Wrote my first exam today!

Gosh…worst two hours of my life! Isn’t it funny how time flies when you need it to move as slowly as possible? BTW, why are we given only 2 hours to write 2 “carefully structured, logically argues essays”?

I was writing English Literature today. And I’m not sure if I did well – thanks to Shakespeare! (Linda says I’m crazy to blame him for not finishing the exam!). But I have no one else to blame but him for writing English that is like Greek to me! In the first section of the exam I had to choose from two classics – Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus.

I don’t like either of the two books, so you can only imagine what a difficult choice I was faced with. It was like choosing between a gas chamber and a rope. I mean, it doesn’t matter which one you choose between the two –i.e. a gas chamber and a rope – in the end you are going to die. Of course, I choose Dr Faustus. I’m not saying Marlowe is a better writer than Shakespeare, no! But at least he doesn’t say the easiest thing in the most complex way.

That’s how I feel about most classics – they are complex and incomprehensible for my liking. I’ve never loved classics much anyways. For instance, mom and dad are both big fans of Jane Austen, Linda adores Shakespeare and Sim, my fourteen year old brother, can recite Shakespeare’s poem out of his head.

What’s wrong with me then? BTW, is it even right to feel guilt that I seem to be the only person I know who doesn’t find Shakespeare’s plays entertaining or even emotionally touching? I mean, let’s take for instance m>Hamlet, in that play more than 9 people die but it does not even touch me emotionally one tiny bit.

I think he was a splendid poet though. “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” is still one of the best poems I’ve read. I did it in Grade 12 and can still remember it now…but the plays… I read Hamlet yesterday and when I was supposed to write about it my mind went blank.

So, am I still not allowed to blame him for making things difficult for me? I’m hoping for the best and expecting the worst. Linda says I worry too much, but unlike her I didn’t enjoy the exam.

ZZ xxx

Dish it: have you read any Shakespeare play? How did you like it, share with me

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