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William Shakespeare's influence on modern culture
William Shakespeare's influence on modern culture
Personal review of much ado about nothing
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William Shakespeare created many great pieces of work throughout his life allowing people the ability to enjoy his source of entertainment. Shakespeare’s work is still read in schools, by some people for fun and many other reasons. Although his works are read by most the purpose of his works was to be performed not only read. The Globe Theater performed many of Shakespeare’s work in many different ways. Each adaptation produced creates a focus on Shakespeare’s work as inspiration. Almost all adaptations focus on the plot line, character development and the true art of Shakespeare’s ability to bring the words to life. Shakespeare was able to write many works that have a purpose and their own individual uniqueness. As I read Shakespeare plays …show more content…
As stated above, each key theme that Shakespeare expresses relates back to societal values and views creates a work that comically uses society’s negative and positive attributes to light. Shakespeare’s ability to achieve this can be appreciated by people if they examine this work and are able to see it on the big screen in a way they will understand. The language Shakespeare uses can be difficult to interpreter for many people causing his work to be ignored and unenjoyable for those people. Most modern adaptations of Shakespeare allow people the ability to learn the story in a different way but still gain the true purpose of Shakespeare’s works. An example, 10 Things I Hate About You takes Shakespeare’s play Taming of The Shrew into a different way but still allows the audience to enjoy the film and gain Shakespeare’s purpose in a way they could understand. If Much Ado takes a similar turn to 10 things people will understand and appreciate this play more. The use of modern day language will allow the work to resonate with people more than if kept in Shakespeare’s original words. Many scholars battle with the idea of changing Shakespeare from its original work but, “if an adaptation is perceived as ‘lowering’ a story (according to some imagined hierarchy of medium genre) response is likely to be negative. This leads people to assume that authors and texts such as Shakespeare are on a classical pedestal and cannot be touched or reproduced, unless it is by a higher art form. (…) Rather than undermining classical works, media adaptations can enhance them, pulling them down from reverential pedestals and making them palatable to the masses” (Hammond 2015). Even though Shakespeare focuses on the importance of language or the characters, I would never ignore the importance of properness to come across. Everyone interoperates Shakespeare’s work
The works of William Shakespeare have been one of the diligent hotspots for adaptation and appropriation. We see dramatic adaptation of Shakespearean playtexts began as early as Restoration period. Different fields like poetry, novels, advertisements, and movies have connected themselves with Shakespeare as well. The adaptation of Shakespeare makes him fit for new social settings and distinctive political philosophies.
To start off, Shakespeare made his plays to entertain and not to study. According to Powell, Shakespeare’s “plays are not meant to be taught like this.” Shakespeare made his plays to entertain and let people escape reality. In addition, Powell stated, “ Shakespeare made students feel stupid and not
...With its unforgettable characters and witty charm, this Much Ado entertains the masses and at the same time reveals the troubles and adversity of love and mistrust. Kenneth Branagh creates his own individualistic adaptation of this classic through the use of visual imagery, characterization, and setting. Branagh cut many lines and speeches from the text to better support his interpretation of a more open and informal society of warm-hearted, affectionate characters. Though Shakespeare's mood is more formal, Branagh remains true to the essence of the play as all of the same characters and most of the dialogue are justly included in the film. Although distinct differences can be made between Branagh’s film and Shakespeare’s written work, they both share a common denominator of good old-fashioned entertainment; and in the world of theater, nothing else really matters.
Shakespeare’s plays show the complexity of human beings. Everyone is different in reactions, actions, and thought. Shakespeare explores various themes throughout his writing career. Each play is unique, and their themes are handled in a very distinct way as Shakespeare writes each work with great care. Two major themes are appearance versus reality and relationship between motive and will; Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 all portray these two themes in similar and different ways.
The Globe Theater, home of many of William Shakespeare’s plays became exciting to watch and hear. Shakespeare’s plays will forever be heard from generation to generation. People would come from all over to watch his creative side from costumes to props and his actors. Shakespeare’s writing will always influence writers to write great poems and plays.
