Lots of students seem to turn up their noses when they are asked to read the works of Shakespeare. They wonder “why should I read works by someone who died a long time ago?”. Well, what is your view? Why should we study Shakespeare? How do you think this Elizabethan playwright’s works are still relevant to our time? As a student of English, why should you bother? Wouldn’t it be nicer or more worthwhile to read “Hunger Games” or other books that reflect your interests and most of all that are written in contemporary English? How can we relate Shakespeare to Italy? How would you love to appraoch Shakespeare’s works?
In my opinion it is important to study Shakespeare’s plays. I think that those who haven’t had the possibility to study and appreciate his works, aren’t completely developed as regards their education. It is true that Shakespeare died in 1616 and his works might seem far from our life-style, but if you are taught to understand and to catch their deep meaning, you can realize that the themes he wrote about, are related to our culture, qualities, virtues and vices. I think we should study Shakespeare to become aware of what is hidden under our deeds.
His works are relevant in our time, because they deal with the human nature, which doesn’t change with the passing of time. Therefore the same ambition, jealousy, unawareness, need of power, fear of death and so on of his characters is the symbol of our modern society.
Studying a subject instead of another one, a writer instead of another one doesn’t depend on the students’ choices but on the teachers. Sometimes they are really able to rise our interest, curiosity, passion and they let us become fond of that issue. The students bother if they can’t find the sense in what they are studying.
I think that each book is worth of being read: for example from Shakespeare’s works you can learn new old words and structures and so your language ability improves not to mention the richness of your vocabulary. Also reading books like “Hunger Games” can open your mind: perhaps they aren’t as educative as those by Shakespeare, but this kind of books can help you to relax and enjoy.
Shakespeare is related to Italy because he was influenced by Dante, Boccacio and Petrarca, whose “Canzoniere” became a model of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The structure between Italian and English sonnets is different, but both the English writer and the Italian one wrote about the lady and the passing of time.
I would like to study his comedies and tragedies, but not the political ones. In fact I find much more attractive themes like love, revenge, friendship than the political and historical plays. It would be fantastic to have the ability and possibility to insert these themes into our world, to understand our mental and psychological motivations
Valentina, thank you for your comment, really full of insight and well written. I hope your classmates will follow suit. You dedicated some time to the writing of this comment and I am happy you did. Kudos. 🙂
In my opinion Shakespeare is a very important writer, who wrote plays and poems, though, unfortunately, many of these were lost. His works are fundamental in English literature and has been a source of inspiration for many authors: this is due to the richness of plot and characters we can find in his works, but also to the universality of the themes he dealt with. Besides, he invented so many words and expressions that have become part of the English vocabulary, making this language richer.
Some researchers think that he didn’t write the plays himself and there are many other possible true authors. Everyone has their own hypothesis. Anyway, Shakespeare always remains very important because all people, from the most educated to the least ones, know some of his most famous plays or have at least heard about him. His plays are full of basic themes, such as love, the most important one, nature, friendship, rivalrly, destiny, ambition, revenge, and many others that make his works involving and moving even nowadays.
As a student of English, I may bother because it is quite hard to translate Shakespeare’s lines into Italian, because I can’t immediately understand the depth of his characters’ feelings, nor discover the hidden meanings in his plays, and because it is difficult for me to identify myself with the tastes of Elizabethan society.
Of course, reading books like “Hunger Games” can be more entertaining and involving, because the language is easier and there is a lot of immagination that can easily appeal to teenagers who usually like escaping from everyday reality. But with this kind of books you can’t learn anything about history and the psychology of the characters is not so developed, so it can be a nice pastime but not something that you can enrich you.
Shakespeare is related to Italy because he wrote sonnets, like Petrarch: unlike Petrarch, though, he used the English pattern, made up of three quatrains and a final couplet, even if the contents of his sonnets follow the Italian pattern. But above all he is related to Italy because he took inspirations from the works of some Italian authors, such as B. Castiglione, M. Bandello, G. Straparola, G. Fiorentino and G. G. Cinzio, as a consequence some of his works are set in Italy: Venice for “Othello” and “The Merchant of Venice”, Verona for “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Two Gentleman of Verona”.
I would love to read some of Shakespeare’s plays to analyze them and get interested in his most famous characters, but above all I would like to see a Shakespearian performance at the Globe Theatre in London, where actors try to reproduce the way of acting and the atmosphere that were typical of the Elizabethan Age.
We should study Shakespeare because he wrote extremly important plays that, even nowadays, are read everywhere, because they contain significant themes, such as: love, betrayment, hate, suicide, jealousy, murders, revenge, friendship… Shakespeare is the inventor of approximately 3000 words and sayings still used nowadays, so it would be interesting know better this kind of genius.
Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant in our time because they treat topics that open our minds and help us to understand the true meaning of life.
Who never read Shakespeare, can be a very smart person, but I think he/she can’t understand all what happen in his/her life. Shakespeare’s plays are some kind of resource to get the answers we need to know to our questions about life.
Read, for example, Hunger Games would be really nice, because it’s a modern novel in which we can reflect on. But reading ancient poems is very useful to understand what people thought at that time. It would be nice read both of them: Shakespeare’s plays and modern novels, and then compare them to note differences and analogies.
Shakespeare is one of the most important simbols of England, and in Italy it could be compared to Dante Alighieri, because both of them wrote poems still known nowadays. If we ask to our grandparents who Shakespeare or Dante was, they would know at least one of their most important sonnets’ title (Romeo and Juliet or la Divina Commedia); this means that those two poets are relevant in every age.
I’d like to approach Shakespeare’s works reading all his plays’ plots and discuss them together, and then, chose one play and begin to read and understand what Shakespeare meant. I’d begin with “Othello” or “Macbeth” because I would like to understand all what Shakespeare had would teach us.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, not a sonnet 😉
We will certainly read and analyse the excerpts present in your book together, but you’ll read the plots at home. It is easy to read the summary of a play by yourself, isn’t it? Macbeth is one of my favourite tragedies. We will deal with Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, The Merchant of Venice , Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar.
I think that studying Shakespeare is really important for students who study foreign languages because we can gather a lot of information about the main features of the historical period in which he lived and so we can deepen history.From that we can study literature and all the arts that reflect the customs and traditions of that time.
Literature, poetry and drama cover an important role themselves: if we think about Shakespeare’s works we can absolutely point out the fact that he is called “the genius of language” because he coined lots of new words influencing the English language and bringing it to evolve in the years to come. In fact nowadays we always use his words sometimes without realizing it, that’s why it is good to have a thorough knowledge of his works.
In my opinion he is still relevant to our time because he revolutionized the culture and the English language.
Of course it is difficult to understand his works because the language was a bit different at the time and that’s why it requires some effort to analyze them.Probably, as a student of English, I would face some difficulties on the understanding of the grammar structure of the language of Shakespeare but I think that, with will and commitment,I will be able to take it in and grasp new concepts.
Taking as an example Shakespeare’s sonnets we can possibly reckon that he was inspired by italian poets like Dante and Petrarca; in fact the sonnet was largely used by them and it was likely, as scholars say, designed by Giacomo da Lentini; a member of the Sicilian School which in turn inspired Dante and his contemporaries.
I would love to approach Shakespeare’s plays by reading the script all together in class and then analyzing it in a simple way. Regarding to the poems and sonnets I would like to study and paraphrase them and then I would also get to know more about the themes included in Shakespeare’s works.
He was definitely a genius, wasn’t he? No fear of Shakespeare, though. There are different sites that will help us, sites that provide us with a contemporary English version of his sonnets and works. You can see it by yourself: browse No Fear of Shakespeare and have fun. http://nfs.sparknotes.com/
I think that there are so many advantages in studying Shakespeare like learning how people used to live in those days, because in his plays he represented the problems people had and there is nothing to be surprised in discovering that we have to face, more or less, the same ones!
Of course during the years thing change but we do not mutate as human beings and neither our feeilngs do; considering this, W. Shakespeare treats actual themes.
He also invented lots of new worlds and expression that are still used in the English language and as an English learner it is very useful to know that so many words that I study were coined by such a brilliant play writer.
I would like to make a further point taking into consideration that Shakespeare’s productions are really challenging because they are full of deep meanings and fundamental particulars that seem to be hidden and I think this is great!
So, to sum up, if someone would ask me if we should still study Shakespeare I would say that we definitely should, or better, we must!
YES, WE MUST; YES WE CAN! 🙂
I had never thought of Shakespeare before I started reading the book our teacher gave us this summer. I did not know almost anything about him and his life. Because when we think about Shakespeare immediately we think at Romeo and Juliet, especially us as Italian. We do not know that he built the Globe, we might do not even know he wrote also poems. I think that students that complain because they have to study one of his plays don’t know what are they doing.
Shakespeare’s plays are full of double-meaning concepts and the themes he wrote about are really interesting and suitable for people of all ages and cultures. We can find history, happiness, sadness, stories of victorious, losers, kings, queens but also humble people that lived in the Elizabethan period, believed in witches and in astrology.
