Poll: What is the Big Deal With Bloody Shakespeare?!?!

[Enigmers]

I think Shakespeare is famous only because he happens to be an old author whose works survived all these years. It's like classical/baroque music, for all we know there were dozens more composers who were as good as, or better than, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozard, etc. but these guys are all we have.

I don't enjoy Shakespeare's works, though the only ones I've read were what we had to read for school (Romeo & Juliet and MacBeth). I heard his comedies are pretty funny from exactly one (1) friend of mine.

 

[LostTimeLady]

Shakespeare revolutionised so much of the English Language as well as Literiture. Take the phrase, 'up stairs', before Shakespeare there was no such phrase! Hard to believe isn't it?
His poetry, although personally not my cup of tea, is some of the most amazing written simply because of the perfect out-pouring of emotion that he manages in the constricted from of the Shakespearian sonnet. (In case you're wondering my favourite sonnet is Sonnet XIX).

Ok, his works can be complex, they're written in tudor English and blank verse which doesn't aid understanding, and some of the plots you've heard a hundred times before but that's 'cos he popularised those plots first! 'The Lion King'? Hamlet. 'She's the man'? 'Twelth Night'. 'West side story', 'Twilight', practically every love story written since? Romeo and Juliet.

I'm sure a lot of comments above me have already expressed these opinions but I thought I'd say it again.

Sorry mate, that's what the big deal is with Shakespeare. It's good. No, it's not good, it's fantastic. But most of his works are plays, and so I have this one reservation, watch them as plays, then read them for a deeper understanding. And if you still don't apriciate it? Well, at least you know and can say you kept an open mind.

 

[MajoraPersona]

Apparently he's written comedy. I've never laughed once.

*facepalm*

Comedy used to refer to a story with a happy ending. As opposed to Tragedy, where everybody dies.

However, Shakespeare tended to put in a lot of dirty jokes to amuse the peasants that would go to his plays. So if you're not laughing, it may be due to the fact that the English language has changed so much.

The way I tend to describe Shakespeare is as "Disney in the 1600's". Both Shakespeare and Disney adapted various stories and legends into an accessible format for the general populace. Though, by Shakespeare's standards, pretty much every Disney movie would be a comedy. Except maybe Old Yeller and some Pixar movies.

 

[Rakkana]

I've actually sworn to my English teachers face that I would kill Shakespeare if given a time machine. It would spare every teenage boy having to live through the agony of the tempest and Macbeth.

Romeo and Juliet was alright though. Still far from anything worship worthy.

[http://dragcave.net/view/jAsi]

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Looking at your atrocious spelling/grammar and how you talk about "back when you were a kid", as well as stressing your age, besides that you don't even appreciate Shakespeare, I call into doubt that you are, in fact "approaching your 18th birthday"

 

[The Stonker]

I love his works of art.
But the trouble is with people today is that they don't cherrish their language and savour the specctacle (If that's written right I don't have grammar check so sorry) of beauty,love and skullf******.
Yeah I do love classics.

 

[dlawnro]

I must say, a big problem with Shakespeare in the classroom is the way most teachers cover the material. For instance, we had students read aloud Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello, and they were very difficult to understand. One of the big problems is that high school students reading a play written by Shakespeare for the first time have very little understanding of the language and inflection of the piece. By contrast, my previous (Senior) year in high school, my teacher had us read sections of King Lear at home, then come in class and go over the same scenes listening to a tape performed by a professional acting company, with all the inflection gloriously intact. It was a million times easier to understand when hearing professionals delivering the lines. In truth, most of his plays were never intended to be read, or even written down in their complete forms by Shakespeare himself. They were mostly compiled after he had died by the actors who worked with him and remembered their lines.
That being said, I think Shakespeare really has some "Utterly Brilliant" works, my favorites being Othello and King Lear. I personally love the feeling of discovering the meaning of passages obfuscated by time, and he has a lot of important and interesting things to say, though I have missed out on some of the more famous of his works. Plus, there are some very quotable lines in his works, such as (If you're feeling romantic) :"love sees not with the eyes but with the mind/ thus is winged Cupid painted blind"
ormore violent but equally eye-related(tee hee)) 'Out vile jelly! Where is thy luster now?"

 

[xXTheParadoxXx]

a big deal is made about Shakespeare because he was the greatest writer of his time, which leads me to believe that all other writers at the time were autistic ducks

 

[shootthebandit]

he was far ahead of his time and he practically invented the english language, if you think his work is posh his plays were a were mostly watched by peasants and everyone would just get drunk. im not really into literature or books. the one we learned was merchant of venice, we watched the movie after reading it and it made much more sense it had Al Pacino in it

 

[Pegghead]

I think he was a fabulous playwright, The merchant of Venice is easily one of the best works I've had to study for school.

Oh yes, and it's spelt Shakespeare.

 

[Godhead]

I really like the majority of his works. I appreciated his sonnets a lot. And I hate myself for this, but I still find Twelfth Night quite humorous.

 

[Mr Snuffles]

I like it how in an appeal to attempt to make themselves look culturally advanced, 186 have voted "Utterly Brilliant"

OT: I personally think it's very outdated myself...

 

[TehCookie]

Ok, his works can be complex, they're written in tudor English and blank verse which doesn't aid understanding, and some of the plots you've heard a hundred times before but that's 'cos he popularised those plots first! 'The Lion King'? Hamlet. 'She's the man'? 'Twelth Night'. 'West side story', 'Twilight', practically every love story written since? Romeo and Juliet.

Haven't those stories/plots been around since the dawn of time, but since Shakespeare was a better writer than most so we teach his versions?

 

[Denamic]

If you write half as good as you read, you're probably too confused to even understand any of his work.
If you can't read and comprehend them, it's no wonder you can't appreciate it.

 

[Normalgamer]

when i was a kid id sit in class blocking out the noise of the teacher droning on about macbeth, subtly dreading the aweful truth that, statistically speaking, one day id probably turn into a boring sod like "them" and begin to actually like this crap too!

although here i am, approaching my 18th birthday and it seems i worried for nothing, i still think its all crap and shakespear is still at the top of my "people to slap if i ever go back in time" list, but what about all the other escapist users? what do you think of shakespear's works?

Wow bro, you trolled so many people with that post I /tip my hat to you.

 

[Vrach]

Hope no one beat me to it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5jB2tl70M

 

[0bserv3]

i really don't have that much against Shakespeare, he just wrote todays comedy in old English. If I remember correctly, there are quite a number of dick jokes.
however, the bastards who put his plays in the English curriculum SHOULD burn in hell