Connection to Shakespeare

Shakespeare, in my mind, is the most uniquely distinct playright in all history. In all my reading, I've found NOTHING that even remotely resembles his works and style (His plotlines, maybe). Just by looking at a play like King Lear, for example; we can see a powerful, well-crafted, twisting, yet interconnected plot. Sure, these plots may have holes in them- but take a look at Romeo and Juliet. Is that NOT the perfect love story?

Still, in addition, we can take note of shakespeare's craft, which is perhaps even more unique than the very content of his plays. Just look at how he uses words. He does all sorts of crazy things with them. First off, he'll just take an ordinary word and create a new meaning or phrase out of it. Secondly, he'll simply allude to all sorts of things: poems, sayings, myths, songs, gossip, innuendos, pick-up lines, and nursery rhymes. It's just amazing how many different things Shakespeare alludes to in his plays. Last but not least, it seems like shakespeare sometimes gets a little too creative and begins to use alot of other weird phrases (Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?). I mean, some of these don't even make sense!

So in any case, i think it's these elements that compose the weird and wonderful Shakespeare we know. In terms of his style, you either love it, or you hate it.

Speaking of weird and wonderful, i think shakespeare actually reminds me of ANOTHER weird and wonderful sort of artist.

This would be Salvador Dali, whose insanely surreal paintings have spurred countless "WTF?" moments. His paintings, like shakespeare's works, are very unique in themselves. They're strange but powerful, highly intriguing, they convey meaning, and they're sometimes very hard to understand (like shakespearean language).

Some of Dali's paintings even share some of the same themes in shakespeare's writing, especially those that relating to vice and human nature. Like shakespeare's characters, some of these paintings just convey total insanity.