Some scholars say that even if Shakespeare wrote in the XVI century, his plays are still relevant in our time. He deals with modern themes like the relationships between parents and children, between wife and husband, the problems with the political society, the problem of unemployed people. It seems that he knew what was going to happen long time after his death. But the most important aspect is that his plays influenced our way we speak. In fact, he invented lots of new world and idiomatic expressions still used today.
Personally, I do not think that would be better reading a novel by a contemporary author because it is part of our story that Shakespeare lived and wrote lots of beautiful plays, we can’t deny he existed and if we do not know our past, we can’t think of our future. I think we should read both Shakespeare and authors of our times. So we can compare and find differences and similarities, and we can say what is better.
Is an inspiration to many artists who came after him and his are still relevant today and are represented in many theaters. Italy and especially Verona must thank Shakespeare because, settling there one of his most famous tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, has given a boost to tourism, many people come in fact to Verona to visit the house of Juliet.
I personally would love to study his plays but also his poems, because we don’t have to think Shakespeare has been only a great playwright, but also a good poet.
Happy to read you are interested in his sonnets too, as a matter of fact we will start with his sonnets first, then tackle some of his tragedies to move on to his comedies.
In my opinion Shakespeare has become the literary institution. He was and he also is the beginning of the English literature. Ne with his poems and plays is able to make us find our own values and he also connected the past with the present challengin and confounding us.
For these reasons I think that studying Shakespeare is very important to understand things of the past that can explain also things that are totally important now.
In fact his plays are very important because they were the mirror of the society and they had the capability to make the people grow.
I think that students bother because nowadays we are more interested in what is happening around us. But if we don’t have a good idea of the past we can’t project pur mind into the future in the right way.
In addiction to this in my opinion study something contemporary to us is the most enjoyable way to learn a foreing language, but be able to read the contemporary books with the eyes of somebody that know the origins of the literature is like reading with more awarness.
Studying Shakespeare is also important because he related to Italy with many of his plays which are set in Italian citys ad: “Romeo and Juliet” in Verona, “Othello” in Venice, “Ceasar” in Rome etc…
For these reasons I would like to approach Shakespeare’s works putting more attention in what is closely relate to the present.
Since his works deal with issues that are with us to stay, issues that are inherent in human nature, it goes without saying that will relate what we read to your present life.
I think that we should study Shakespeare because he is known all around the world and he’s plays are still played in theaters nowadays. We can read quotes from his plays in newspapers, in TV, we can even read comics or books inspired by his works. We know that he coined lot of new words that are still used today, even the themes of his plays are still relevant today; he wrote about love, revenge, pain, ethnicity and history. Some people wonder why we should study him if he died a lot of time ago and we don’t read modern books like ‘Hunger Games’, I think that we should know something about the past to comprehend the present, probably the writer of Hunger Games used words that Shakespeare invented and for sure in that book we could find some analogies with one of William’s plays. We can relate Shakespeare to Italy because he was inspired by a lot of famous Italian writers and because a lot of his plays are set in Italy, like Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar and The Merchant Of Venice. I like studying Shakespeare plays and I’m curious to read his comedies.
We won’t be able to tackle all his works, but we’ll certainly read excerpts taken from some tragedies and at least one comedy.
In my opinion it is important to study Shakespeare because if we are studying a foreigner language it is important to know something about the culture too.
Shakespeare is an important and famous playwright of the english culture and I think that it is important the we study him because we can know how the playwrighters in the past thought, and reading his poems and plays we can also know how the english language evolved. We can’t forget that Shakespeare envented more than 3.000 new words and exspressions, that we use every single day but we don’t know which are.
I am a student and as the program of the school says we have to study poets and poems, i am studying them in italian. But as a student who is studying english it is important to know poets and poems of the english culture, in this case Shakespeare. It is also important studiyng him because as we can see in his sonetts he uses a different form form the italian one.
I love reading. I think that reading is the most beautiful thing we can do. Reading is very helpfull expatialy when we are studiyng a foreigner language. I also think that we can’t always read the same book. I mean I love reading fantasy book but i can’t always read them.I think that we should read different things just to increase our level of culture. What I am trying to say is that it is important reading books like Hunger Games, but we need also to read something else for example poems.
First of all we can relate Shakespeare to Italy because he is a poet, like Dante, Petrarca, Leopardi just to say few. But we can relate him to Italy because he loved Italy as we can see in his plays which take place in Italy, like Romeo and Juliet; Othello, The merchant of Venice and Julus Ceasar. For example we can see in Romeo and Juliet because of the two family, the Montecchi and Capuleti. In fact the two families were really exested. Maybe Shakespeare were interested in their feud.
