More than 400 years have passed since William Shakespeare penned his last play. And yet his prose, plots, and characters are as alive today as they were in the late 16th and early 17th centuries – performed on stage in almost every language around the world, required reading for high school English students, and reimagined by filmmakers.

Joan FitzPatrick Dean, the Curators’ Teaching Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, examines that enduring appeal, taking particular note of Shakespeare’s then-revolutionary ideal of linking love, sex, and marriage.

Dean has taught at UMKC since 1975 and published six books on drama and film.