Was Shakespeare gay?

Question

I heared the reason he wrote the sonnets was because he was having an affair with some woman and some guy..and he was in love with them both. Then he found out that they were together...Is that true???

Answer 1

He was married to a woman much older than him (Anne Hathaway). They had children, but he left for many years to work in the theater in London. Many critics have commented that one woman is the subject of many of Shakespeare's sonnets. They call her the dark lady because she is described as "a woman color'd ill', with black eyes and coarse black hair." There are also many homosexual overtones in many of his sonnets and plays.

One of the other commenters mentioned that in Renaissance England "Sex was sex" - I would not entirely agree with that. The theatre was a very unique and open minded place to be, but bisexuality was not entirely accepted throughout England (remember, this is the time when Puritanical Christians were heavily influencing morality). With that being said, no one can really say if Shakespeare was merely fascinated by the notions of sexuality, or if he actually dabbled.

Answer 2

There is some conjecture that certain of his love sonnets were written to the Earl of Southampton, a rather dashing young man who was a patron of the theatre and poetry, and openly gay.

This should not make a difference one way or the other to how his works (whoever wrote them, whether it was Shakespeare or some other guy of the same name...) are taken and received.

There are several recuring themes in the plays that people often cite in this regard... particularly the whole thing about girls dressing up as boys. But if you consider that women were - by law - not allowed on stage at this time and all female characters were played by young boys (see the excellent movie 'Stage Beauty' for more on this) , then this could be seen as a political statement. . . boys playing girls playing boys.

The biggest problem that I've come across is that Shakespeare is usually taught in schools by English teachers. Whilst they are, generally, a pretty nice bunch of people, Shakespeare's plays are NOT literature! You cannot read them in the same way as you read 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' or 'Kes'! They are dramatic wrighting not dramatic writing! So some of the most interesting uses of language and some cracking pieces of storytelling get lost in mis-placed awe & literal reverance. An actor or director working to produce one of the plays cuts away at it like mad to make it relevant and make sense to a modern audience.

The script is the map, not the journey!

Answer 3

One will never know although it does appear that Mr Shakespeare had bisexual tendencies considering that he wrote sonnets to people in both genders. However considering the other matter you raise I've never heard that exaplanation before. I'm sure that Mr Shakespeare was happy with his life and we shouldn't really care about his life just his work.

Answer 4

Ok, the first 17 sonnets were commisioned for Shakespeare to write to a young man. Whilst writing them, he fell in love with him. Sonnet 18 (Shall I Compare Thee....) was the first written truly from his heart. After that they go through several periods in his life. Some are about the 'dark lady' and some, yes, were written about a threesome romance with which he was involved.

Answer 5

I don't think they would have seen it as Gay, men definatly felt no way about having relations with each other back in the day and if you read Shakespeares work you will see homosexuality in most of the plays, not open sexual relations, but you have to read between the lines. Just because he was married it doesn't mean he was not Gay, I think we call it Bisexual in nowadays.

Answer 6

I imagine William Shakespeare was 'Gay' but not in the usually accepted meaning of the word today. Gay meant 'lively, mirthful,showy, and devoted to pleasure. I think William Shakespeare was like that. Some homosexuals called themselves 'gay' to express their pleasure at being homosexual, the term then became used at first as a acceptable word for homosexual, then as a term of abuse by many. I see no reason to suppose William Shakespeare was homosexual, but whether he had homosexual tendencies or not, he was a great writer of plays.

Answer 7

Well, if you mean William Shakespeare, then who knows? He was married to Anne Hathaway and had children with her. If you're asking this because of clues within the plays, then....who knows? The true identity of the author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare has been the subject of much debate. Wouldn't it be interesting if the true author was a woman?

Answer 8

I was very impressed by a book entitled "The Man who was Shakespeare" by Calvin Hoffman. The evidence that Shakespeare was in fact Christopher Marlowe (who mysteriously vanished after a brawl in a tavern just before he was due to go on trial for blasphemy) is quite compelling. Plays by Shakespeare suddenly appeared soon afterwards. Marlowe was definitely gay and if you subscribe to this argument, then all becomes clear. The theory has been explored since. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:bkfvpXNdb8wJ:www.senioryears.com/shakespeare.html+the+man+who+was+shakespeare&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4

Answer 9

Shakespeare had many sexual encounters with women but historians are looking into the fact that he may have been bisexual and what not... and he was married.... but whats the difference the man wrote freaking masterpieces

Answer 10

No real offense to you or others here, but why does it matter? Also since none of us were alive at the time Willie was, how can we know? Third,,, I HEARED,,, is like THEY SAY,,,,,,,,,, Gads.

I'm not gay nor do I care about Willies preferences, but I do know for a FACT, that he is likely as close to GOD,,,in his own genre, as anyone else in all history.

Steven Wolf