Why Shakespeare is a master?

It's about the end of the semester and my course of Shakespeare. This week I'm not going to introduce a new work of Shakespeare to you, instead, I wanna share things I learned from the course and my feelings of Shakespeare and his works.

Shakespeare is great not only because of his talent as a playwright. There are thousands of famous playwrights in the history, and they must be as good as, or even better, than Shakespeare in writing. So, what makes him so different and enchanting to people all over the world in any ages? 

The answer is, you can't find any other man on earth that understand human so deeply and precisely. Envies, wrath, greed and pride, Shakespeare knows all the weaknesses that people have and puts them in his works.  When we are reading or watching the plays, It's more like we are watching some part of ourselves acting on stage. That's why we love his works, and that's why people admire him so much.

I learned a lot after I read his masterpieces. Some of you may think that " It's just a play, not big deal.", but I got inspirations in different aspects, like relationships, ideal society or forgiven. Never have I knew literature works can influence a person so much. Hope that you feel the same as me, and thanks for reading my blog!

The Tempest

This week I'm going to introduce The Tempest, one of the plays I love. This story starts from a wreck on the sea. Alonso, the king of Naples, his son and troops all suffer from the shipwreck. They survive luckily and drift to a island. However, the truth is that all this is set up by Prospero, who was the duke of Milan. Years ago, the duke was framed as a guilty man by Alonso and his own brother, so Prospero had no choice but to run away from his own country. So depressed and angry was him, Prospero studied magic and planed his revenge. Yet things do not work as what he thought. His daughter, Miranda, falls in love with Alonso's son on the island.
This is unexpected in his revenge plan. What will Prospero do and what will happen in the end? Always the same, GO and READ IT YOURSELF!

I love this story because it's not only full of love or full of serious plots. I don't feel too romantic or too distressed while reading this story. Besides, I am touched by one of the plot. A character in the story gives a blueprint of "a brave world", a perfect world that has no rulings, discrimination and regulations. Everyone is equal and happy. I can't tell whether it's because of the words he uses or other things, I'm just so deeply  moved by the world that he portrays. It may sound old fashion but nobody can deny that it's a dream that human being is working on. Hope you guys love this story as me.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Well guys, this week I'm going to introduce another great comedy of Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is the most interesting and fantastic one I've read. it has hilarious plot and things out of the real world － magic. 
The story includes two parts. One is about love and love and love. Hermia and Lysander are a happy couple, but the girl's father doesn't approve of their marriage. He prefers another proposer, Demetrius, but Hermia doesn't like him at all. Helena, who loves Demetrius so much, however gets no attention from him. The first part is all about the struggle of love. Another part of the story is about the Fairy. Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of fairy, are fighting for a young cute boy. Oberon wants to set up Titania but at the same time it influence the four person in the former part. It's just like a big mass around all characters.
At first, I was shocked to see magic in the master's work. I thought that all of his play shall be reasonable, and things like magic is just the opposite. After the teacher explained the story, I have another view of it and accept it. Besides, through the discussion in class, I learn that the master use magic so as to convey his idea in both reality and unreality. With this explanation, magic makes sense to me.

The Merchant of Venice

I'v introduce three Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of The Shrew. You may get tired and bored reading these stories with some hard metaphor and morals. In that case, this week I;m going to switch the channel and introduce a different style of Shakespeare's works, The Merchant of Venice.

Despite the title it is, the main story of it is about the love pursuing of the Merchant's friend, Bassanio. Bassanio want to propose to a rich and beauty lady who lives far away , but he doesn't have enough money for traveling and proposing. Thus, he turn to Antonio, the merchant, for help. Antonio helps him to borrow huge money from a Jew merchant, Shylock, with the deal that if they fail to give the money back in time, then Shylock will scrape a pound of flesh from Antonio's breast as compensation. With the money and true love, finally Bassanio marries the lady. However, does Antonio and Bassanio pay off the debt or not? As usual, read and find it yourself!

