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

[Yaxley]

Rather than lecture about Shakespeare, may I please just point out to those of you complaining about his plays being written in Old English are lacking historical perspective on your own language. Shakespeare wrote in Modern English. The language has without question evolved since then, but it is Early Modern English. You aren't translating anything in order to be able to read it; you're just paraphrasing with words with which you are more familiar. If it were in Old English, it would have letters you've never even heard of.

More on topic, Shakespeare has had a tremendous influence on our language and culture. I'm particularly fond of Hamlet myself. And I maintain that his plays are exciting. I suspect those who find Shakespeare boring might do so because they were taught by a teacher who was boring. A boring teacher can ruin anything.

 

[Jaker the Baker]

Gotta respect what he did for us, but I just can't read it today.

 

[megamanenm]

Shakespeare wrote in Old English? You mean this?

Þa cydde man me, þæt us mara hearm to fundode, þonne us wel licode: and þa for ic me sylf mid þam mannum þe me mid foron into Denmearcon, þe eow mæst hearm of com: and þæt hæbbe mid godes fultume forene forfangen, þæt eow næfre heonon forð þanon nan unfrið to ne cymð, þa hwile þe ge me rihtlice healdað and min lif byð.

I don't think you know what Old English is, he wrote in early modern English.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I have to say though op, that your initial post does seem to indicate that appreciation of literature wouldn't be your thing.

 

[Slash Dementia]

I love his works, he had great talent. I've read about five plays of his and seen three, and I thought they were all great. I even much prefer reading/watching his plays than modern movies.

And about MacBeth, it's just my opinion, but I think that is a really great play. Maybe if you watch the 1971 Roman Polanski film version of it, you might enjoy it. I didn't like Shakespeare before, but when I saw that, MacBeth became an instant favorite. The rest then followed (like The Merchant of Venice and Two Gentlemen of Verona).

But to each their own. I, myself, have this huge 1900+ page Shakespeare book and it stands up at the top of my bookshelf (should really get around reading all of that).

Ex 2: Macbeth, the instant he gets pat on the back from the king, he starts thinking on how to kill him and take the throne for himself

The witches at the beginning tell him that he will be King soon. He gets closer to what he wants when he becomes Thane of Cawdor. He starts getting ambitious and his wife pushes him to murder the King, so they can be King and Queen, even though MacBeth is reluctant of killing him. It's not that hard to understand: he's prophesied to be the Cawdor, then King, so he goes after it.

 

[Psychedelic Squid]

Now, I'm not agreeing with the OP (as much as you probably hate to admit it, he contributed an awful lot to the english language as it stands today), but those who are saying "you spelt his name wrong" haven't necessarily got much to stand on there, given that Shakespeare himself didn't consistently spell his name. That said, "Shakespeare" is pretty much the de facto correct spelling these days, so I guess the criticism stands.

Pretty good.

 

[cornmancer]

I've not read or seen any of his stuff, but I think he had lasting appeal to people everywhere and is still regarded highly to this day because he was more racially tolerant than his contemporary, chuckspeare. *ba dum tch*

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

As an English Literature student I can think of very few people who are quite as important as Shakespeare to, you know, the entire English language in all its spoken and written forms. Geoffrey Chaucer comes in a very close second but he was more a master of using what he had.

Shakespeare was an innovator, he was a man not afraid to take risks with his works, to show people that they could be involved in this process he called theatre. he criticised the monarchy, he made fun of rich people, he emboldened the poor and (for the time) had surprisingly open-minded views on women and people of other races and creeds, and all of this can be gleaned simply from reading his plays.

In respect to his plays themselves, reading them at high school is never a good idea because you just don't have the education to really appreciate how much they can mean. This isn't an insult (though it may be towards the National Curriculum) you just aren't taught Shakespeare right at school. You aren't taught his best works, only his most famous, you don't learn the theories which can be applied, or the theories of literature that existed at the time that he was deliberately building and subverting. You also are very rarely taught anything that would help you understand why his comedies really were hilarious.

Basically, Shakespeare is badly taught in every respect at high school. I had the same opinion as you when I was in high school, but then looking at him with the benefit of a real English Lit education, I now hold Hamlet to be one of the single greatest works of art in the entire history of mankind.

