Defend Shakespeare

[Laughing Gull]

call me un-cultured or ignorant for this... I don't really care.

I cannot stand Shakespeare.

I find it boring and difficult to follow. I don't like the language used. Trying to figure out what the heck they're saying definitely takes away the impact of the story, IMO.

I have read Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. I felt like I was wasting my time. I did not find myself caring about the characters or what happened next. I'll never read another work of Shakespeare as long as I live.

I don't understand why Shakespeare is so highly regarded.

What is so special about him?

 

[Civanator]

I don't really know. I find it boring too, because it is written in old English, so it sounds funny to me.

 

[bobgote]

Go and watch it as a play then.
I love Romeo and Juliet in particular, even the recent movie of it was good IMO.

 

[Mojotronica]

Laughing Gull --

"Hamlet" is my favorite Shakespeare... It's the perfect tragedy.

I think that the movie versions of Henry the 5th, Titus and Hamlet (starring Mel Gibson -- not the more recent Ken Brannagh version) might be dynamic enough to hold your interest. Watch with the subtitles active to catch more of what's going on.

 

[Constantine]

It is the basis for modern english. The greatest english playwright of all time IMHO. Some of the romances are bad but the Histories like Henry V and Mark Anthony and Cleo are good.

 

[onejayhawk]

Originally posted by Laughing Gull
I don't understand why Shakespeare is so highly regarded. What is so special about him?

Only everything. The plots of his plays have been redone in more movies than you can count, many of them not even vaguely Shakespearian. For example the standard boy from one family, girl from the other, which is being done right now in the TV series Skin is straight out of Romeo and Juliet. Many of his plot devises, such as the "buddy" from outside, who needs the situation explained to him, are from his plays. There are more subtle things, like alternating drama and comedy, to raise the level of both, or having parallel stories running along the same lines, one stylized and one realistic. This is the basis of good script writing.

Think for example of the best action movie villians, like the Terminator. One of the things that made him scary is the wisecracks, with the undercurrent of threat:"I'll be back." That's a Shakespearian approach. Indeed the best of the villians are sometimes taken almost whole from his plays. Hannibal Lector could be delivering Richard III's lines without a single change, except maybe a hump.

Then there is the language. Its poetry, so dont expect it to be easy. It is also intended to be read aloud. It takes some practice, but with a little effort the words just roll out with a certain inevitability. Take this passage from King Lear

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the co cks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

It is almost impossible to read aloud without raising your voice. Try it.

J

 

[Perfection]

Shakespeare is wonderful, and even has such great comic relief in the darkest plays, and his comedys were pretty damn good too!

 

[Tacit_Exit]

Originally posted by Laughing Gull
What is so special about him?

From what I've heard, around the time old Bill started writing the English language contained ~2000 words. He added another 4000. Special enuff?

 

[Margim]

Yeah, Shakespeare created more words than George W. Bush - he's gotta be some sort of a genius

 

[Laughing Gull]

Originally posted by Tacit_Exit


From what I've heard, around the time old Bill started writing the English language contained ~2000 words. He added another 4000. Special enuff?

that just shows that he made english a far more difficult language to learn- couple that with explosive immigration rates, and that makes America a real hoot for the natives.

suposedly, American English is harder to learn than Chinese or Arabic.

 

[Mrogreturns]

No one says you have to like it. Feel free to ignore his work as much as you can get away with. It is your choice and the loss will be entirely yours.

 

[Mrogreturns]

No one says you have to like it. Feel free to ignore his work as much as you can get away with. It is your choice and the loss will be entirely yours.

 

[floppa21]

Good post onejayhawk.

I think the worst thing about Shakes is that we are forced to read him in school when he is the LAST thing we want to read at the time. I think he (indirectly) turns a lot of people off of reading which is a real shame.

Read him when you WANT to and you will no doubt enjoy it more.

 

[Archer 007]

He's good, but confusing. Still a literary genius though.

 

[sysyphus]

I do appreciate Shakespeare, at least when the little bits I grasp now and then come about.

I've visited his birthplace!

 

[privatehudson]

Shakesphere is excellent in play form, atrocious to read. I like watching his plays because good actors will make his plays funny/emotional/whatever, I hate reading his works because it's harder to reach that humour in that format.

I still loathed him in school though

 

[col]

Sadly Shakespeare is rammed down the throats of the young far too early. Read him as an adult and you will understand more deeply the frustrations of Lear getting old, the sexual jealousies of Othello and the nature of the MacBeths' marriage. Shakespeare's insight into human nature and his gift with words are unparallelled.

 

[Turner]

Shakespeare has a way with words. . . okay, call me the king of obvious. . .

". . . I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer,
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, shall we not die?"

What an elegant and poetic was to say "Am I not the same as you?"

I agree with Col tho. . . it does come into school much to early. But we muddled through it. As you will.

 

[schmiddi]

Me too.
We had R&J in 8th grade, not so good.

But then we had macbeth in 13th grade english. What a hell of a play. I personally never had any problems with his language.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

I understood the syntax pretty well about when I was 14 when I studied in in school, but it's true meanings are only today starting to come out...

To be or not to be...