English 536

            After taking an entire semester of a class on William Shakespeare, I will not lie I am glad to be done. I went into the class with an optimistic attitude about wanting to not only learn more about the works of William Shakespeare but to learn how to enjoy his work as well. Now that the class has come to an end, I feel relieved to say that I can totally understand why writers are so influenced and get so ecstatic about his work. I admit during the beginning of the course I enjoyed the plays of Titus Andronicus and Richard III. I don’t know if it is because of my dark sense of humor or my need for bloodshed, thanks to years of violent video games but I found the tragedies of Shakespeare way more entertaining.

I like the fact that within these tragedies there were no squeaky, clean good guys or no bad to the bone, bad guys. I like the construction of characters such as Aaron and Richard III, who were simply products of their environment. These characters were not bad for the sense of being bad but they were villains for a reason. I also enjoyed the relationship between the characters such as Romeo and Juliet, along with Benedict and Beatrice. While I found the relationship of Romeo and Juliet as one of the most romantic stories ever written about the love shared between a man and a woman, I found the relationship between Benedict and Beatrice completely humorous.

            I admit that I no longer find the work of William Shakespeare pretentious because I now have a better understanding of him as a playwright and also I have a better understanding of his works. I do consider Shakespeare as one of the greatest writers and some of his work as the best that has ever been written.  I still don’t experience the same excitement as other writers experience about his work. I admire the beautiful words and the language as I have always but I am still waiting for the day when I read one of his plays or piece of poetry and I just get chills. No matter how I feel about Shakespeare personally, my feelings about English 536 will forever be bittersweet because I would have never considered myself a fan of Shakespeare before the class but now that it is over I consider myself a great admirer of his work.