What were Shakespeare's beliefs?

Answer 1

Shakespeare left no diary or other personal account which would let us see into his thoughts. In the matter of religion, he belonged to the Church of England, but of course it was illegal not to, so of course he wanted to avoid being annoyed by the law. What he really thought about religion we will never know.

Answer 2

People's lives are governed by fate.
Nobody knows what, exactly, Shakespeare may have believed. There were laws which told you what you had to appear to believe, and Shakespeare did not break those laws.

Answer 3

Shakespeare at no time wrote anything about himself. His character and opinions are a complete mystery. Some people try to guess what Shakespeare thought from what the characters in his plays say. This is invalid, as when Polonius says "This above all to thine own self be true", this is Polonius saying this to his son, not Shakespeare saying it to us. The Sonnets might be considered to be more revealing, but even these are written to a specific person and under special circumstances which we do not know.

Further answer:

I do disagree with the above answer because playwrights often, if not mostly, put their own opinions in the mouths of their characters.

It is true that many of the facts about Shakespeare's life are unknown. We do not even know for sure the exact day when he was born. Also, it is very clear that some of his plays were written by groups of collaborators instead of one person. If you want to learn about Shakespeare then I suggest to read all his plays.

Answer 4

You are aware, I hope, that William Shakespeare has been dead for over 400 years, so your question should properly be "What did William Shakespeare believe in?" Yes, we do have a past tense in the English language. And the answer to the question you should have asked is . . . nobody knows. In Shakespeare's day, nobody cared about your private feelings, including you. Everyone expressed the views endorsed by the government: the government and the monarch are good, everything the Church of England says is right and everything the Roman Catholic Church says is wrong. Occasionally people would express a contrary opinion which usually got them dead. Either Shakespeare agreed with the official line or was interested in staying alive; either way he never expressed a personal opinion on anything.