people would not go to see a show in a theater. That is, they didn't want to mix with others, so they had actors who acted for them in private, as Elizabeth I does in the film. In fact, Viola's nurse says that "theatres are not for ladies of good families" because high society should not go to public shows. Furthermore, very important people acted as patrons to pay for a performance because the performances were a good way to convey political messages and propaganda. Here we have the example of Henslowe, an Elizabethan-era entrepreneur who could afford the costs of the plays shown in the film. As for the theaters, we can see how they are constantly open and closed to the public throughout the film. This is mainly due to two reasons: - The increase in cases of plague, which is rampant in theatres. - The Puritans, who considered it sacrilegious and shameful that male actors used to dress as women. History In this section I want to focus on the aspects historians shown in the film. Although the story about Shakespeare in love may be fictional, in addition to William Shakespeare, many of the characters who appear in the film actually existed. In fact, theactors Richard Burbage and Ned Alleyn, played by Martin Clunes and Ben Affleck respectively, would today be considered part of Hollywood. One of the historical figures who appear in the film is Christopher Marlowe. We can see that Shakespeare and Marlowe chat in the bar about the latter's works. Shakespeare praises Doctor Faustus, and Marlowe says that he is currently writing another of his most important works: The Massacre of Paris. Later in the film, Christopher Marlowe is known to have died with a dagger stuck in his eye. He died in the summer of 1593, the same year the film is set. Therefore, this is historically accurate. Another character I would like to focus on is John Webster. He was an English playwright, whose most famous work is The Duchess of Malfi, which is a macabre work that seems to prefigure the Gothic genre. He is portrayed as a boy obsessed with blood and death, and even confesses that his favorite scene in Romeo and Juliet is when they both die. Later in the film, he is the one who discovers Viola's role in disguise. Here is the dialogue between William Shakespeare and John Webster, where we can see the role of the dark author in the near future: 2 - JW: I was in a play. They cut off my head in Titus Andronicus. When I write plays they will be like Titus.- WS: You admire it.- JW: I like it when they cut off heads and the daughter is mutilated with knives.- JW: [...] (offers live mice to a cat) Lots of blood . This is the only writing. Aside from the two characters above, I wanted to make a point that I think is quite interesting. In the film, Lord Wessex (Viola's fiancé?) talks about his tobacco plantations in Virginia and that he will later move there (and indeed they do). Well having said this and knowing that the film is set in 1593, one must consider that this information is not historically accurate. First, there were no tobacco plantations of any kind in Virginia, and second, Virginia did not exist on its own at that time. The colony developed only fourteen years later, in 1607, and tobacco plantations began to appear later. Culture In the final section of the essay, I wanted to talk about the elements of culture throughout the film. For example, let's look at this excerpt from the dialogue between Fennyman and Henslowe at the beginning of the film:“A play takes time. Find the actors, the rehearsals. Let's say we open in two weeks. That is, 500 Earthlings ahead. Also 400 threepence funds, an extra penny for cushions. Call them, uh, 200 pillows. Let's say two shows to be safe. How much does that Mr. Frees cost?”. As we can see, the theater in Elizabethan times was considered a public spectacle, where a person paid two to three cents depending on where he wanted to be or afford. If they were in the audience, standing, they would pay a penny or two. But if they had preferred to sit on the clothes circle, they would have had to pay three sous; not to mention 3 the comfort (it will cost you a penny more if you want to rest your buttocks on a soft surface). As has been said, going to a theater show was a public way of entertaining and most people went. They typically bought food (the show took several hours to perform) and people acted as judges, feeling free to throw food on stage in case they weren't happy with what they were watching. In the film it must also be remembered that Elizabeth I was an enthusiastic woman regarding the arts, particularly the theatre. Let's see the following lines:- V: I love poetry above all. [...]- E: Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it cute; they make it comical or they make it lustful. They can't make it happen.- V: Oh, but they can. I mean, I don't... but I think there's someone who can. As.