Importance of Studying Shakespeare and Hamlet

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Importance of studying Shakespeare Simply stated, students should study Shakespeare’s works in school because of the incredible value within them. In addition to exposing students to a large amount of literary techniques, Shakespeare's plays challenge the student with difficult language and style, express a profound knowledge of human behavior and offer insight into the world around us. William Shakespeare is recognized by much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. The intricate meanings, extensive vocabulary, and powerful imagery contained within his works demonstrate the exceptional story telling ability of this playwright. To begin with, analyzing Hamlet's motivations, or lack of motivations, ends up being pretty easy for students in the long run because of the relevance of Hamlet's struggle as the dutiful son. Conflicts with a mother, stepfather, or a girlfriend, on the surface level, most students can relate. Then, as we delve deeper, they are usually quite empathetic with Hamlet's notable inaction and his frustration with himself over it, a quality of his that many adult readers have trouble understanding or empathizing with. Also, everything is connected in Hamlet, including the welfare of the royal family and the health of the state as a whole. The play’s early scenes explore the sense of anxiety and dread that surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the next. Throughout the play, characters draw explicit connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation. Denmark is frequently described as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius and Gertrude, and many observers interpret the presence of the ghost as a supernatural omen indicating that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Act 1 Scene 4 line 67). The dead King Hamlet is portrayed as a strong, forthright ruler under whose

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