SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

January 14, 2023 Opinion

Dubbed as “Sons and Daughters of Shakespeare,” English majors under the tutelage of Dr. Teresita Azarcon were given this title and now part of the family of the late great William Shakespeare. As an English major, one of the tasks at hand is to read the classics and being a bookworm, it was the most welcome task of all. There were two subjects dedicated to Shakespeare, the tragedies and the comedies, obviously, these were from his novels.

His most famous quotes “In time we hate that which we often fear,” from Antony and Cleopatra, “We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone,” from Henry IV, Part 2. “All other doubts, by time let them be clear’d: Fortune brings in some boats, that are not steered, ” from Cymbeline and “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm,” from Hamlet.

Tragedies were all named after persons noting his four most popular Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth while his comedies; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and
Twelfth Night were deemed most famous and thus, the topic of these college classes. One love story, which also ended in tragedy, is his Romeo and Juliet, based on the life of two real lovers who lived and died for each other in Verona, Italy in 1303.

The story lived to tell its tale till this day and even though Juliet Capulet is a fictional character created by Shakespeare, millions worship her as a love goddess. Every year tourists from around the globe flock to Verona just to see the balcony where she was wooed by her Romeo. That’s the power of Shakespeare. Another favorite novel, is by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin which tells the story of Uncle Tom, an enslaved person, depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and
steadfast in his beliefs, published in two volumes in 1852.

Another author, Ernest Hemingway who said “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” is another favorite and his classic ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ written in Cuba in 1951 focuses on a short period in the life of a Cuban fisherman named Santiago. A favorite, Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic best known for his poetry and short stories known for his works include the poems “To Helen”, The Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” short stories of wickedness and crime “The Tell- Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado” and the supernatural horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” These stories and authors accompanied me in my college days and to this day, their stories ring true to this day. That is the power of a story.