This year, in my English class we read Macbeth. I knew that the play was about some guy who killed some other guy and couldn’t wash the blood off his hands. Little did I know. I wasn’t very exited. The previous year we didn’t read any Shakespeare because he wasn’t on the AP test. The last play I’d read before Macbeth was Othello: not my favorite literature piece, but I fought through it.
This year when my teacher told us we were going to read Macbeth, I was indifferent: just another play where everyone dies. I was expecting long speeches, blank verse, extended metaphors, etc. I wasn’t expecting to understand or appreciate Macbeth.We finished the first Act quickly. I understood it all. No need for sparknotes or pink money or whatever. For the first time, I could comprehend what the play was about.
I thought maybe I’d gotten lucky. But no, I grasped all five acts easily. Macbeth is my favorite. It became my most annotated play and my most wrinkled,
Two weeks after Macbeth, we began reading Hamlet. I thought I wasn’t going to understand it. But I did. I get it. I was so happy when I finally understood what the famous “To be or not to be” speech was all about.
We’re still not done with Hamlet, but I’m looking forward to reading the end. I know that everyone dies because someone spoiled the ending for me but I still want to know.Now I want to see through Shakespeare’s words, not through the condensed summary written by a sparknotes writer or through the simple words of a classmate.
I know it soudns geeky, but I like Shakespeare. [specially Macbeth xD]
