27. (are Shakespeare's plays still valuable in the modern age?)

Personally, I actually really like Shakespeare's plays.  I think the main reason some people have an aversion to them is the fact that they were written in a form of English that we don' t speak anymore.  As for the actual content of the plays, I think the they certainly have value to today's society, not only as a glimpse at the work of one of history's best playwrights, but also for the sake of entertainment.  The amount of action per serving in a Shakespeare play can rival that of a blockbuster thriller if you really look at it.  Take Romeo and Juliet for example.  The play is supposed to portray only a few days' time, and yet we have two sword fights in the street, a romance, a wedding, a called-off wedding, three murders, two suicides, and a banishment!  Among this action, however, the story is not lost, and we ultimately end the play with a sense not only of a wild ride, but also of a lesson that can be applied to today's world.  Romeo and Juliet is the story of two lovers who end up taking their own lives because of the outstanding mutual hatred of their families.  Romeo and Juliet end up caught in the crosshairs of a battle that has been raging for so long, nobody even remembers how it started.  The lesson to be learned from this, among many others, is that hatred is never a good thing, and that through peace, many great things can be achieved.  The story of Romeo and Juliet would have gone much differently minus their warring families.  This message is certainly applicable to the world today, as are those in the rest of his plays.