I think that it would be beautiful to work on Shakespeare making some presentation with power point, or prezi, or Kahoot. Or it can be also cool work on him watching his plays act at the theatre.
Remember the Globe Theatre last year? Wasn’t it a great experience! You are right, it would be great to watch some of Shakespeare’s works at the Globe, in English. My dream. Unfortunately we can’t. Yet, we can discover lots of things about the Elizabethan Theatre in his works. We can go and watch his works performed in Italian and compare and contrast the performance with the study of the work you did at school with your classmates and teachers. I will certainly use some powerpoint presentations or launch a Kahoot quiz in class.
Why schould we study Shakespeare? Well, I think that there are two important reasons.
The first is what we immediately think when we’re talking about Shakespeare: the language, in fact he invented many words that we are still using today without knowing what these words are.
However personally, I prefer the second reason that is the differences between the 16th century and today. In fact I know that when I’ll read something by him I would be catch by these. His works teach us how the world change and that even if now it is not perfect, we are very lucky.
I think that studying it wouldn’t be boring or annoying becouse I don’t see it like something far from us, but something that represent in a different way, that we don’t understand immediately, some part of our lifes. I don’t think that reading other kind of books that are written in contemporary english would change a lot, but maybe reading what Shakespeare wrote would be better to learn new words because the vocabolary is very ample and would be more interesting to uderstand their way of thinking.
Pesonally I would love to discuss in class about the differences and the mentality of that time, but also think about how that changed and compare these two worlds that are not so far as they seem.
Well, Sonia, as you mention at the end of your comment, it is really interesting to study the Elizabethan period and to compare 16th century London with your own hometown in 21st century. We read widely about the Elizabethan time and I think you can see the differences between now and then quite clearly now! 🙂
I think that studying Shakespeare is very important because the themes of his plays are not as historical as we may think but are very contemporary and can make us think about the world we live in, our virtues and our culture. In my opinion this is one of the reason we study Shakespeare nowadays. He is also related to us because he invented words and expression that we still use today.
As a student of English I like knowing how was life in the Elizabethan era and how people thought, we should all learn something about our past.
I read ‘The Hunger Games’ and I think that is a very well written book that catches your attention because it has a different plot in comparison with the books that teenagers read but it seems to me that is a book that should not be studied in school but should be read in the free time. I like that in this book there is the theme of the value of life but I think that in Shakespeare’s plays are more different themes that we should study.
Shakespeare is related to Italy because he wrote Romeo and Juliet, which setting is in Verona, Italy and also because the structure of some of his sonnets is the Petrarchan one.
I would love to approach Shakespeare’s works by reading some of his plays, analysed them and then watch films that are linked to them.
We will certainly watch some film adaptations of the excerpts we’re going to analyse. We will also watch some lectures so that you will get used to taking notes as if you were already at a university abroad. You’re certainly right when you claim that Shakespeare developed topics that are still relevant today. However, in his works there are historical and cultural references that can be grasped just if we contextualise them in his own time.
I agree with what you say, that students when hear that they have to read some Shakespeare’s works are afraid and they don’t want to. But I think that if they start one of his works they get involved. Shakespeare is known as one of the most important British writer and is popular in all the world. He is important because he invented a lots of words in the English language that are used still today, but I think that his themes are important too. We should study him because the themes that he debates are contemporary and at our age we can understand them in a good way. He speaks about love, friendship, betray, revenge and war and these are themes that we have even in the Italian history and we have them even today. A thing such as love can involved people of all ages and more in adolescence where guys want to discover the real meaning of it. I’ve never read a Shakespeare’s work but I think that in it we can find a lots of emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, and other deep feelings. At the end I think that the best way to study it is discussing it together and sharing own ideas in class.
You’re certainly right Anna, Shakespeare wrote about universal topics and this is the reason why he still appeals to readers after so many centuries. His themes go beyond barriers of time or place.
“Why should we study Shakespeare?” I think there isn’t just an answer to this question, but millions and millions of answers, objections, notes, and considerations about it. I honestly don’t know where to start from, because reading the question made a lot of thoughts come in my mind about this topic. It’s really interesting, also the answers that I have seen in the videos, especially the first one. What struck me the most is: “We Should Study cool books like Hunger Games instead of Shakespeare.” My question about this sentence is: How can we compare the works of a excellent and insuperable poet and playwright like Shakespeare with a contemporary writer? For me it is absolutely absurd! Shakespeare was a cultured person like few, with a great imagination and extraordinary mastery of language, I really don’t believe that he could be replaced with a contemporary and also great writer, but not at the level of one of the famous person in the entire world! Taking these considerations, I firmly believe that the problem is the school program and some teachers. Teens need to be encouraged, “captured” and involved in reading and understanding his magnificent works. Apart from this I absolutely convinced that his works are still relevant, because he created a new world, only with words, and this thing for me is incredible. The positive thoughts in the first video are very interesting, the ones that impressed me more are: “It’s key of literature”, “It’s the foundation to modern literature”, “It allows us to utilize different parts of our brain to become more efficient”, “It teaches very good life lessons, as well as opens up the readers eye to one of the best playwrights in history” and I could go on and on. This tells us that Shakespeare has left its mark in all of us, and although there are some who do not appreciate his work, there are many other living thanks to his teachings.
