"Why Read Shakespeare?"

1 and 2.  According to the article, students find Shakespeare difficult because the language is obscure, the plots and characters are complex, and readers do not have an immediate understanding of the piece of writing.  Mack answers to these complaints by recommending to read everything over and over again.  He writes that the more someone reads, the more you will enjoy the work of art.  According to Mack, when someone finally "gets" Shakespeare, they are actually getting help for navigating the real world and the truth about himself or herself.  We get these things from actions and reactions of the characters in Shakespeare's plays.

3. We should read Shakespeare because:
     1.  People can enjoy their results from their hard work.  Shakespeare has very intricate plays and a confusing writing style which people do not understand during their first time reading it.  Although, it is complex, the more someone reads it, the more they will enjoy and understand it.  The understanding and joy gives people a sense of accomplishment.
     2.  The plays are aids for people who are trying to navigate the world and the people in it.  The characters in these plays relate to people living during any time because they struggle with the complexities as people today such as love, hate, power, morals, ect.
     3.  Shakespeare is the source from which our thoughts and ideas come from.  Characters in his plays set up real-world fantasies where people have unrealistic (at the time the plays were written, but not now because the plays introduced the ideas) priorities such as romantic love which people took to heart and enjoyed.
     4.  By persevering  through Shakespeare's literary works, we learn to be flexible with how we think.  Shakespeare throws his characters into extreme and twisted scenarios.  His language is only one part of his plays that is bizarre, but we learn to wrap our minds around these difficulties and make sense of them. This process of getting used to something that we never thought to get used to is expanding and stretching or thoughts.
      5. When reading Shakespeare, people grow in emotional intelligence because of the struggles that the characters face to follow their head or their heart.

4. I find that hard work pays off with Shakespeare to be the most convincing argument in which to read his works.  This is a personal decision because hard work does not always pay off and when it does, it's very rewarding.  Hard work also builds character.  I love the feeling someone gets after working hard and it pays off.  That feeling is accomplishment.