Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
|
Why Read Shakespeare?“In Shakespeare's time, great books were thought of as mirrors. When you read a great book, the idea is, you are looking into a mirror - a pretty special mirror, one that reflects the world in a way that allows us to see its true nature. What is more, as we hold the volume of Shakespeare in front of us, we see that it reflects not only the world around us, but also ourselves. What is it that we find in Shakespeare? Nothing less than ourselves and the world - certainly worthy subjects to study in school.
What we see in these examples is a fairly complex interplay of life and literature. Literature teaches you about life, and the better you understand literature, the better you understand life. It also is true, though, that the more you know about life, the better equipped you are to understand what you find in literature. This two-way mirroring means that learning about literature and learning about life go hand in hand. And it means that finding beauty and meaning in Shakespeare is a sort of proving ground for finding beauty and meaning in life. Indeed, as you learn to read Shakespeare, you are learning to read the world. As you interpret Shakespeare's characters, you are practicing figuring out life's characters. Struggling with the complexities involved in interpreting Shakespeare is a superb preparation for struggling with the complexities of life. Shakespeare offers a world of vicarious experience-a virtual reality, a sort of flight simulator - that gives you a great advantage when it comes time to venture out into the real world. So Shakespeare isn't just for literary types, he is for anyone who is interested in navigating the real world." Excerpt from Michael Mack's "Why Read Shakespeare?" Convocation Address, 200 |
Beliefs about the Universe
|
Act IAct IIIAct V |
Act IIAct IV |