Have you ever tried to read the Shakespeare play, Hamlet? I have and it was incredibly confusing and difficult to follow. By the 8th line I wasn’t sure if Francisco was sick from heartbreak or sick from the cold.
The first time I heard the name Shakespeare I thought it was a food dish, and all through primary school I never heard the name again – yet here I was listening to the teachers talking about the greatest love story of Romeo and Juliet but never thought much of it. The very first time Shakespeare was properly introduced to me was when I first started high school and even then, not much was explained about him and his work.
WHICH LOVE STORY WOULD YOU WANT TO WATCH?
The NoteBook
OR
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare is only slightly relevant to modern students, to the extent that we can appreciate and enhance our reading of modern texts through an understanding of his works.
SHAKESPEARE ISN’T RELEVANT!
Shakespeare’s work was amazing for his era, but for todays modern society it’s very much outdated. The language and the context of his plays and poems are definitely not for this era. His work is boring for students to read. Shouldn’t we be learning modern literature that will be useful for us when we leave school and try to get jobs? I can’t, and I’m pretty sure that no one else can read Shakespeare and fully understand what is going on the first time they read it.
Shakespeare’s relevance is becoming smaller each and every year, and not only because of the hard language, outdated mode of speech and the fact that most stories have strong violence and sex sen sences here are Kings and Queens instead of more identifiable modern characters , women being looked upon with no respect, but because of the little amount of accessability to the publicYeah the internet has almost everything you need to know about Shakespeare, it’s all just been copied from other websites and it’s 80% of the time not even the truth.
The best place to learn about Shakespeare and who he was would be going to England and proceeding to see the tourist sites and even then everything is locked up or sealed away from the public. To be honest I don’t have the money to fly over to England and learn facts about Shakespeare from the places he worked and lived in.
Shakespeare’s plays have very little understanding for todays students, they are fulled with Kings and Queens and family feuds that cause innocent people to die e.g. Romeo and Juliet. The modern version of Romeo and Juliet would be something like ‘G G Gnomeo and Juliet’ which has a more modern context and is more enjoyable to watch and easier to understand it’s themes
SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS AND MODERN MOVIES!
Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare: This play is about a beautiful young Bianca who has no shortage of admirers, but her father insists that she will not marry until her bad-tempered sister, Katharina, is married. Bianca then sends her suitors to find a man to marry her sister. The suitors persuade a fourtune-keeper, Petruchio, to go on a date with Katharina. It’s only then does he find out how bad-tempered and strong minded she is for a women.
10 Thing I Hate About You (Modern version of Taming of the Shrew): 10 Things I Hate About You, is a teen romantic-comedy. Set in a high school environment, Bianca is invited to prom and she isn’t allowed to go until her older sister finds a date for prom.When Pat strives to date/ask out Kat he truly sees the stubbornness of Kat.
Hamlet by Shakespeare: Tragedy Prince Hamlet has been sent home fromboarding school in Germany to attend his fathers funeral and shocked to find his mother remarried to Uncle Claudius. Hamlet thinks foul play when his Uncle is crowned King instead of the rightful heir to the throne, Hamlet. When Hamlet sees his fathers ghost wandering the halls of the castle, Hamlet finds out the truth of his fathers murder and who did it.
The Lion King (Modern Version on Hamlet): Simba, is a young lion prince, making his Uncle Scar second in line for the throne. Scar plans to kill King Mufassa and Simba, with the help of the hyenas. When King Mufasa is killed, Scar leds Simba to believe that it was his fault for his fathers death and flees the kingdom in shame. After many years with friends and seeing the ghost of his father he makes the decision to go home and overthrow Scar and the truth reveals itself.
WHY SHAKESPEARE IS RELEVENT!
It was 400 years ago when Shakespeare died, and today we still appreciate the themes he discusses and the characters he created. There was a reason why Shakespeare was considered the greatest. Personally, I believe that Shakespeare did have great work and that his stories, themes and the emotions of the characters were life changing. Shakespeare allowed his characters to be relatable for the audiences, filled with love, death, and guilt, the need to make difficult choices, separation and reunion. They do so with great humanity, tolerance, wisdom and powerful and expressive language. Because Shakespeare’s love, tragic and comedic plays have inspired hundreds of authors, directors and singers in writing hit books and movies that the world loves, it also gave the world something that they can enjoy watching but not relate too. William Shakespeare created over 1700 of our common words:
WORDS SHAKESPEARE CREATED:
| · Accommodation· Aerial
· Amazement · Apostrophe · Assassination · Auspicious · Baseless · Bloody · Bump · Castigate · Changeful · Clangour · Control (noun) · Countless · Courtship · Critic · Critical · Dexterously · Dishearten · Dislocate · Dwindle · Eventful · Exposure · Fitful · Frugal · Generous |
· Gloomy· Hurry
· Impartial · Inauspicious · Indistinguishable · Invulnerable · Lapse · Laughable · Lonely · Majestic · Misplaced · Monumental · Multitudinous · Obscene · Palmy · Perusal · Pious · Premeditated · Radiance · Reliance · Road · Sanctimonious · Seamy · Sportive · Submerge · Suspicious |
William Shakespeare is only slightly relevant to modern students, to the extent that we can appreciate and enhance our reading of modern texts through his works. He was an intelligent man who created some of the English language, but all good things must come to an end some time or another. In my opinion I do believe Shakespeare is a good influence for us and that we should learn parts of his history and works, but I also do believe that he isn’t relevant because of his outdated context and language. His lack of Accessibility makes whatever minimal relevance he has, kind of immaterial. “I’ll leave the final words to the playwright, below, for my embroidery calls, and this blogger knows her place.
SHAKESPEARE TO BE OR NOT TO BE!
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