He is/was a great playwright and poet, definitely so. The only problem is that lots of people think that he was a genius, but when asked why, they cannot provide an answer. I hope by the end of our “path” on him, we will all be able to substantiate the use of the adjective “great” or the noun “genius!
In my opinion it’s very important to study Shakespeare and his plays, obviously everyone is free to have their own opinion, but there are some fundamental concepts that make Shakespeare’s plays contemporary and useful for everybody. Yes, the fact that he lived several centuries ago can make people skeptical although the themes he deal with aren’t outdated but contemporary. He has analized, through his plays and sonnets, human nature: emotions like love, hate, revenge, respect, jealousy, and even life and death, beliefs, ideals… And if it isn’t enough he gave us a detailed description of the Elizabethan period, he is certainly the principal font of owr Knowledge obout all the abits and traditions of that period.
On the one hand it could be difficult to understand at all the word and expressions because the language isn’t the one we use nowadays, on the other hand he himself has invented the maggiority of the words that make up the English language. So he wasn’t only a talentous writer but a brilliant inventor.
Shakespeare was acculturated, he described and set some of his plays in Italy, think of the famous Romeo&Juliett and how many people goes every year to Verona to see the famous Juliett’s balcony! Shakespeare is for England what Dante is for Italy, you can’t say to know English lichacha if you haven’t studyied his commedies and tragedies!
This does not preclude that contemporary books are instructive, I have written Hunger Games and I’ve really liked it! It’s a dystopic book full of good values and well written, but Shakespeare is the “father” of English literature. If Shakespeare had not existed would English language be so incredibile? I dont’t think so.
I can’t possibly know how it is better to study Shakespeare but I would love to do it. Absolutely!
I did not know you were the writer of “Hunger Games”! 😉 I feel honoured to be your teacher 🙂
Today lots of people prefer to avoid Shakespeare. They think that he is bored, useless and BYGONE. They think that he doesn’t influence people’s life anymore and that we should move on and study contemporary writers like Suzanne Collins.
Probably they don’t see how Shakespeare still exists. We can find Shakespeare everywhere: in language, in philosophy, in films, in books…. Everywhere!
And if this is not enough to make people curious to learn about him, let’s see what this immortal soul did for the world.
1. Shakespeare put the stands of the English language. To create visual words inside audience’s minds he coined lots of words and expressions. A maledition for the students, a gift for the country.
2. He analyzed philosophical doctrines studying the working of the mind and opened new questions like “to be or not to be?”.
3. Through his works we could know upside down Elizabethan period. The customes, the entertainment, the beliefs.
4. Shakespeare is linked even to Italy. Some of Shakespeare plays are set in Italy like Romeo and Juliet and the Merchant of Venice. So through him we don’t just learn something about England but even about italian costumes.
So, for all these reason I would be glad to study Shakespeare. I like him. I’d love to read at least one of his works. At school we could study him in a special way. Watching the videos I understood that it would be great to study his works acting some plays. That experience would be challenging. But if to act plays is too demanding, then another way to learn about him could be through videos or films or theatrical performances.
Therefore, to study Shakespeare is important. There are many ways to learn about him so let’s choose one and start to know him!
It this way we would be more accolturated and interessant than those wo choose to settle for Hunger Games.
I smiled when you wrote “a curse for students and a gift for the country”. Lovely expression. I think he won’t be a curse to you though. You will love the Great Bard. Impossible not to!
Why should we study Shakespeare?
There are many things in our life that allow us to mature and to discover the world we live in better. And I think that all the art forms can do it, transferring messages full of deep meanings: they are a mix of passion and power capable to involve everyone in a whirlwind of emotions.
Without a doubt literature and poetry represent two of the most beautiful and meaningful art forms that all the humanity have seen in the years. They have always been a form of expression for the human being, that since he was born needed a way to vent everything that was impossible give a rational explanation to. The soul and the emotions of the people could be expressed in a special way in some of the finest literary compositions, that today we consider the pillars of the world literature. Obviously among the greatest literary exponents, William Shakespeare holds a special and privileged place.
