Shakespeare's Context:
Imagine a juxtaposed society. London, 1592. A society divided between the areas filled with plague, death and misery on every corner. Then imagine an entirely different place: The Globe theater. A well-renowned theater where citizens could go to enjoy the night and watch the newest production from the famous William Shakespeare.
This society was the Old-English world of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.His works began to be published and performed as the theater became an important part of the English entertainment lifestyle.
Entertainment common at this time included public executions in all the marketplaces and bear baiting as well as the theater. Hangings were most common and popular at the town of Tyburn, as with many other areas of old England.
As the Shakespearean world had its many differences compared to the world we live in today, the greater features that were shown in that time would obviously have a considerably large effect on the ideas that flowed onto his paper. With this in mind, the fact that they didn't have advanced technology or miraculous medicine in the Elizabethan era would have caused a major difference in the way they spoke, how theatrical plots were set out and what was contained in those plays.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare lists multiple different magical creatures that live in a dark forest, which have powerful abilities to fly and control the weather, in which his time was thought to be true, that they did exist and had those mystical powers. This was because of the lack of technology and science to explain how the world works, so in their time, to explain natural occurrences like this, they made up stories that were soon to be passed off as correct facts.
Shakespeare's Works:
As the Shakespearean world had its many differences compared to the world we live in today, the greater features that were shown in that time would obviously have a considerably large effect on the ideas that flowed onto his paper. With this in mind, the fact that they didn't have advanced technology or miraculous medicine in the Elizabethan era would have caused a major difference in the way they spoke, how theatrical plots were set out and what was contained in those plays.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare lists multiple different magical creatures that live in a dark forest, which have powerful abilities to fly and control the weather, in which his time was thought to be true, that they did exist and had those mystical powers. This was because of the lack of technology and science to explain how the world works, so in their time, to explain natural occurrences like this, they made up stories that were soon to be passed off as correct facts.