People have been reading Shakespeare for a very long time, why stop now? Michael Mack presented a speech to college freshmen explaining how reading Shakespeare is important. Reading Shakespeare can provide insight to the real world, preparing you for what is bound to happen. Mack developed an effective argument that clarifies the purpose of reading Shakespeare and how it helps us through his use of rhetorical devices, and evidence. Shakespeare uses many analogies to real life in his plays, which provides readers with an understanding. It may be hard to read at first but once you have read it multiple times you'll feel enlightened.
One technique that Mack uses to advance his argument is his use of rhetorical devices. (Line 68-72) "When you
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(Lines 30-34) “This phenomenon of people having difficulty understanding Shakespeare is hardly new. It predates by centuries our truncated attention spans and our preference for the fast cuts of modern video. It is a problem that the editors of the First Folio addressed in 1623, just seven years after the death of Shakespeare.” Using this piece of evidence Mack proves that even people from Shakespeare’s time admitted it was difficult to grasp Shakespeare’s way of writing. They knew well that it took multiple reads to understand the meanings behind Shakespeare’s words in his plays. (Lines 85-91) “In the case of Macbeth, we have a supreme reflection of ambition. But what makes the play terrifying is not that Macbeth looks like a fascist dictator-a popular staging these days-but because he looks like us. If you don’t see your own overreaching in the phantasmagoric restless ecstasy of Macbeth, you need to read again. Either you don’t understand the true nature of Macbeth’s ambition or you don’t know yourself. Or quite, possibly, both.” Not only does Mack make an allusion to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth but it helps explain his claim. Once again making a mirror connection from the play to real life. Shakespeare, in a way, wrote our stories for us by using real life situations and characters in a way that provides us insight to the possible events that could happen in our