Who was Shakespeare

     William Shakespeare, from Stratford-upon-Avon, England, was an English playwright and poet. Born on April 23, 1564, Shakespeare became a popular figure due to his numerous plays and sonnets. He was born into a family that was well off. William, Shakespeare's father, was a successful local businessman and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner. At age 18 Shakespeare married a woman by the name Anne Hathaway. He had three children with Anne but one of his boys, Hamlet, dies at age 11. Shakespeare spent most of his life in London writing and preforming his plays. He did not mind spending time away from his family to which he came to only during lent when theaters were closed. He wrote 154 sonnets that dealt with things such as lost love. Shakespeare's plays dealt with tragedy, comedy, and history. They have been studied more than any other piece of English writing and have been translated into an innumerable amount of languages. He died in 1664. His life is not very clear to use to this day but his plays and sonnets have been left only to be discovered by generations to come.

http://www.biographyonline.net/poets/william_shakespeare.html

     From what I have seen, most student dislike Shakespeare because they find his work challenging. There are exceptions to this of course. Some students enjoy Shakespearean work and enjoy trying to understand it.  It's all about learning to read the words of Shakespeare. It's about learning to make connections to literature that is out of most students' comfort zone. After is is understood students can see that it isn't such a difficult concept to grasp.
     I have always found Shakespeare's work to be mysterious and puzzle like. It is not easy to understand but the more of his work I read in school, the more I understand it. His plays are not to complicated when it comes to plot analysis. It's the language understanding that used to throw me off. I have improved a lot in my Shakespeare understanding.