INTRODUCTION OF A RESEARCH PAPER

Lawrence Ferlinghetti once wrote, “I didn’t know that painters and writers retired. They’re like soldiers - they just fade away.” In other words, artists and writers are like soldiers, devoting their whole lives to literary and artistic works until their bodies are gone, but their dedications and names remain forever. Typical in this research paper is the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist - William Shakespeare. Four centuries have passed, since April 23, 1616 - the day genius William Shakespeare entered the realm of immortality, his love song “Romeo and Juliet” has not stopped resounding to cheer for the couple's love. The desire for happiness and peace and the self-questioning question “to be or not to be” that Hamlet raised in the tragedy of the same name remains forever an open question to find the way for each person and each nation on the historical journey from years to years.

Ben Johnson, among the best-known writers and theorists of English Renaissance literature and second in reputation only to Shakespeare, also exclaimed in his poem “To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare”, “ He was not an age, but for all the time.” Indeed, since Shakespeare's death, mankind has gone through the centuries and made progress. Culture also has gone through many stages, but so far the name William Shakespeare and his works are not strange to modern people in the 21st century. Today, thanks to the advancement of society, people know more about William Shakespeare, and the understanding of William Shakespeare's works is deeper and deeper. That is the genius of William Shakespeare and the miracle of his works.

George Bernard Shaw, an Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, and socialist propagandist, once said, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” That opinion is also right with ?William's dramatic works. They seem like mirrors to human life. His works reflect the good or the bad, the dark or the flashy, the laughable or the sad of life. In addition, William's works always bring interesting topics. The more we delve into the research, the more interesting things we will find and learn from his literary works. Those are the reasons why this research paper appears.

It can be said that William Shakespeare is an important author in human literature. His works have been researched and taught not only at most top universities such as Harvard University, Wellesley College, the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of California-Berkeley also in many countries in the world, including Vietnam. Shakespeare’s compositions have long gone beyond the United Kingdom to become the common property of the world and the most valuable inheritance. We are students majoring in American and British culture and literature, so learning about a great human culturalist is necessary and practical. We chose William Shakespeare and his dramatic art as our potential research topic, which not only provides readers with an overview but also contributes a part of our thoughts about him and his dramatic art in British literature.