Why do people say that Shakespeare was one of the greatest playwrights in history when....?

While I agree with most of the other folks who have answered, I also think that Shakespeare has a few clunkers. After all, he wrote at least 36 plays--some of them are better than others. King John and Henry VI are not his greatest and I think Love's Labour's Lost and Comedy of Errors aren't nearly as good as some of his other comedies.

On the other hand, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo & Juliet are all pretty darn good if you ask me. Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure--they all rock. How many other playwrights before or since have written so many great plays?

Even in the contemporary theatre, many playwrights nowadays have maybe 2 or 3 great plays if they're lucky. I suspect that like many people when they are first introduced to Shakespeare, they find the language an almost insurmountable hurdle. My suggestion is to go and see a few Shakespeare plays and then you're opinion might change.

See one of his ... more.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.