Discovering Shakespeare

In class, we watched a PBS documentary featuring host Michael Woods as he travels to learn more about the well-renowned writer, William Shakespeare. As Michael has done in the documentary, I have discovered some information about the Bard myself.

• I have noticed that Shakespeare's plays covered many themes that relates to real life. Even by today's standards, his work touches on things such as romance, jealousy, or betrayal (as depicted in "Julius Caesar")
• There has been many theories about Shakespeare. There has been a theory that a group of writers conceived Shakespeare's plays (names include Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Francis Bacon), saying that because he was in the lower class of society, he wasn't educated enough to write these stories. This is from an article from the University of Wisconsin.
  
• Another theory claimed Shakespeare to be a "secret Catholic", taking the alias of "William Shakeshafte."
  
• Various thoughts have been made of jobs Shakespeare has done when he left Stratford. Some say he was either a sailor, a gardener, a lawyer, and many other occupations.

It seems that Shakespeare's quite the mystery man, no?

A Reader's Response: Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is about the strange happenings of the title character. In the story, he leaves his beloved wife, Faith, to have a meeting with a person in the woods. Faith wants Goodman to stay at home with her, but he is devoted to his trip.

When he goes into the woods and meets the person, things seem to get weird. During his conversation with the stranger, the woods seem to close in on him, seemingly without any way for Goodman to leave. In addition to that, he sees what appears to be a person that resembles him, yet older. Freaked out, Goodman Brown decides to leave, but the mysterious person wants to continue their talk-and-walk. As the person continues to chat, Goodman discovers that this man knows everyone! He mentions various people, including his grandfather, he met. This leads to Goodman's unfortunate discovery: the person is actually the devil. Getting angry, he continues his journey through the woods to investigate what is going on.

"Young Goodman Brown" is a story with a religious message. Later in the story, Goodman continues down the woods with a mysterious staff in his hand and notices a cult gathering that included Faith being in danger. He tries to save her, but unfortunately he loses Faith. As a result, Goodman has lost his faith, and died miserably.

When we read this story in class, there was a quote that relates to this story:

When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.
- Neitze

This quote relates to the message of what Hawthorne is saying, meaning that if one follows the path of darkness and evil, you would end up being trapped inside. Dire consequences would be a result, leading to misfortune down the road, as Goodman Brown faced in this story. People who get sucked into the "abyss" would not recover. They would have a miserable life, regretting their actions, and wishing they never followed down that path.

As people, most of us aren't great at making the right decisions, however, it's important to learn. You'll never know what consequences lies ahead. Goodman lost Faith to the devil after leaving her. Don't lose your Faith!

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