Superstitions, Prophecies & Black Cats!

Dear Blog,

Last week, in Literature class, my classmates and I were introduced to superstitions and

prophecies after reading the "Act 1, Scene 1" of Macbeth. That made me wonder about

prophecies. Are they real? Has anyone experienced anything that had been foretold

before it had happened?

I am the type of person that does not believe in such mumbo jumbo. I believe in

thinking rationally and trying to find the logical reason if something illogical

ever happens. However lets imagine that I had experienced a prophecy before.

It was a dark stormy morning. The wind was howling loudly and dark clouds covered the sky.

Just like any other day, I was on my way to school. I spotted my bus reaching the bus stop

and was making my way through the street to get on the bus, when I a scrawny looking cat

zipped past me, crossing my path. I was really startled but hurried and got on my bus.

In the bus, I thought about the black cat. There was a superstition saying if black cats

cross your path, you will get seven years of bad luck. That was when the old lady who was

sitting next to me suddenly told me that she had seen the black cat crossing my path and

it would bring me bad luck. I just laughed it off, thinking of what bad luck and tiny

black cat would bring to me. However that day, in school, I had

the worst time ever. In school, I was made to stand in class for forgetting to bring my

English homework. Then, I had gotten my Literature and Maths examination results, and

found out that I had failed the examinations. Lastly, to top it all, I slipped on a puddle

and fell down the stairs. That was when I started wondering, whether it was the black

cat that had brought me all that bad luck just like how the old lady told me it would.

That night, after going back home, I went straight into bed, and woke up the next day,

with a refreshed mind. I started thinking about the whole black cat fiasco and realised,

that it did not cause me any bad luck. What had really caused my bad luck the day before,

was because I had not gotten proper sleep that day which caused me to become forgetful

that day.

Don't worry people, that story is 100% fictional. If I had really failed my history and

literature, I would have gotten a heart attack.

Good bye for now!

xoxoxo

Maisha

All About Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English Language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stradford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.