Why Shakespeare is the Man

Why Shakespeare Is The Man: A rambling treatise

Considering that all of you are taking an honors English course, I am going to tell you now, very straightforwardly, you need to learn Shakespeare. Gentlemen, if you want to get girls, you need to read Shakespeare. Ladies, if you want true romance, you need to read Shakespeare. If you want virtue, he’s got it. You want morality, he’s got it. You want fighting, war, racism, murder, treachery, love, suspense, deceit, comedy, and sexually charged 16 year olds? He’s got all of that too.
All kidding aside, to properly assimilate yourself into a truly academic setting, an adult culture, or even to understand life in general, you need to read Shakespeare.
We read once, “great books only tell us what we know already.” If you don’t know where that quote is from, I will be sadly disappointed. (Insert concerned looks on your faces and me saying, “1984 you idiots!”) Shakespeare is the king of that. He deals with all the complexities of life and articulates them in a historically unparalleled way. Everything you’ve ever wanted to say, he’s said, and way better than you ever could.
References to Shakespeare pop up all over the place once you know what you are looking for. For example the films: O, She’s the Man, 10 Things I hate about You, Romeo Must Die and many more are all examples of plot lines ripped off from Shakespeare. Furthermore, famous lines from Shakespeare pop up in song, film, writing, and television. The question remains, why? Why in the world are we still reading the literature of someone who has been dead for almost 400 years? What is relevant about it? Why does it still speak to us?
Like all things that are timeless, Shakespeare’s works deal with universal truths and the intricacies of the human condition. He delves into the psyche of the villain and hero, of the king and pauper, and of man and woman. The difference, the enduring difference, between Shakespeare and say our writing is the delicacy, complexity, and depth of his words; the unimaginable command with which he manipulates every nuance of every phrase. It is a command so thorough that scholars for years have attempted to condemn his writing as the work of many, rather than that of a single man. For example, the average person has a 4,000 word vocabulary; Shakespeare on the other hand, used over 29,000 words in his writing alone. 29,000! Think about that. Take a minute and try and think of even 100 words off the top of your head, then multiply that by 290. Wow.
Here’s a little background knowledge that may make the man behind the myth a little more interesting. Shakespeare’s famous sonnets were in fact written to two different people. The first is referred to as the “dark lady.” A lascivious woman who Shakespeare lusted after in his writing. The second was a man! Most often understood to be a young man. It has been widely debated whether this young man was the object of Shakespeare’s homosexual desire, or whether he was simply a friend who he loved dearly. Judge for yourselves.
Furthermore, Shakespeare’s veracity as the author of his writing has been highly speculated upon. His works have been presumed to be authored by such historical figures as Francis Bacon, Edward DeVere (the 17th Earl of Oxford) and many others. As members of the technological age I’m sure all of you are wondering how this is even possible, let me explain. The first question that needs answering is how could a commoner in the 1600s acquire the knowledge of foreign language, government, religion, and law necessary to write such extensive works? This astonishment is only compounded when we recognize that William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon had no formal education. There is no record of his attendance at any grammar, secondary, or university school. So, the question remains, who is William Shakespeare?
What we know is that there was a man named William Shakespeare who lived at Stratford upon Avon in England, and the preponderance of evidence points to this man as being the author of the greatest plays ever written in the English language. He had a wife who was eight years his senior named Anne Hathaway (ever heard the name before?). That couple bore three children, Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Shakespeare was born in April of 1564 and died on April 23, 1616. These are the facts, this is all we know.
Lastly, Shakespeare will be a challenge, but it should be one that you embrace. The language from these texts is ubiquitous in our culture, and will recur over and over again as your life goes on. Get to know them well, and if you can’t become smarter by reading them, then you’ll at least sound smarter for having read them.
Shakespeare is my homeboy, he should be yours too.