Saturday, 23 April 2016

The 23rd of April is here

Today the whole world celebrates 400 years of Shakespeare’s legacy. This author is very dear to me. Therefore, I’ve decided to write not just standard blog post about his achievements or undoubtedly influence on different spheres of life. Today I want to celebrate my favorite author by writing about his influence on me.

If I’m not mistaken, we came across each other when I was 12-13 and it was instant friendship. That hour I spent turning pages of Romeo & Juliet went really fast. I remember having so many feels it hurt. Then I discovered there’s more to him than just teen love story. In a year, I guess, was the time when Hamlet entered my life.

It’s been 10 years from that time and I still haven’t found anything better. Hamlet spoke to my soul on so many levels. Yes, the characters are flawed. In fact, I cannot recall any character I could associate myself with. Still, I like every bit of it. One thing is original text, the other-its stage adaptations. I became quite addicted to them, watched nearly 10 different and still not enough. They are mostly not satisfying, but some of them are awesome (Tennant and Cumberbatch ones especially). Anyways, for me it’s not a story of depression and bad life choices. For me, it’s a story about questions. We all ask ourselves different questions and existential questions are the most common for all of us. I guess that’s what really spoke to my heart.

Since that time I studied Shakespeare at different courses, read texts and analyses. It never ceases to amaze me that his impact on literature was so big it can compete with the impact of the Bible. In most modernist texts there’s him, standing with his long lost son Hamlet right in the middle of the Tempest. And it will always be him, recognizable or not, he will be present in the texts of the future. Because when you manage to influence people for 400 years after you death it certainly means something.


Thank you. 

The rest is silence.
 Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2

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