The Universal, Enduring Appeal of Shakespearean Characters

Shakespearean plays are compulsory reading for high school English students and a course or two for college students who study writing or literature. The plays have been performed in almost every language, on stage and screen and at popular festivals around the world. Four hundred years have passed since William Shakespeare penned his last play. Yet his prose, plots and characters are as alive today as they were when the plays were originally staged during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. According to Paul Corrigan, we sorely underestimate the potential influence of the Great Bard in our daily routine professions.