A little more Shakespeare

My sister told me yesterday that the average American has an 800 word vocabulary. How sad is that? The average Harvard Professor has a 10,000 word vocabulary. Shakespeare had a 30,000 word vocabulary, many of which he probably invented. I don't want to present this as complete fact because I don't know where her humanities professor got this information. But the idea remains in tact. This, along with other pieces of information I have gathered about Shakespeare, has only deepened my admiration for him.

My interest in Shakespeare sparked when I saw Macbeth last March. In the play Macbeth starts out as a good man who slowly becomes something terrible one poor choice at a time. One despicable decision is only the beginning of a chain of bad choices until they gradually transform him into something he never meant to become. His first dirty deed was killing the King. A main protagonist in the play, Macduff, suspects Macbeth of regicide and intends to set things right. (This is a very watered-down version). After a series of events Macbeth goes to Macduff's house and murders his family. When Macduff enters the scene and finds his family dead and this is the dialogue that ensues:


Malcolm: Dispute it like a man.
Macduff: I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:

Malcolm, I think in an attempt to offer some sort of comfort to Macduff, encourages him to avenge himself, which he does end up doing. But first, he chooses to feel the pain and let it soak in. The less courageous action would be to suppress those feelings and to let your anger control you (as Macbeth did). He takes the more "manly" route in my perspective. Malcolm says to dispute it LIKE a man and Macduff says he must feel it is AS a man.

From my very limited knowledge of this play (please, corrections or insights are welcome) I find that feeling emotion is a main theme. A person who does not heed their emotions is not stable. But, a person who lets their emotions have their say is he who will overcome and continue on. For example, let's say you want to get to a certain destination and the only way to get there is to cross a bridge that overpasses a VERY deep ravine. That is very scary to you, so instead of taking the bridge you turn left and follow the ridge looking for a alternate solution.  You don't find one. Then, you walk back to the bridge, still too scary. So you try the other side, hoping that you'll find anything easier than the bridge. Again, there is nothing. The only way to get to your destination is by taking that bridge even though it frightens you. That is how feeling emotion is. You may not like it, it could be really difficult to bear or frighten you, but it is the only way to get where you need to go.

We are here to learn from our own experience and if we choose not to feel the pain or sorrow that comes from some experiences we also choose not to feel the immense joy that follows from others.

This brings up a huge issue about what feelings are good to feel and what feelings we should not entertain, but that is a whole different discussion that I would love to have someday if anyone is interested.

I could say so much more about this play, but I should probably read it first. This is one aspect of the play that really moved me and I wrote this with a little bit of help from online resources.

P.S. I may or may not have use a thesaurus once or twice while writing this post.