To be or not to be, that is the question

I've started doing tutoring to earn a bit of extra money lately, and I've had a rush of emails in the past few days asking for help with Shakespeare. It seems that the great playwright is still very popular for final year 12 assignments and I have to say I'm glad. I remember doing Hamlet in year 12 and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, the language is hard to understand, but once you do the stories are amazing.

Being a self-confessed book nerd I have to admire a story that has been popular for so long. I think it's interesting that most of Shakespeares plays are tragedies and not at all like the Hollywood endings we are so used to today. And yet, Shakespeare lives on while year after year the happy endings of Hollywood films are made and promptly forgotten. It does say something about human character I think; no matter how much we love a happy ending, perhaps we will always relate more to the tragedies that better represent real life. Now, not to get all depressing and morbid about it but when you think about it how often does your life turn out perfectly like in the movies? While I don't mean everyone dies instead, I think Shakespeare better relates to how things don't always go as planned.

Take Hamlet for instance. The audience pities him yes, but at the same time it could be said his own inaction indirectly caused his death. The way everyone dies at the end truly mirrors the faults of human character that often isn't fully explored in modern day films. Even Hamlet himself is far from perfect. Although he may be forgiven for his actions towards Ophelia, it still portrays him as an imperfect being, capable of making mistakes.

Another thing that I love about Shakespeare is the room for exploration and imagination with many of the characters. There is always an element of guesswork involved when dealing with minor characters. What are they really thinking? And that is why I love helping year 12 students with their monologues of minor characters. You are given the chance to really explore the other side of the story. Is Claudius really as evil as he is made out? Or is he simply a man who loves power just a bit too much?

Either way, I'm glad for the opportunity to dust of my copy of Hamlet and immerse myself in the complex and absolutely amazing language that Shakespeare employs so faultlessly.