‘Was Shakespeare gay?’ is actually a really apt question.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway who was 8 years older, and had three children with her; scholars have analyzed their relationship through these documents, and particularly through the bequests to her in his will.
Some historians have speculated Shakespeare had affairs with other women, based on the “Dark Lady” figure in his sonnets. Some scholars have argued he was bisexual, based on analysis of the sonnets; many, including Sonnet 18, are love poems addressed to a man (or the “Fair Youth”), and contain puns relating to homosexuality.
William Shakespeare was undeniably bisexual, researchers claim. Shakespeare had affairs with both men and women during his 34-year marriage to Anne Hathaway.
His possible male partners were Shakespeare’s patrons, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, both of whom were considered handsome in their youth.
Shakespeares works have homoerotic sensibility for instance romantic friendship and erotic yearning that bind Antonio and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, or Antonio to Sebastian in Twelfth Night. That play is probably a queer fantasia: Olivia loves Viola, thinking she’s ‘Cesario’, and ends up with Sebastian – who looks the same as Viola and Orsino falls in love with ‘Cesario’, not realising he’s a she.
In Hamlet the friendship between Horatio and Hamlet and his relationship with Ofelia are also raising questions of a subtle coming out of Shakespeare.
He also created playful couple of Orlando and ‘Ganymede’ in As You Like It and the happy hetero couple Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
Further reading and suggested videos:
William Shakespeare was undeniably bisexual, researchers claim
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