But what really helped me understand shakespeare was after watching the movie it was more dramatic, it just isnt the same when you just read the book!
My first impression on Shakespear after reading the book "merchant of venice", which was my first book by shakespear made me think at first that he could have been prejudice..
The book also show a huge amount of inhumanity between the characters because if you look closely, a person like Grationo who barely cared for anything, was a friend for whatever he had done, he just had to be Christian. Another example would be Launcelaut, a servant who thought working for a Christian was wrong while working for a Christian isn't wrong in any way. According to me Shakespeare in a way favors preconcieved ideas but if you think of it in a different perspective he tends to disagree with them in several other ways.but later on after I read the book it made me think that he also tried to teach people in his time that no matter what religion your from everyone is equal, with the help of shylock because at the point of time jews were looked down upon.shakespeare could have also been an athiest because he does not mention the name of god or any faith in this book compared to other writers in his time.
To conclude, shakespeare had different shades in his personality and is halfly impossible to judge his character as a person, just by reading one of his books.
