What is the Five Act Structure that Shakespeare uses in many of his plays?

Answer 1

The "Five Act Structure" was actually a convention forced on the playing companies when they performed indoors. It was necessary to replace candles in the candelabra several times during the course of the play and for this purpose, the play needed to temporarily stop. For the length of plays they performed, this needed to be done four times in the course of the play, dividing it into five parts. Plays which were only performed in outdoor venues were not divided into acts. However, Shakespeare was writing for playing companies who regularly performed indoors at court, so they needed act breaks. Shakespeare used these divisions to his advantage, placing a significant event which makes a change in the action in Act 3. Acts 1 and 2 give the circumstances leading to the event and Acts 4 and 5 resolve the issues caused by it.