So to the question “Why should we study Shakespeare?” the most immediate answer in my opinion is because Shakespeare was an artist and a creator of literature, an art form that deserves to be studied and to be lived. I used the expression ”to be lived”, because I can really live literature: every single poem and verse can tell a story that make me feel part of it, in which the real and the unreal can coexist and in which my ideas and feelings maybe coincide with another one’s that lived many years before me. And this because the inner emotions that characterize the human being haven’t changed in the different historical eras: they have united all the people in the years.
Shakespeare, a writer of 1500, represented the person’s behavior, analyzing the bad and the good aspects of it, in works that are appreciated even nowadays by all the people. Everyone in the world know Shakespeare: he was able to be remembered himself and his works after many centuries. Does this man deserve to be studied, does he!? I think so.
The themes of his works are really contemporary and he can represent our society even if he lived long time ago.
Studying Shakespeare offers the possibility to investigate and to dig deeper into the human soul. It allows us to analyze our behavior towards others and compare the past with the present. Shakespeare makes reflect, above all young people: I think that his works has the ability to divert the attention of all people from the rush of modern life and to stop to reflect on what we are and on what’s most precious to us. He laid the basis of the modern literature; he is considered an inspiration for all writers. I think he was the best observer and listener to the human’s soul, because he could express humans and their psychology in a careful and completed way . Some of his compositions are pretty intense and rich in philosophical contents. I’d really like to meet him because I think he had a sensitive and special personality: he deserves to be studied only for the important messages and issues that he faced in his works and for the way he transferred them to the audience. He is a part of history and a myth and he will never be forgotten.
Moreover this Elizabethan playwright’s works are still so relevant to our time because they are a a source of information about the economy, history, tradition, politics and society of time in which Shakespeare lived. Through his works he represented the Elizabethan time in all its facets: the violence, entertainments, beliefs, the upper and lower classes, betrayals, sexuality, jealousy, all in a sort of huge painting that incorporates different characters and themes.
He wrote tragedies, comedies and also a lot of poems, inspired by some of the most important models of Italian literature. He wasn’t only a writer, playwright and an artist, but also an inventor, of words specifically: in fact he coined a lot of words and expressions that we still use today in the English language; he reformed and improved it.
He really was one of one of those rare and special people who are born with a destiny assigned by history, for this I don’t think that some of our contemporary books can be compared to Shakespeare’s works: the contents that treats him are common to many modern books but the way he faced and expressed them to his audience in his plays is unique and so he has to be studied to be understood and appreciated. He worthies all the time his plays deserve. Obviously Shakespeare’s compositions are difficult to understand for the courtly language and the archaic expressions, so they require patience and dedication, but the values that get after his reading I think they are incommensurable.
If I have the possibility to decide how to study Shakespeare, I’d choose to act his works: I think it would be really funny and useful to recreate the atmosphere of the Elizabethan time. We could identify ourselves with the characters of the stories, assimilating the ideas and the concepts that Shakespeare wanted to convey. What a better way would be to study Shakespeare if not in the way he would have preferred? Acting his works in theaters!
A heart-felt comment, full of useful input and great insight. I think all your classmates should read it. I am passionate too about Shakespeare and I am sure young people like you fall in love with his works as soon as they start reading them, but most of all, as soon as they watch them performed. We will certainly act out a few scenes, we will make them contemporary (no Elizabethan costumes, modern ones with some changes to make the text more believable to the contemporary audience); we will also act out some scenes the very way they were written by Shakespare; we will rewrite the ending to some of his tragedies; we will change the features of some characters. We will have fun, hopefully. It is just a pity that we have little time in class and most of all just two hours to plunge ourselves into literature. Regardless of these limits, I am sure you will all do a great job. All your comments are evidence of great literary sensitivity.
I think we should study Shakespeare because he is the foundation to modern literature. He is also considered a contemporary writer. His themes are still alive like the difference between love and sexual desire, the good and evil..these are all themes that we can find in film or books nowadays, and are also topics of actual discussion. We can find performance of Shakespeare everywhere like Romeo and Juliet that is a play set in Italy and we can relate Shakespeare to Italy because of the Shakespearean sonnet that is taken from the Italian sonnet.
As a student of English I bother some themes about politics that Shakespeare wrote.
Yes I think it could be nicer to read Hunger Games or other books that are contemporary because this kind of books can be more enjoyable and less difficult to understand, but I think that Shakespeare’s books are more suitable to study literature. I would like to study the plays about love and jealously but also see “Macbeth” and read “A midnight summer dream”
Even if, as we all know Shakespeare lived and composed his works many years ago,he is still considered one of the most important or the most important poet of all the years, and all his works and plays are also know by young people like us.
