What has Shakespeare done for me?

Shakespeare is an iconic figure within literature, so as a teacher of English I have come to have a real appreciation for Shakespeare and can truly enjoy the variety, drama and language of each individual play.

The challenge of the teacher is to initially engage their students with the text, if they are able to do this they have got the students' attention for the remainder of the play. Reflecting back upon my own education, my own connection with Shakespeare's work manifests itself within the classic play 'Romeo and Juliet'.  Widely known as his most famous play and regularly taught within schools, it can become a challenge for teachers to engage the students  with a text that they have had to deliver within their class for a number of years. However, the teacher I had during this time I studied 'Romeo and Juliet', very much wet my metaphorical taste buds for more of Shakespeare's plays. It can be a daunting task to engage a class with a Shakespeare play, as it is now seen as 'boring' by the youth of today, it does seem the appreciation for good literature is rapidly decreasing. Returning to my initial point the teacher engaged the class with the play with a number of drama lesson, as this was the intention for the play primarily. 

So what did Shakespeare do for me personally?

It gave me a real passion for English, as it merged the bond for me between literature and drama. It is this bond that was created not only gave me a real passion for Shakespeare as a literary figure within our heritage, but an appreciation for good literature. It is a passion that has followed on to my higher education and now into my teaching, as I can categorically say that planning and delivering lessons centered around a Shakespeare play provides me within immense enjoyment, and to transfer this passion into my students would provide me with a real sense of achievement.