Was Shakespeare Lonely?

"When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate.”

Most holders of great minds have a rare amount of people acting as their support mechanisms until after their passing. It is unfortunate that most of the world recognizes and acknowledges literary works of great authors when it is too late to actively encourage more from them. By observing this from the world and its works, I am claiming that William Shakespeare was a lonely soul in the times of his existence.

Shakespeare’s one-hundred and ninety-five published works are magnificent, and are still spoken about, written about and referred to today, almost four-hundred years after his passing – all this positive commotion, however, unfortunately did not happen to this extent in the years of his artistry. Although the literate public at the time of his living possibly had received him in an acknowledging and appreciative manner, I am claiming that if they had received him and his works even more, that he would have written a lot more works due to the enthusiasm he would have received, in turn of his works’ appraisal.

I also believe that a person’s experiences in life can hinder the way in which the works they release are written. I believe this was the case with Shakespeare, that more than happiness and comfort, he felt loneliness and discomfort with the world and its people and their relationships. He has written stories and plays depicting incest, to tragic romances which end in deaths. He has written somber sonnets which end with two uplifted lines, which could still indicate a sense of loneliness, a sense of ‘if I had you, I would not feel the way which I depicted in the lines before the end of this sonnet’.

When I write, my writing is altered by my moods. When I am feeling negative, my writing tends to be blunt and antagonizing towards the subjects I write about. In my angry state I tend to write about murders and crimes and the lack of punishment, and in my happy state I tend to write about the positivity in things. With the fewer relationships I have had with all sorts of people, I have developed a tainted writing style, in that most of my opinions about people in society have differed quite so since my innocence in thinking society was as beautiful as my parents’ treatment of me was taken from me. Thus, I now write with a voice which thinks uncommon thoughts, surrounding stories too about incest and murders and tragic romances. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that, seeing as I too am lonesome and have experienced bad things, Shakespeare has written all of his plays and stories based indirectly on his experiences with society at his time, as a way of mocking the status-quo because of its alleged perfection, but true imperfection.

I have a strong belief, that in reading Shakespeare’s more somber works, that he was a lonesome soul, and his only release of his mind’s troubles happened through his writing, that writing about horrid things and tragedies and mocking things in comedies had released his mind from having to constantly think of his experiences with certain people – his alleged homosexuality may have also contributed to this. His sense of identity is strong, however it alters slightly in every one of his works, yet the language of his lonely mind still pulsates through each piece of writing. I am able to conjure this link by linking my own mind to Shakespeare’s, seeing as I now have a certain style of writing, and after writing thirty consecutive essays, over thirty consecutive days, I have confirmed within myself that my moods and temperament and experiences have all contributed to my style and what I choose to write about.

Sometimes I wish that I had lived in Shakespeare’s era, just so that I could have enjoyed his work a lot more and shown him my enjoyment, so that he could have been encouraged to almost double his literary works. Knowing that I cannot do that, I will do what I can do, and that is continue studying his works, and pushing the liking of his works upon my future English students so that they may learn to appreciate all the work Shakespeare has gone through, and the risks he took in sprawling pieces of him one-hundred and ninety-five times.

I appreciate you, Shakespeare, and your great mind and its experiences. I too am lonesome, so thank you for connecting with me through your works.