Honestly I think that if our teacher, even if all the students later or sooner face the topic,would’t have done us to do activities , like the reading of the book about Shakespeare, the “What is love” ‘s teamwork or simply the readings about the life of Shakespeare and about his works, I would never been interested so much about it.
In my opinion it is essential to study it, also in depth,not only because it gives us the possibility of acculturate us but also because it introduces different themes that are contemporary to us like love, sexuality, friendship, religion, wars,politic, etc.
The poems of Shakespeare that were part of the Elizabethan period, are contemporary to us, but they also contains important words, phrases or sayings that were used at the time but are still use today in english and that we study.
I also think that since we are students we have not to bothering, beacuse sometimes things like the poems of Shakespeare seems difficult but if we have a teacher who is able to explain us those things and also to involve us and making the argument interesting, it is going to be much easier than what we think.
We know that Shakespeare is linked to Italy because he composed his sonnets inspired by italian’s one of the 500 and 600, or rather by Dante’s,Boccaccio’s and Petrarch’s sonnets, especially by ‘il canzoniere’ of Petrarch. But the structure of the italian sonnets is not equal as the english sonnet or the shakespeare’s sonnets. The first is composed of an octave and a sestet and the second is composed of three quatrains and a couplet, even if the themes are the same: love, faith and beauty.
According to the text and to the videos….
I agree therewith.
I honestly think that each one of us should be curious and reflect about the origin and evolution of our language.
The words we use nowadays are evolving more and more,but which is the main base that makes us understand how languages evolve?
William Shakespeare is the founder of lots of sentences,that we still use. He teaches us values and has influenced the world where we live,( In my opinion a sentence or a word isn’t something that you think immeadiately when you wake up in the morning. It must have an own meaning. It must represent the object we’re talking about. ), In fact nowadays Shakespeare is everywhere.
For example in plays,novels,films,song,advertising,art…etc.
He helps us to understand the Elizabethan period in a fascinating way.
The Elizabethan themes like love,good and evil are relevant through Shakespeare. His novels,poems and plays are difficult to understand for normal students,who study english because his way of writing isn’t simple.
You have to cudgel your brain!
Indeed Shakespeare allows us to utilize different parts of our brain.
I think it’s normal that english students would love to read “The Hunger Games” during the english class,because it is easier and you understand everything without the use of the vocabulary. However without Shakespeare and without the other writers….Hunger Games wouldn’t exist!
We can relate him to Italy because a third of his plays was set in Italy.
Shakespeare was totally fascinated by Italy,but he set his poems there because first of all Queen Elizabeth didn’t allow playwriters to set their poems in her country, second of all Italy was a totally different place from England.
The idea of “acting out” Shakespeare’s poems is one of the best ideas I’ve ever read.
Because if you try to act what he wrote, you’ll immediately understand it! I think that If students are 100% involved,they will enjoy what they learn and they will treasure it!
I think studying Shakespeare is necessary to fully understand the English language and culture. Shakespeare is an author that has marked the English culture, like Dante or Leopardi did for the Italian one. He is a “complete” writer in the sense that he wrote plays ( comedies, tragedies, historical ) but even poems ( sonnets ). Shakespeare’s plays and poems are about issues that are contemporary , so they are not closely related in the Elizabethan period in which Shakespeare was born and died, but his works are still living. Shakespeare opened his mind in subjects like philosophy and ethics, so he is still actual and innovative, although his view of the world is that of the Elizabethan time. In my opinion it has no sense to compare Shakespeare’s works to books like “Hunger games” but it would be interesting to compare theater of Shakespeare to the several avant-grade theater of our days and the main evolutions. I love the theater so I like to study the most staged works. Finally we can compare the poetry of Shakespeare to our main author, like the poetry of Petrarca. So it is clear that there are many reasons why studying Shakespeare in schools.
Original answer Sofia. I liked reading it!
