Our history studies have finally brought us to Shakespeare and so the kids and I have been reading and watching children’s versions of many of his plays. Reagan has been torn. He can’t decide if he likes Shakespeare or not. The lovey dovey stuff is almost more than he can handle. Almost. He is ten after all can’t decide whether he likes girls or not and therefore can’t decide if he likes the romance in Shakespeare or not. He begged me not to read Romeo and Juliet after reading the somewhat minor romance scenes from Hamlet. After reading Macbeth, which happened to be the first one we read as it was in our history book, he was totally disgusted and didn’t want to read any more from this crazy writer. But the more we read, the more he became interested. He and Cade (who was not nearly so emotionally torn over the stories he was hearing) begged me to keep reading a Midsummer Night’s Dream and even Julius Caesar. They giggled as they read about the many love triangles and mistaken identities and were horrified when everyone died at the end of Hamlet. All week they could be heard saying things like, “There’s something rotten in Denmark!” or “Get thee to a nunnery!” Their favorite was “To be or not to be”, though. I won’t go so far as to say they “loved” Shakespeare, but their introduction to it was a happy one.
My reintroduction to Shakespeare was a happy one as well. Honestly, I have not read much of him. I was turned off by Romeo and Juliet in high school and have tended to roll my eyes a little at my husband’s fascination with the plays. I did get Rock the complete works of Shakespeare as a wedding gift. But we won’t talk about how much he has (not) read the one I got him. For me, Shakespeare was just too hard to understand. And I did not care enough about the stories to pay the price to understand them. But in reading the children’s versions I enjoyed the stories for the first time and now have a desire to read the real thing. I now understand why General Chang, the Klingon character in Star Trek VI, screams “Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” when his people are assassinated. I understood before what it meant on a basic level of course. He meant, “I’m really mad and you’re going to pay for this, Kirk!” And I even knew it was from Shakespeare, though not from which play. But to have the deeper knowledge of the treachery and betrayal from Shakespeare’s story makes it so much more powerful. Admittedly, Star Trek is not the most erudite of tv shows and it is somewhat silly that I would use it as an example for appreciating Shakespeare, but humor me. The point is, I can’t wait to read Julius Caesar! (Or to re-watch Star Trek VI for that matter!)
And I know just the Star Trek fan to watch it with me, Mother Dearest.