To give a comparison with another subject, askig a high school english student to learn and appreciate Shakespeare is akin to asking a high school physics student to learn and understand Nuclear Astrophysics. The basic learning is there, but the subject is beyond their comprehension. Similar to asking a high school mathematician to understand analytic and algebraic topology of locally Euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable Riemannian manifold.

Never underestimate just how badly your school is preparing you for higher learning.

 

[runnernda]

I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, but I've found throughout the years that trying to explain his appeal to people tends to be unsuccessful. They just don't want to hear it. If you're interested in trying him out, though, they have these books called "No Fear Shakespeare." They have the original text on the left page, and what's being said in modern language on the right page. It's worth a shot.

In other news, he has some of the best insults ever: "Hail, idol of idiot-worshipers," "knot-pated stump," and "Thine horrid image doth unfix my hair," just to name a few.

 

[orangebandguy]

I hate Shakespeare, I really don't see why he's so brilliant.

I throughly hated English assignments on all of his crappy plays.

 

[HigherTomorrow]

I hate Shakespeare, I really don't see why he's so brilliant.

I throughly hated English assignments on all of his crappy plays.

I'm not sure how anyone can use crappy plays and Shakespeare in the same sentence, lest it was, "Shakespeare did not write crappy plays,"

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

I think the state of your post pretty much says it all...

Shakespeare was a talented writer, who not only came out with a multitude of well written and powerful plays, but contributed a plethora of vocabulary and phrases to the English language.

 

[Layzor]

You are stupid.

 

[Crayzor]

Seeing a Shakespeare play well acted is brilliant. The plays are supposed to be watched not read. I despised Shakespeare until I saw a great performance of Much Ado About Nothing a year ago.

 

[Petroleum Blownapart]

A close reading of "Hamlet" will reveal a number of penis jokes. Anyone who can manage to make penis jokes part of a standard English curriculum is a bloody genius. Also, "Macbeth" and "King Lear" provided the inspiration for "Throne of Blood" and "Ran" respectively, which are some of the greatest films of all time.

Benjamin Disraeli, on the other hand, was a terrible writer.

 

[Burst6]

One thing i dont get about Macbeth. What the hell happened to Fleance and Donalbain? They just leave and never come back. Fleance is supposed to become king, and Donalbain is a prince, and they just leave.

 

[WolfThomas]

I find that "best" is a subjective term. They are his most famous and in my opionion, his best. But that's all it is, my opinion. You may have different views to mine but I rather like those two

PS: Damn. I forgot to say Julius Caesar. Thanks for reminding me =)

Agreed. I did quite enjoy Macbeth. I didn't dislike Romeo and Julet, I just find it frustrating when someone completely writes off Shakespeare when they don't like it, when there are many plays as good or better in his huge repertoire.

 

[Commissar Sae]

Rather than lecture about Shakespeare, may I please just point out to those of you complaining about his plays being written in Old English are lacking historical perspective on your own language. Shakespeare wrote in Modern English. The language has without question evolved since then, but it is Early Modern English. You aren't translating anything in order to be able to read it; you're just paraphrasing with words with which you are more familiar. If it were in Old English, it would have letters you've never even heard of.

More on topic, Shakespeare has had a tremendous influence on our language and culture. I'm particularly fond of Hamlet myself. And I maintain that his plays are exciting. I suspect those who find Shakespeare boring might do so because they were taught by a teacher who was boring. A boring teacher can ruin anything.

Indeed this is what old english looks like:

Spoiler

I also agree on your comment about teachers. I had a fantastic english teacher when we did Julius Ceasar. He even dressed himself in a toga and we all had a go at stabbing him. Can't remember which conspirator I was but it was a lot of fun.

OT: You have to understand that Shakespeare was writing at a different time than now. Culture has changed and the instant gratification of modern entertainment is a new concept. Stories were more convoluted and multilayered. Theres actually a surprising amount of dick jokes in Shakespeare if you know where to look. I mean the litterally every third thing the Nurse says in Romeo and Juliet is about sex. It's never spelled out for you because you're supposed to think a little while watching a play, somethin the average hollywood movie isn't all that interested in.