It’s too easy to say that we should study Shakespeare because it’s part of literature history. You do not totally mistake if you say this but there’s more in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets.In fact Shakespeare’s works let us know lots of things about Elizabethan period. But he was a great writer because he managed to catch the attenction of his spectators though there was no special effects, lights and microphone; he just used the power of words. He was clever and he was capable to manipulate words to involve spectators. He used many puns and this is one of the reason why it’s useful to study what he wrote and not just to read, that’s different. His works are still read all over the world but not everybody studies them. Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays are beautiful but they are full of hidden meanings and studying them makes you capable to catch them. His description of love is not so abstract as the one of Dante or Petrarca, he dealt with themes not detached from real life and popoular nowadays too. It makes studying Shakespeare a fantastic way to understand that although times have changed, people and situations in which they are have not. Studying Shakespeare makes us increase our knowledge about human condition and it makes us understand emotions and relationships. It’s incredible how can his capability of writing being overlooked to analyze the topics he wrote about but it means to me studyng properly Shakespeare. This doesn’t mean that it’s not relevant how his works are are written, in fact as I said before his capability of using words makes his works beautiful and involving. His writing skills are extremly important for the English language because he coined lots of new words that we use unconsciously.
Shakespeare is died but he is still all around us.
I personally don’t like poetry at all in fact as a student I would not like to approach Shakespeare reading much of his works and acting them even if I know it would be useful to improve our language skills. It doesn’t mean that we shoudn’t read anything but I’d just like to analyze properly his sonnets and plays instead of reading everything he wrote. Acting would impress more his words and technics of writing but I think it would stop us at analyzing his writing skills and not the issues he wrote about. To sum up, I would like to examine in depth the themes he wrote about, above all the ones we can see nowadays and make comparisons with our times.
This is an interesting comment. We will certainly analyse the sonnets in depth and we will always relate Shakespeare’s themes to your life, we couldn’t do otherwise. Happy to your post.
Why should we study Shakespeare?
First of all we must say that Shakespeare is a giant of literature of all time. Writing his works in English he gave it the same nobility that French and Italian had in that period.
In his works we can find a “gallery of character” because he touches all the aspects of the personality of human beings.
When you read or watch one of his plays you are projected into the story and you go beyond it because you start analizing the attitude of characters, and this is when you realize that he understood deeply how humans are.
If he wants to show you love or fear or other passions, he creates a scene in which everyone can relive that exactly emotion. He can manipulate your thoughts, he can make you think what he wants, and he can create all images he has in his mind.
I think that he can do this with grate success because he used to study Rethoric and so his language is extremely successful.
He writes some sentences that will stay in our mind forever, for example in MacBeth when he cannot find a way out instead of write this he writes he has scorpions in his head.
There are films based on Shakespeare’s plays, some set according to what he wrote and others set nowadays however based on his works.
We also know the Elizabethan period, reading his plays we can find out people habits of the time and the way of they lived.
We have to thank Shakespeare because he gave to English language its hegemony.
So these are some reasons to study Shakespeare.
Interesting considerations, but you seem to have overlooked a final question I had posed, that is “how would you like to study Shakespeare?”. This part is missing.
I personally think that we should definetely study Shakespare: he’s the fundamental of English literature. He invented lots of new expressions and words unknown at his time. I think that Elizabethan works are still relevant in our time beacuse this is the time when the English language was modeled as never before and even now we can’t remodel the language as like as in the Elizabethan period. Maybe the one thing that could bother me as a student of English is the difficulty to undestand the raw texts of Shakespeare mainly because I’m not mothertounge and could have difficulties as any other student in the world. I wouldn’t mind to study actual books, but we all know that it isn’t the same as the “old school”. Reading actual books maybe could help us expressing ourselves better beacuse is contemporary English, but the old productions as the ones written by Shakespeare give us the basics of the language so we have like a certainty behind our backs.
We can compare William Shakespeare to our man who gave life to Italian language Dante Alighieri. Dante’s most known production is the “Divina Commedia”, where the author tells of his journey in the afterlife. In this production the author coined new words and perfectionated the language.
In conclusion of these toughts, I say that I would like to study Shakespeare in a creative way, not the classical way. I don’t know in which exact way, but in a creative way.
It is interesting that you would like to study Shakespeare in a creative way, but when asked what you mean by it you are not sure! This is the problem with “creativity” isn’t it? Everybody demands it, wants to benefit from it, but when asked what it is, they do not know how to pinpoint it. 😉
I had really never thought that Shakespeare would have had such a great influence on the current English and I had never imagined that he was such of an actual writer. Yes he died in 1600s, but he is still so current, I don’t actually know much about him because we just started working on him, but, for the few I’ve seen, I really like the way he does things and he writes in such a fashion that will never die. He deals with things that happen nowadays like they used to happen four hundred/ five hundred years ago and I really think that all the stuff he writes about will always be part of life.
Shakespeare has had the great capability to learn from outstanding Italian poets like Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch, whose works influenced, not a little, Shakespeare’s poetry, and to adapt the knowledge to his language and his style of writing
Then, beyond the themes he deals with, I’d like to know more about Shakespeare because I think knowing his works is fundamental to learn more about English culture and English language’s origins.