Shakespeare Says it

So since high school I haven't really liked Shakespeare. Probably because it is pretty complicated and hard to understand, but everyone struggles with that, which makes me wonder why it's so pushed in high school if even college students don't always get the language. For my minor I had to take a Shakespeare course. It was pretty easy only a sophomore course, but the reading still got me. I liked discussing it everyday though and it helped me understand it a little better. From this I have decided that Shakespeare definitely was a genius. He really was a genius. He created words, CREATED THEM. And they are words that we still use today. He created the name Jessica, in Merchant of Venice. He just thought that name up. He also was astoundingly creative with his plays. He pushed family and marriage, which at the time was seen as a less holy life because those who could abstain from physical relations were stronger and more pure; marriage was a step down from a life of celibacy. Some people say that Shakespeare is perverted or that what he writes is pornographic. I have two things to say about that, First you are judging his works through well Prudish Victorian lenses that have found a place in the 21st century. WE CANNOT JUDGE HISTORY WITH OUR CONTEMPORARY VALUES. For heaven's sakes Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I because she was never married and supposedly a virgin. So basically the entire British Empire was thinking about the Queens relations. My point in telling you this is that during the 16th and 17th century ideas on relations were not so hidden and never talked about, that came a lot later. So we shouldn't look at Shakespeare as Mr. Innuendo, because at his time people were not nearly as offended. But I was listening to some songs the other day and they reminded me of some of his plays.

The first is called Take Our Turn by The J Band

Okay so it's a little bit of a stretch but if you think about Hamlet then you can see it a little bit. It talks about a father training his song to be king and then he walks along the castle walls, and decides to give up it all. Then he finds himself in a foreign land with a madman(that's Hamlet) and a drunkard. Then he lays his burdens down and he really burns them to the ground, or more like pass the poison around. If you want a great Hamlet production watch the one with David Tennant (yes the 10th doctor) and Patrick Stewart. Totally a nerd's dream cast!

Next one Cold December by Matt Costa

This one reminds me of A Winter's Tale. A less known Shakespeare play but it's about a husband who suspects his wife of adultery and it consumes him. He finally banishes her (because he's the King) and he believes that she died. At the time she was pregnant and he believes that the daughter it dead too. Finally after he has overcome his jealousy and made penitence he is shown a statue of his wife, which I believe is actually just his wife pretending to be the statue, then she magically comes back to life after, I think, sixteen years. Anyway enjoy my songs that I think are like Shakespeare plays. Even if you don't think they are they are still great songs.