Buried in both praise and controversy since 1616, Shakespeare’s wishes on his gravestone have been ignored, for the man who hoped to spend his afterlife undisturbed has been the topic of conversation for hundreds of years since his death. Though we know it is important to study the works of Shakespeare, do we really know why we have been moving his bones against his wishes for the past 395 years? The reason cannot be that he possessed some kind of superior education or intelligence; Shakespeare was a brilliant writer, however he only attended school until the age of fifteen. I think the answer to why we study Shakespeare in English is actually obvious: he was an exceptional; writer. Someone does not need to be particularly intelligent (although great skill in writing does signify intelligence) or highly educated with expert degrees to be influential. Yes, it is true that his works are often probed with controversy. Some conspiracies even suggest that due to Queen Elizabeth’s commendable education and support of the arts, she could have been the penholder behind his masterpieces. These conspiracies, however, cannot be proven; therefore, we must go by what we have learned. It is important to study Shakespeare because of the way he illuminated London’s stages with the perfect combination of history, tragedy, and comedy. It could be said that his works influenced almost every film and story we know today. Where would the tragic failures of romances in today’s romantic comedies be without the comic relief? They would be nothing but depressing and would not even live up to their genre. Where would the substance of novels be if there was no history included to serve as a setting for the plotline? We study Shakespeare because he inspired a world of new possibilities in writing. Still, I wonder if we will continue to study Shakespeare in the decades to come. Will the greatness of his works fade, or will their impact remain immortal?
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