Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably written in 1601 or 1602, the tragedy is a milestone in Shakespeare's dramatic development; the playwright achieved artistic maturity in this work through his brilliant depiction of the hero's struggle with two opposing...

Context The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an older woman, A...

Throughout time, love has been important in many literary works. Shakespeare is one author whose works showed love's importance and influence in people's lives. Some of his plays revealed love as being a destructive force in the lives of the characters, and some did the opposite. Love c...