There comes a time in most people's lives when they realize that they just arent meant to read Shakespeare. It is how they face this earth-quaking reality that truly decides what path their life takes.
Some might actually go back to the first page and try to read The Bard again. Its not that they are trying to run away from the reality (that they are plainly incapable of comprehending Shakespeare), but its just that they believe in ".... try try try .... well just keep trying " coz thats all they ever do. Probably they dont even believe in the above phrase but they hardly realize their incapability. HE hasnt gifted their mind the capacity to even know whats actually going on in their minds (those lucky bastards). So as they have always been doing everything in their lives they do this too, without a sense of achievement or a sense of failure. They never get bogged down by failure and success for them is something that always happens to others. I think its time to let these people know that Shakespeare was not an author=novel/story/book-writer, he was a playwright. Scratching your head??? Playwright's are those who ...... aah forget it.
Then there are the truly literally literary-gifted one's. These are the people whose parents had stuffed the Britannica series in their rooms long before they learnt the sentence "Mom, you gotta be kidding me". Well these people really truly seriously and perfectly understand what Shakespeare was all about. They have a genuine understanding of why Shakespeare wrote the way he did. They have a very clear picture of all the complexities involved in each of the character's portrayed by The Bard. Their dedication in completely & thoroughly understanding each and every situation described by The Bard is truly commendable & it does require a lot of genuine-interest apart from concentration. Their knowledge of Shakespeare is so complete that they can probably recite any verse along with the chapter number and paragraph. They have absolutely no doubt about their Shakespearean prowess. These people not only know Shakespeare, they also know that they know Shakespeare. Nothing can shake this belief of theirs coz surely Britannica cant be wrong, can it? Their analysis, their views, their opinions are all based on what has been analysed, what has been expressed and what has been opined about. So what? whats wrong with that? That exactly is the problem. These people have read Shakespeare because it is the "right" thing to do. Everything that they do in life is based on the concept of right or wrong, success or failure , good or bad, needless to say the qualities mentioned above being determined by factors completely external to them. Their focus in whatever they do is impeccable coz, you guessed right, they are doing the "right" thing you see. 'Whats wrong in doing something that's right?' they say. I give you a thought to chew on "Whats right in doing something that's wrong?"
There are also the kind who read Shakespeare coz they want to know what this great intellectual had to express. They are the people who have felt things the way they are & truly experienced life in its entirety. All they want to gain by reading The Bard is the knowledge of his views. They are not looking to get impressed by his dramatisation-skills or his license-to-make-grammatical-mistakes-skills. They are very clear about their opinion which is truly their own because the basis for that is themselves and their thoughts. They are not looking to gain worldly knowledge by reading Shakespeare. They really dont bother analyzing and dissecting the characters in his play's coz as far as they are concerned they just wanted to read Shakespeare, feel (even for a brief moment) what The Bard might have felt when writing such a scene and carry on with their life, coz they dont have to prove to anybody that they are "right".
Now comes the turn of those kind of people who probably knew that they were never going to read Shakespeare from the time they heard about him. Its probably because they are too busy writing their blogs.