Simply Shakespeare #13 – Why Shakespeare? Special Post For Shakespeare’s Birthday!

No, time has not infact jumped, it’s still Monday BUT I just HAD to post this on Shakespeare’s birthday, right?

It seems to me that with Shakespeare, you either love him or you hate him, right? You can’t please everyone. But I personally, couldn’t imagine a life where I didn’t like Shakespeare. I don’t remember what first introduced me to his work, I just remember always loving it. I remember my mum gave me some kids books of Shakespeare (which I have gifted to my nephew!) and they just completely entranced me. It was a world of witches and wizards, animals, fairies, love, danger and wonderful wonderful characters. Little did I know just how impactful those books would be so thanks mum!

I think a lot of people struggle with the language of Shakespeare. It can be a bit intense and can be really off putting. I remember in Year 9 at school. we started looking at Othello. There was, in quite impressive harmony and unison, a groooooan as we opened the cover. I looked down and the words jumped out at me. I just…understood it. I didn’t fully understand all of it obviously but to me…it flowed, it made sense, it read just like the novel on the desk next to me did and I was so excited.

It wasn’t until I started Drama at Alevel that I really got interested in Shakespeare and the symbols, hidden meanings, theories and history. We had to do this really fun assessment where we had to compare a modern production of Shakespeare and compare it to the original playing conditions and I LOVED it. I remember that assessment not even feeling like a test, it was what I was doing every time I watched Shakespeare.

Then I got to university and my love for Shakespeare SKY ROCKETED. I was so happy to be able to take a whole module in the thing I loved the most. I wrote essays about Lady Macbeth and Cleopartra, Tragedy and Shakes even had an entire section in my dissertation!

I feel so lucky to find such pleasure in something that seems endless. There’s always plays to see, plays to read, essays to read, people to talk to and it’s great. I love that I get to share this will all 350 (!!!!!) of you and write fun posts that I didn’t get to whilst studying. I’m so happy with what Simply Shakespeare has become and what is yet to come! I cannot thank you all enough for the support.

I hope you enjoyed this little celebration! If you would like to get involved in Simply Shakespeare, send me an email at rosiefrecklereads@yahoo.com with Simply Shakespeare as the subject and I’ll get the details to you! Or you can contact me on Twitter.

Follow me on twitter for updates on what I’m reading. Look at the Book Club here.

Thank you lovelies and happy reading! ox