Pa peppered this fiery oration with quotations from Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice - he plucked the lines from thin air, like petals from one of his homegrown roses, and tossed them into the audience. It was showmanship, but not in an empty way. He was making the point: "You should all be able to do this. You should all know these lines. Theyre our shared heritage, we should be cherishing them, safeguarding them, and instead we're letting them die."
I never doubted how much it upset Pa that I was part of the Shakespeare-less hordes. And I tried to change. I opened Hamlet.
Hmm: Lonely prince, obsessed with dead parent, watches remaining parent fall in love with dead parent's usurper ... ?
I slammed it shut. No, thank you.