SHAKESPEARE

We either scream with delight or hiss with disgust. We have all had our fair of Shakespeare and notes compiled with words such as ‘hamartia, hubris, nemesis and stichomytaia’ but the question is, did you truly understand it? I remember reading Hamlet and wondering, ‘when is this going to be over?’ while others shot their hands into the air like academic Raskolnikov’s and asked sensible questions. Personally I didn’t care that ‘tragedy is an imitation of action that is serious, whole and of a certain magnitude,’ but now I think I am beginning to understand why understanding Shakespeare is so important. Firstly, it is everywhere, 50% of all quotes are derived from Shakespeare and his plays. Secondly, I actually gained a pretty combusting list of vocabulary (which I know my teacher loved but my parents hated), and thirdly, I learnt a lot of about Sigmund Freud. Strange, how did we transfer from Shakespeare to Freud? Many of Shakespeare’s characters undergo changes, many of them in the subconscious mind. Ophelia is neurotic on the verge of psychotic, and Hamlet, well Hamlet is such as insane with revenge for his father’s cunning murder. Through Shakespeare I found Freud and thus this interest sparked into one of my current aims in life – to obtain a degree in psychology. Sometimes you find inspiration in the strangest of places.