Shakespeare: the world stage

In the book, Shakespeare: the world stage , Bill Bryson portrays Shakespeare to be sympathetic and with humanizing warmth. Bryson creates a vivid picture of Shakespeare describing in detail some of the most profound moments of his life. Little is known about Shakespeare, therefore the books and biographies about him are mainly based on opinion and assumption. In the book the world stage Bryson decides to portray Shakespeare as a kindred soul with passion and an innate understanding of human emotions.

Bryson shows a strong trait of humanizing warmth towards Shakespeare throughout the book. "It is because we have so much of Shakespeare's work that we can appreciate how little we know of him as a person". This quote is an example of how Bryson praises Shakespeare throughout the book not only for his literary works, but also as a person. Bryson also often defends Shakespeare and jumps to his defense, this quotation is a prime example: "So it needs to be said that nearly all of the anti-Shakespeare sentiment involves manipulative scholarship or sweeping misstatements of fact". Bryson also talks about the death of Shakespeare's son, and he approaches this subject in a gentle and delicate way with a warm understanding of the time period.

Bryson praises Shakespeare for having accomplished all that he did in his lifetime under the extreme circumstances of the environment that he lived in. Bryson talks a lot about the time Shakespeare lived and the challenges he faced. During the sixteenth to seventeenth century when Shakespeare lived, there were many plagues and diseases which killed many people during this time. Bryson was understanding towards the unpleasant environment of Shakespeare's time. "In a sense William Shakespeare's greatest achievement in life wasn't writing Hamlet or the sonnets but just surviving the first year." This quotation is a prime example of Bryson's understanding towards Shakespeare and the sympathy that he shows for Shakespeare having grown