It has been a long road but we are at that end and as is necessary to wrap up a blog at the end of a semester here is my final hub post.
Thesis:
Shakespeare’s life and career though riddled with trials, tribulations, and struggle was so successful because he was an optimist. This fact is demonstrated in the way he lived his life, his copious amount of works, his success, and in the works themselves.
1.) Poe vs. Shakespeare: In this post I compared the lives of William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. The purpose in this being that it demonstrates how truly successful Shakespeare despite the trials he had to endure when others with similar trials were not as successful. Both had many relatives die and marriages out of necessity and yet Shakespeare did what he need to, to be successful and Poe kicked against the pricks. As a result Shakespeare is far more influential today that Poe. The significance of this is relation to the theme of this blog is that Shakespeare made lemonade out of the lemons life handed him and Poe threw the lemons at people. In the end Shakespeare was more successful because of his ability to go with the flow as a result of his happy demeanor and positive attitude and Poe was self centered and sought for what he wanted of thought was best, never taking the time to work with others. In other words his negative attitude could not take him the places William’s positive attitude took him.
2.) Prospero: Optimism is demonstrated in The Tempest through the conclusion. The fact that in the end of the play everyone gets to some degree what they deserve, or a type of happiness. Does this simply mean that Shakespeare was not in the mood to write a tragedy? Maybe but it displays an appreciation for happiness that only an optimist can truly appreciate. It displays his understanding of the happiness that can be felt when a person is simple happy for other people. This is what he demonstrates as Shakespeare buys round of happiness for all the characters of the play.
3.) Hamlet: This post discusses how Hamlet is a demonstration of optimism because he used the writing of the play to work through his grief over the death of Hamnet. He does not focus on the loss until his dying days but rather puts in an effort to make himself as mentally well as he can by channeling his inward feelings and emotions into his works. So doing he is able to work his way back to his former successful, happy, and optimistic self.
4.) Comedies / Humor: How can you doubt the bard was an optimist when you look at the number of comedies he wrote. Further evidence is as follows: the number of comedies, his ability to appeal to all audiences, and the fact that even his tragedies had comical elements. Only happy people can provide the array of humor and whit that Shakespeare did. And happy people are optimists therefore Shakespeare was an optimist. This may seem false but think about it for a minute. Have you ever met a pessimist who was not critical or a cynic? In addition have you ever heard a pessimist who received a reaction ten percent of the reaction Shakespeare has? Optimists are successful, and prolific not pessimists.
Conclusion:
The conclusion may appear somewhat circular, but because Shakespeare was an optimist he was able to survive and overcome the trials he experienced in life, he was able to create a successful career for himself and he was able to write a broad range and numerous amount of works. All good things that happened in the bards life can be attributed to the fact that he sought the good rather than the bad and the seeking led to it finding him.
The conclusion may appear somewhat circular, but because Shakespeare was an optimist he was able to survive and overcome the trials he experienced in life, he was able to create a successful career for himself and he was able to write a broad range and numerous amount of works. All good things that happened in the bards life can be attributed to the fact that he sought the good rather than the bad and the seeking led to it finding him.
