Is William Shakespeare still relevant to modern student?
Many people just believe that Shakespeare is just another dead guy that wrote some poems, so does this mean he’s not relevant to the students of this generation. Shakespeare has always had a big impact in the way of theatre and I believe that he still has a major impact on the way we live in our modern society. From the way that we talk and the movies we watch to the books that we read, most of the time the concept is based off Shakespeare.
Take The Lion King for example, every kid out there has watched the movie and sing along to the animated movie when it’s funky up beat songs are on but what many people don’t realise is that The Lion King is based off Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
The story of Hamlet is both similar to The Lion King in both plot and characters. In the story of Hamlet, the main Character is a rightful King named Hamlet who was tricked by his Uncle Claudius, this being very similar to the actions in The Lion King being Simba who represents Hamlet gets tricked by his Uncle Scar who represents Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius.
In Hamlet the Uncle Kills his own brother, Hamlet’s father, seizing the throne and claiming Hamlet’s Mother Gertrude for his own. The same story line applies in The Lion King being that Simba’s Uncle Scar kills his brother and king of the land Mufasa, causing Simba to think it was his fault making him run away predicted to never return. Scar believes this to be the perfect opportunity to claim the throne and Simba’s Mother Sarabi as his own.
Simba then later experiences a vision from his father telling him to remember who is truly is reclaiming the trine from his Uncle, much like in Hamlet where Hamlet’s Father appears to him as a ghost asking his son take revenge upon the actions of Claudius. Hamlet’s themes become apparent in both the play and the movie of The lion King being revenge, mortality and moral corruption.
Another example of where we see Shakespeare in out modern society is in a well loved movie 10 Things I Hate About You! 10 Things I hate About You is based on Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew. The movie 10 Things I hate About You is about 2 sister both from completely different ends of the spectrum.
Bianca represents Bianca and she’s the girl that all the guys are after and on the other side is her sister Katherina who again represents Katherina and to her boys aren’t important so there protective father decides that until Katherina dates Bianca doesn’t.
This becomes very unfortunate for Cameron who represents Lucentio, a boy who falling more and more in love with Bianca as time goes on so he does what ever he can to set Bianca’s sister Katherina up with bad boy Patrick who represents Petruchio. Events are very similar in both the movie and Shakespeare’s play for example Cameron pretends to be a language tutor just to spend more time with Bianca, a move that Lucentio also does in The taming of The Shrew.
Again themes are very much the same in both The Taming of The Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You, being social status and love.
Shakespeare created a lot of the language that we speak these days, most of which we don’t give him credit for. From the table below how often do you use the following words of sayings:
| WORDS | SAYINGS |
| ACCUSED | ALL CORNERS OF THE WORLD |
| ADDICTION | ALL OF A SUDDEN |
| ADVERTISING | ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL |
| AMAZEMENT | AS DEAD AS A DOORNAIL |
| BEDROOM | EATON OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME |
| BLANKET | HOT-BLOODED |
| BLUSHING | HEART’S CONTENT |
| BUMP | I WEAR MY HEART UNPON MY SLEEVE |
| CHAMPION | THERE’S METHOD IN MY MADNESS |
| DEAFENING | TO BE OR NOT TO BE |
| DISHEARTENED | VANISH INTO THIN AIR |
| ELBOW | WE’VE SEEN BETTER DAYS |
| EXCITMENT | WILD GOOSE CHASE |
| EYEBALL | FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE |
| FASHIONABLE | GOOD RIDDANCE |
| GOSSIP | IN THE MAKINGS |
| HINT | WHAT A PEICE OF WORK |
| LONELY | |
| MAJESTIC | |
| TORTURE | |
| UNDRESS | |
| WORTHLESS |
When it comes to the teaching of out modern student I think it is important for them to realise that with out a lot of the words, phrases and plays that Shakespeare we wouldn’t have some of the well loved movies or modern slang that we do now.
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