A Tempest of Tools and Toils

            In my past four years I have had a number of eye-opening experiences in English class, but never have I had experiences like those I have had in this Shakespeare class.  The words from William Shakespeare started as foreign to me, not understanding his terminology, yet I have come to read his works with some fluency, having contact with his antiquated vocabulary.  I came to this realization in Hamlet when I started seeing “’A” as “he,” a common note given in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The skill of understanding an author’s language applies to many authors, throughout all literature.  After reading Shakespeare I have sharpened my ability to read into what an author means, even when I am not familiar with their word choice.  

            I have especially appreciated the variety of themes used by Shakespeare throughout his works.  There is not simply the theme of love or death that is present alone in any work, these are mixed with many other themes which make Shakespeare’s works so interesting.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream discusses love, but also uses the lovers’ disposition to reveal some social imperfections within Athenian culture.   Hamlet, although loaded with death as a motif, there are amazing scenes reflecting religion and young love between Hamlet and Ophelia. Then The Tempest is truly the combination of all these themes, as there are dancing skulls and pressured lovers, invisible spirits and secret conspiracies.  All the themes present in Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream are also present in The Tempest, demonstrating just how diversified one work by Shakespeare can be.  The love of Hermia and Lysander can be connected to the other tested love of Miranda and Ferdinand, the conspiracy of Claudius seems similar to the conspiracies of Alonso and Antonio.  I was astounded at how all these themes could be present in one piece of literature and have started to see how my own life reflects these different themes all at once.

            One other impressive aspect of reading Shakespeare's works this year is how they can come to life like no other literature.  The staging of the performances in class was amazing.  His words are not meant to be read alone, but be spoken with actions.  Then being able to see it acted out professionally was something that you do not get from reading The Scarlet Letter, but brings out sections of the text that had previously gone unnoticed.  Watching the performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream really brought out the humor and importance of the Rude Mechanical’s play.  It has been the most enjoyable part of the course, watching professionals and peers reenact the scenes that so much class time was spent covering, and I look forward to seeing the influence that these experiences of bringing literature to life will have over my future reading of Shakespeare and others.