Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is a very demanding playwright whose plays have been studied and re-studied for centuries. ... The vocabulary and underlying themes are easily accessible thanks to the footnotes and the in-depth introductions in the modern prints of Shakespeare’s plays. The context in which the plays are written is the only aspect to understanding Shakespeare’s plays that is not that easy to come by. ... Although things have changed quite considerable since Shakespeare’s time the ideas and traditions are still present and easily noticeable. My stay in Italy this summer opened up my eyes to the way of life that is particular to Italians, which has helped me better understand Shakespeare’s plays such as Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. Both of these plays contain scenes that are easier to understand, once one has a grasp on the customs, traditions, and lifestyles that accompany the Italian settings of Shakespeare’s plays. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the setting is important to the reader’s ability to fully understand some of the actions in the play. Romeo and Juliet is set in the Italian town of Verona, which Shakespeare sets up as a town that is ruled by two very powerful families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Shakespeare opens up the play with the lines, “Two households, both alike in dignity”(p. ... To many readers this idea of two dueling ruling families may seem a foreign concept; however, after living in Florence for two weeks and learning about the Medici family, it is easy to understand the situation that Shakespeare is setting up at the beginning of his play. ... Shakespeare explains this when Balthasar says, “Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument…I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault”(p. ... Shakespeare’s use of the dueling convention is consistent throughout the play, which also indicates how important dueling was at the time. Another important Italian custom that Shakespeare addresses in Romeo and Juliet is the importance of religion.