SHAKESPEARE PLAYS; HAMLET AND SONNETS

I've just watched another movie which stands on the platform as one of the greatest plays ever in the 16th century by Will. Shakespeare; Shakespeare in Love. The movie, though made in 1998, is still very heavy and beautiful, not to mention how deep it is when it comes to cross-loved between two different person on a very different background; a commoner of the Montague and a daughter of  the noble Capulet. This is the first time ever for me to watch such a movie as the last anime that I've seen influenced me so much to discover more around this literally-made life of Romeo and Juliet.

I've still remembered explicitly when Miss Zie (English teacher back then) thought us on a poem in our secondary study: The Sonnet 18. This 18th sonnet written by Shakespeare himself circles around a life of a young man, loving another young man. Weird eh? But for the sake of argument, the picture in the book clearly showed a man and a woman, loving each other. At the first place, the whole class thought that Shakespeare was a homosexual person as for him to fall in love with a man. Nonetheless, there is one truth that lie beyond the eyes of everyone..and I believe that every single student that learn Sonnet 18 was tricked.

The persona of the poem, the 'man' that Shakespeare loved was mere an abstract to me. How did i knew this? I start to figure it out through the movie and the background of the early plays during the era of Queen Elizabeth. At that time, no woman can become an actor or play in a play. Hence, in the play of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet had to be disguised by a man, hence forth creating a character of a man in the Sonnet 18. 

Complex and complicated to be understood? Then go and watch the movie. I really love to go back to the 16th century, clapping at the play of our Shakespeare. Alas, Malaysian people is still far left behind in this kind of play.  I hope to see an improvement. Please, leave a comment behind.