I like this one of Shakespeare's works I've seen. for it's the easiest and the most entertaining with no complicated combination of words and metaphor difficult to understand. I don't feel the life is somehow dark and unfair after reading this story. Hero wins, bad guy lose.It's like a Hollywood commercial movie, and you can find great joy in it. Though, it still has philosophy of life, but just not that much as others. If you feel bored reading previous stories, try this one and you're gonna like it!

The Taming of The Shrew

How do you think the relationship between husband and wife shall be? Nowadays, most people are convinced that men and women shall be on the equal level in marriage. However, that's not how things work in Shakespearse' age. Thus, he made "The Taming of The Shrew" to describe the discrimination between men and women that time in a ironical way.

Katherina and Bianca are daughters of a rich man. Katherina is tough and aggressive, and nobody likes her. On the other hand, Bianca is such a cute and sweet girl that have plenty of proposers. One day, among the proposers, a man, Petruchio , shows crazy for Katherina instead of the lovely Bianca  which rises Katherina's interest. There is someone who aren't afraid of her and like her! At first, she is reluctant to marry him and refuse to act like a " wife " － obey to her husband in every way. However, Petruchio uses all dirty tricks he can to "tame" his wife. Wonder how P plays the tricks and what becomes Katherina at the end? Go and find it yourself!

If the same situation happened in modern age, I guess the husband will definitely be hanged  by those women groups. It's no longer the time when men earn money and women do housework. Even a male as I can't agree with what P does in the story. That's not how things work these days. There shall be no more discrimination between both sex. When you girls are reading it, you may be pissed, just don't take it seriously. On the other hand, for boys reading it, never do the same thing on your girlfriend or your wife!

Romeo and Juliet

You may not have heard of Hamlet, but you can't have not heard of  Romeo and Juliet, the most romantic yet tragic story in the world. This story gives the definition to romance through the flaming love of Romeo and Juliet, and for hundreds of years people have been drew in their romance.

Romeo and Juliet, born in two opposite family. They fall in love with each other at first sight, but the conflict between the two family stops them them from being together. However they do not give in to their destiny and desperately go for love. Through this story, audience witness the greatness of love by seeing how much one can do for love, no matter what the outcome will be.

I don't like love stories. The more you read, the more misunderstanding you will have to love. Besides, I don't like Romeo. He's too impulsive and silly. He cried so hard for a girl who doesn't love him, yet in a blink he turned to die for another one. He doesn't think twice beforehand when it comes to love, and he just heads to what he wants. Ironically, at some point I am on the same wavelength with him, which means I am as silly as him.

On the other hand, I like Juliet. Apart from the beautiful imagination the author builds,  I think she is brave and initiative and faithful. She loves Romeo no matter what comes to him. Even when Rome was expelled she still love him. Such woman can't be found  in modern era.

Anyway, it's a story with intensive and romantic plot and a surprising end. Wish you all to read this play.

Hamlet, Prince of Danmark

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Danmark is probably the most famous tragedy in the world. The play is about the revenge of Hamlet, the prince of Danmark, whose father was murdered by Claudius, King's brother. At the beginning of the play, the ghost of King Hamlet appears and tells Hamlet that he was not dead in peace yet was murdered. Being clever and sensitive, Hamlet figures out a plan to test Claudius and finally proves the truth of King Hamlet's death. Claudius then decides to remove Hamlet by setting him into an unfair battle.
At the end, Hamlet succeeds in his revenge yet he is killed in the battle at the same time.

"To be or not to be, that's the question. " This line from the play has fascinated people for hundreds of years.
After I read this play, I still can not quite understand the meaning of the line. I can only suggest that the author suffered a lot from the society or his own life, and he tries to express that through Hamlet by giving him the characteristic of ambiguity. Besides, the way the author describes the characters' actions and feelings is amazing. The combinations of words are great works. I truly recommend you to read this masterpiece. It's worth to spend hours or even your lifetime on it.