Sam Elliott

   Hello my fellow bloggers,

Now, before you start reading this you may just think that William Shakespeare is “some old guy that used to write poems and plays”, but let me tell you, he is worth so much more than that. Did you know that Shakespeare is the “second most quoted writer in the English language”? That’s why I am here to tell you why Shakespeare IS relevant to modern day students.

Shakespeare’s Plays

Shakespeare’s plays are known for being the most outstanding in the English language. The genres that are mainly in his plays are tragedy, history and comedy. Every single one of his plays have been translated into every language you could possibly imagine and have been performed in every country of the world. The experiences that take place in Shakespeare’s plays are very similar to the modern day. For example, in his plays the occasions of love, marriage, death (etc) occur.  Some of Shakespeare’s most popular plays are: Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew and many more. These plays are similar to modern day times for many reasons. 

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a ‘tragedy’ play written by Shakespeare about two “star-crossed lovers” that had families that didn’t like each other. In this play they had to find ways of seeing each other without their families finding out. This play is relevant to modern day because  a lot of movies have been made about this play. One of these movies is West Side Story (1961). West Side Story is about two people from different New York City gangs that fall in love. But, they can only be together without their friends knowing. The movie ends in a tragedy, just like Romeo and Juliet. This is just one example of how Shakespeare is RELEVANT to modern day history and how his plays are still getting used in various ways today.

Hamlet

Hamlet, which is set in the Kingdom of Denmark, is a play written by Shakespeare which is about Prince Hamlet who is revenged to get back at his Uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his brother (Hamlet’s father) and  had then been made king and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. This play is very similar to a famous modern day movie, The Lion King. The Lion King is about Simba who is a young lion and is very excited to be king after his father, Mufassa. But, after Scar (Simba’s Uncle) murders Mufassa, Simba is tricked by Scar in thinking that he killed his own father which then leads Simba to be very sad and disappointed in himself. As you can see, there is a very big similarity between Hamlet and The Lion King. This shows us that Shakespeare is very RELEVANT to modern students and that his work should be continued for generations to come.

Twelfth Night

The Twelfth is a ‘comedy’ play written by Shakespeare which is about two twins called Viola and Sebastian who get separated in a shipwreck. The main part of the play is when Olivia falls in love with Viola (Who is Sebastian in disguise) and Sebastian who turns out to fall in love with Olivia at the end of the play. By just reading this, you can obviously see how similar this is to the move She’s the Man. She’s the Man is about how Viola’s soccer team gets at her school so while Sebastian sneaks out to London for a band gig, Viola goes to his boarding school disguised as him to play soccer. Sebastian’s (Viola’s) new friend Olivia then falls for him, where as while Viola is still Sebastian, falls for his/her roommate Duke. As you can see, there are a lot of similarities that show between the play and movie. Therefore this does show how Shakespeare is so RELEVANT to modern day students.

Five very interesting facts about Shakespeare that you probably didn’t know!

1. Did you know that Shakespeare only lived up until the age of 52? Shakespeare died on the 23rd of April which scholars now believe was his fifty-second birthday! 

2. Shakespeare got married at the age of 18 to his wife Anne Hathaway (and no, not the same Anne Hathaway that is in a lot of famous movies!!). Anne was 26 and pregnant at the time of the marriage. The first child came 6 months after that.

3. During Shakespeare’s life, he managed to write 37 plays and 154 sonnets! He first started writing these in 1589.

4. Shakespeare gave us many words that we use often today. Some words that he created were: eventful, fashionable, uncomfortable, addiction, manager and many many others!

5. Shakespeare lived the best of both worlds! By the 17th century, he was a successful playwright in London but back at home in Stratford (where his wife and kids were), he was a respected businessman and property owner. 

Shakespeare IS RELEVANT

Shakespeare is absolutely positively relevant to modern day students. After reading just a few of the examples above, there is no reason to think that he isn’t relevant. Without Shakespeare plays and poems, the world probably wouldn’t have thought of some of the great ideas we have came up with. It’s very important that Shakespeare still is getting taught in schools because if it isn’t taught, the generations to come will have no idea who he was and what he did.