Many of my peers do not understand why a 28 year old of this day and age would still read Shakespeare. My friends see it as outdated. No longer relevant in a world so far advanced from the age of the original satirist. Yet when emotion takes hold of me, and I have no other choice but to feel (as us humans always do) there is only one man that can touch my heart in such a way.
A couple of days ago I got angry (why is irrelevant). Not angry as in "Oh, I'm angry" - angry as in "I am gonna whoop some motherfucker and put a cap in his ass!!". I'm currently catching up with Richard the 3rd and as I was seething, I came across this:
"Urge neither charity or shame to me;
Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
And shamefully my hopes by you butchered.
My charity is outrage, life my shame,
And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage"
I mean COME ON!! Give me one present day writer that can match that!! I sometimes think because people don't really know Shakespeare they assume all he writes about is love. Love is the least of it. Yes, it is there - as it is in life, but that is not why I read Shakespeare. I read Shakespeare because he wrote about life. About feelings.
The heroes in his plays and poems had faults. They had flaws. They got angry and messed up. They had to face up and apologize, and were forgiven. Imagine Mr. Bourne of the 'Bourne' franchise as a real person and the whole plot falls apart. What if he missed that crucial shot? Crashed a car during a high speed chase? Or, god forbid actually had to use the bathroom during the 7 hour shoot-out he's having with 5plus armed men outside his girlfriend's (that he just met) brothers house?!
OK, Shakespeare didn't write about bathroom breaks either, but my point is I want to read about real people. Yes I want heroes and villains and fairy-tales and all that- but what makes a story great is the fact that a hero can still be a hero despite human error.
