My impression of Shakespeare and his works is that he is someone who writes plays and acts in them just to entertain people and earn a living for himself. However, I must agree that he is very creative and full of imagination to be able to write such interesting plays, be it tragedy, romance or comedy plays. There must be a reason why he bacame so famous! His usage of English is also great, thus helping to standardize the English Language. He is so famous that his plays are still acted again and again long after his death. Even though I do not really understand what he is writing, some of the meaning of the words or descriptions he used are pretty obvious to me and I can comprehend them without the use of the guide (in the case of "The Merchant of Venice").
The Elizebethan era is very different from today. The most obvious difference may be the fact that we have modern technology and a general cleanliness in where we live today. Our standard of living is also much higher than the Elizebethans. Another difference is that now we are not governed by a single king or queen, instead we are governed by a group of people in the parliament. However, there are still similarities. Today, the society still consists of social classes which divides the society unfairly, in which the rich can live a luxurious life while the poor must work very hard to even earn enough to support themselves.
Shakespeare's works can be applied in the modern day context. The themes in his works are closely related to the modern day, themes such as love and racism. Love can be seen most prominently in "Romeo and Juliet" while racism can be seen in "The Merchant of Venice", between the Jew, Shylock and the Christian, Antonio.
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