illustrated portrait of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

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The Relevance of Studying Shakespeare Today

Summary:

Studying Shakespeare remains relevant due to his profound influence on language, literature, and culture. His plays offer timeless themes that resonate with the human condition, such as love, ambition, and moral dilemmas, making his work universally engaging. Shakespeare's mastery of characterization and language ensures his stories are both entertaining and thought-provoking. His presence in popular culture, from idioms to modern adaptations, highlights his ongoing impact. Understanding Shakespeare enhances appreciation of literary and cultural references and enriches our grasp of shared human experiences.

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Why do we still study Shakespeare?

Shakespeare is considered the greatest playwright in the world. This includes not just English-speaking countries, but everywhere. There are a number of reasons for this, and these explain why we keep studying "the bard."

Admittedly, Shakespeare's language can be a hurdle, but today, there are more and more tools to help understand what he is saying, and if you can get beyond the difficult wording, you can start to delight in his work.

Here are some reasons we keep studying him:

Characterization: Shakespeare seemed to intensely feel what his characters felt, whether they were good or evil. He created characters that are powerful because they seem so alive. Their struggles and emotions are completely heartfelt. They behave consistently, as if they are real people. They draw us in with their deeply felt desires.

Language: Shakespeare doesn't simply put flat words into his character's mouths. The words he uses are so memorable that they stick with us. He's never afraid of a pun or a metaphor. Juliet, for example, is not simply beautiful: she sparkles like a jewel against an ear.

Range of plays: Not every play Shakespeare wrote was a masterpiece, but he wrote a large body of plays, and very many of them are masterpieces. He excelled at both comedy and tragedy and did so numerous times. The consistency of his excellence is stunning.

Influence on literary culture: Allusions to Shakespeare show up everywhere, from popular writers like Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse to more literary writers like Aldous Huxley and Tom Stoppard. It's good to study Shakespeare because he is a window into so many writers after him.

Exciting plots: Shakespeare is seldom boring: he brings us witches, ghosts, fairies, laughter, fighting, horror, romance, and bloodshed.

For myself, I have grown to love Shakespeare more and more because he is a humane writer with a moral compass. He understands what it is to be the underdog, the importance of mercy in people with power, and what suffering is. He always stands up for decent values. To me, these are perhaps the most important reasons to study him.

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Should we still read Shakespeare and why?

I always tell my students that while they may not be able to relate directly to the situation of a Shakespearan play's plot line, they should be able to relate to it undeniably.  That is why we should still read Shakespeare's plays.  I use the example of Hamlet.  While I should hope that not one of my students will be visited by the ghost of his or her dead father and told to do something he or she don't really find to be in his or her nature, I would say that every one of those students will be faced with the choice of action and inaction and will face Hamlet's dilemma of "To be or not to be" in the context of action vs. inaction.  They will all have to decide what the "nobler" path is, and recognize that sometimes "conscience makes cowards of us all."  From the same play, I hope they come to realize that "there is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will."  There are SO many gems of pure truth in Shakespeare, I can't imagine a time when it would be deemed that his plays, and therefore his themes, are unnecessary.

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Should we still read Shakespeare and why?

Shakespeare is one prime example of timelessness.  His stories are relevant and entertaining centuries after he wrote them, and he reminds us that literature is also art, as is the language itself.

Sure, there are some examples of stories and authors that have managed to stay in the curriculum out of sheer tradition, and I wouldn't mind their being phased out in favor of other works, but Shakespeare, I hope his work is permanently in our schools and our libraries.

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Should we still read Shakespeare and why?

I think it's still important to know Shakespeare's plays because they are part of our cultural legacy.  When people have some knowledge of lots of Shakespeare's plays, it binds us together. Shakespeare's plays are also quite good at making us think about various dilemmas that come with being human.  That is one of the major reasons for reading literature and Shakespeare is particularly good at this.

I think that it would be better if we could read the plays in modern English, though.  There is no need for us to read most of it in an archaic and hard-to-understand language.  Some stuff ought o still be read in the original for the poetry of it, but most of it need not be.  After all, people who speak foreign languages read Shakespeare in their own languages and still get something from it.

So I think it is still relatively important to know the most famous of Shakespeare's works.  However, I think that the plays would be better if we were allowed to read them in our modern language.

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