The Modern Scholar: Shakespeare: The Seven Major Tragedies

Harold Bloom knows Shakespeare well. In these lectures he drops minor bits about the actors that originally played certain roles as if it were common knowledge. He has strong opinions about Shakespeare's works and shares them in a non-confrontational manner.

The works discussed are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, McBeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Othello. I feel I know most of those by reputation more than reading or seeing performance. (I didn't realize that Hamlet had such a large number of lines in the play.)

He admires the complexity of the character of Juliet. She was a teenager but had great complexity. (Was this a problem with him writing her "too old" or was this actually a well-written character.) Shakespeare's attention was on characters. In the tragedies he explored many challenges of humanity, while also throwing in some humor. 

Much of the stories for the plays were stolen from other sources. Disney animation is in someway the closest modern parallel. Both base most of their works on older source material. This serves as the basis for working their magic and creating a more complex and entertaining work.