Shakespeare's intention was to increase the morale. of the citizens of England by reuniting the country, making the English. feel proud of their noble heritage. By writing the play, he hoped. to raise their self-esteem and enthusiasm for the forthcoming events.
...e comedic relief that actually reflected Shakespeare’s life outside of theater. . Through his art which was dramatic writing, he expressed his thoughts of certain events that happened in his life. Shakespeare expresses his love through his plays such as Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet and many others through his use of wit, humor and dramatic talent.
The Globe was the most important structure to Shakespeare's drama because most of his plays were to be performed on the stage of the Globe. Those plays written by Shakespeare include: Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Othello, and Julius Caesar. These plays that had a huge effect on our literature had an even larger effect on the people of London. Plays were important to the residents of London because they were an efficient way of getting a message to many people and entertain them at the same time. The playhouses commonly drew thousands, who saw a supposedly fictitious play often with a political undertone.
Shakespeare is Important William Shakespeare’s plays are being made into box office film hits at an incredible rate. Films such as Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, Othello with Laurence Fishbourne and Henry V with Kenneth Branagh have been seen by a surprising number of teenagers. Often they have not understood it all, or even half of it, but they have been affected by the powerful characters and by the Shakespearean magic which has affected audiences around the world for centuries. They want to know more, they want to understand, and what better motivation can any teacher ask for than that students WANT? That alone is sufficient reason for any English teacher to start a course in Shakespeare.
Transformations inherently contain traces of the author’s social and cultural context. Much of the same can be applied to “Much ado about nothing”. It incorporates comical features, yet retains the sense of tragedy which is attached to almost all of Shakespeare’s plays. Brain Percival’s role as a director, was determining, understanding and distinguishing the social norms and the social structure of the society, and how the themes represented in the play can be transformed into a modern text. The Elizabethan society was typically a patriarchal society. Percival has used as well as transformed certain themes and textual features to ensure, that the film is more appealing and assessable to the critical modern audience.
Shakespeare’s plays are a product of the Elizabethan theatrical context in which they were first performed. A lot of pressure was put on Shakespeare as he wrote his plays because he was not allowed to upset the royal family. His style would have been different than others in those times and a lot more thought has gone into his writing than people listening would think. Usually, the audience take for granted the cleverness and thought of Shakespeare’s writing, however, now we have studied and gone into great detail about Shakespeare’s writing, we can appreciate it more than they did:
Shakespeare consists of classic tales, as some would say. He uses such a beautiful language and a strong depiction of his characters, atmosphere, background and even the overall message he tries to send through his productions. Specifically, Hamlet is a very important play because it covers a broad range of themes that we encounter today in the 20th century ranging from love, betrayal, politics, war, death, insanity, espionage and so on. Shakespeare’s work was a form of art and you can get a lot out of his
Shakespeare has perhaps contributed the most to the English language of any writer known to man – literally. Over 1000 words and phrases that he coined as part of his plays and prose are now in common use across the globe. He changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, added on previously unheard-of prefixes and suffixes and in some cases made words out of nothing. Even culturally sensitive words such as ‘ode’ (The ANZACS) and scientific jargon (‘epileptic’) are in fact products of Shakespeare. Bernard Levin probably summed this up best when he wrote: “If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle… had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, … - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;…” (Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986).
William Shakespeare and the new millennium seem to be diametrically opposed, yet his works are having a renaissance of their own after 400 years in the public domain. Why have some major film producers revisited his works when their language and staging would seem to be hopelessly outdated in our society?Perhaps because unlike modern writers, who struggle with political correctness, Shakespeare speaks his mind with an uncompromising directness that has kept its relevance in this otherwise jaded world.
William Shakespeare’s work is known throughout the world and has been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two main sources that provide us with a basic outline of his life. One source is through the plays, poems and sonnets he wrote, and the other source is from official documents, such as church and court records. But these sources can give only so much, they only tell us about specific events that happened that happened in his life, not much about the person experiencing them. William Shakespeare was a successful poet and playwright during the Elizabethan era, and became the most popular dramatist of his age.