Sonnet

   We've been studying "Drama" in our humanities course and talked about gender norms and stereotypes. We looked at a play by Shakespeare where he challenged those norms. We watched a movie adaptation and had two guest speakers discuss theater and activism. One speaker talked about using theater to bring people together and change minds. The other speaker creates plays with survivors of difficult situations to raise awareness. We had to write a sonnet giving advice to a character from the play about gender norms. I wrote to Macbeth, telling him not to worry too much about being masculine.

SONNET:
Fair Macbeth, doth thy heart ache so much?
With worries of masculinity weighing thee down?
Fret not, for true strength lies not in such
But in the courage and kindness that doth abound.

Be not deceived by the false guise of power
That society deems fit for a man to wear
For true honor lies in the gentle flower
Of kindness and compassion, beyond compare.

Let not the pressure of the world bring thee low
For thee art more than thy gender or thy form
Thy heart is pure, and thy spirit doth glow
With a light that doth shine through the darkest storm.

So heed my words, and be not afraid to be
The kind, gentle soul that thou art meant to be.

CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, I learned a lot. I'm quite inexperienced in Shakespeare's writing since this is only the second play of his I've read so reading and watching Macbeth was a nice treat this unit. One key takeaway was how something like theatre and the arts can be instrumental in invoking social change for the greater good. Lastly, this action project was a nice challenge. Writing in Sonnet form and abiding by its rules was hard and I was quite unused to it. I did on the hand enjoy messing around with the English-to-Shakespearean English translator using this I was able to make the sonnet sound like an imitation of Shakespeare's own writing and meet the requirements.