Why Read Shakespeare

In the lecture Why Read Shakespeare, spoken by Dr. Michael Mack,  he speaks primarily regarding the importance of Shakespeare's writing. Throughout the lecture, Mack touches on the idea that Shakespeare is difficult to comprehend for a variety of reasons. For a college student or a student in general, reading Shakespeare is "hard-work and not particularly rewarding." In addition, as Mack states, students claim that "[they] don't get it; is it really worth the effort?" In essence, this confusing language of Shakespeare is seemingly not applicable to his/her desired study in college and beyond. To address this specific difficulty, Dr. Michael Mack outlines throughout his lecture the reasons why students should read Shakespeare. The gratification of thoroughly understanding the language of Shakespeare is rewarding because the student has broken down the once "complexity" of his writing. Moreover, he uses the comparison of music, as we as humans learn something new each time we listen to a song...similarly to Shakespeare, as we re-read and fully comprehend the storyline we can more easily connect difficult abstract ideas into one understanding of his writing. In addition, Dr. Mack also explains that once a student "gets" Shakespeare, it provides him/her with a "lens on the real world" and even deeper, helps a student seek certain truths about their selves. Shakespeare's writing provides a deeper meaning of the world surrounding us, the hardships, joy, emotions, etc. Throughout Dr. Michael Mack's article, he presents five persuasive and convincing arguments to answer the question "Why read Shakespeare." The first argument is that it is "A Time for Developing Interests." In this section, Dr. Mack entails that college students should broaden their interest in Shakespeare because each time he/she analyzes Shakespeare's writing, he/she will discover something new and intriguing. While the storyline may be complex, the tidbits on information that are pieced together through a few read-throughs can be extremely appealing. The second argument that Mack states are that reading Shakespeare is "A Time for Exploring." Throughout this argument, Mack explains that Shakespeare provides students with writing that opens the eyes to the real world, and provides students the time to explore and analyze themselves. Moreover, this section specifies the importance of the beauty of Shakespeare and how this mirrors the idea that it is "proving ground" for exploring beauty in an individuals life. The third argument of Mack is that it is "A Time for Self-Knowledge" and concludes that Shakespeare grants a student the ability to understand themselves, as a student can borrow and develop ideas and thoughts from Shakespeare's writing. The fourth argument is that reading Shakespeare is "A Different Take on Skills" and emphasizes that Shakespeare's writing gives tools and skills that are useful in any career... he presents students with "soft skills" that provide the foundation for any job a student wishes to pursue. A baseline in liberal arts "teaches us to identify these natural tendencies and to correct them." The fifth and final argument is "There is Knowledge, and there is Knowledge" which explains that when a student understands their emotion connection between physical characteristics and emotional characteristics, this presents a full, well-rounded person; Shakespeare's writing offers a way to connect this complex idea of connecting thoughts to feelings. My favorite argument is "A Time for Exploring"mainly because I find that when I analyze Shakespeare, I have seen that he cleverly presents this mirror of society and societal aspects of the world. It intrigues me to the point where I find that each story I have read relates in some fashion to an event or emotion or place or group of people that exist or have existed in the world. In addition, I particularly enjoy the idea of how a reader can connect the beauty of Shakespeare to the beauty of life; Since literature is so intertwined with emotions, I sought that as an extremely fitting and valid argument.