Shakespeare makes use of poetry and structure to build meaning in all of his lines. Understanding the meaning in poetry is not an easy task as it needs an intellectual approach, to guess how the line was composed, and an imaginative approach to see why each character expresses the particular words in the particular ways. Therefore, Hall (2003, p. 12) explains that working on Shakespeare is the best way to train today's readers about any style and that there is no better way for a reader to train his intellect, understanding, and skills in communicating with the text.
Students have to know how Shakespeare compiles words to convey meanings. Poetry conveys a lot of meanings in a few words. The poetic sentence is concise and has a strong imagery and emotions. Poetry is a condense language that each word has a proper meaning as well as the meaning in relation to the other words of the text. In the case of Shakespearean poems, the literature or poetry teachers have to choose between several schools of thought because what the poet wishes to say and the way that it is expressed is different. Therefore, the readers first have to understand the form to understand the meaning. This form “is made up of rhyme, rhythm, antithesis, personification, paradox and all other verbal techniques of the rhetorician” that Shakespeare learned in grammar school (Hall, 2003, p. 17). Hall (2003) explains that one is not able to read and understand Shakespeare if he is not familiar with figures of rhetoric. Shakespeare persuades the reader as he uses figures of speech such as repetitions, antithesis, metaphors, personification, and paradox. As a Shakespeare purist, Hall (2003, p. 12) believes that communication with the text happens only when the verse is ...
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...re, this search can be helpful for all those who read Shakespeare. The source of such diversity is that it does not seem that Shakespeare used his works to tell his own ideas, because there are too many conflicting opinions about his literary art. Brook (1999) believes that Shakespeare presents “a complex reality” in his works where the various views reflect the complexity and diversity of life (1999, p. 132). The outcomes of such writings are poems that all words, lines, characters or events have various interpretations or meanings at the same time.
Brook (1999) concludes that Shakespeare's words do not reveal an understanding but they offer a mystery to readers to discover. As a result, Shakespeare’s works are a medium for readers to search for meanings, find its truths, experience the truths in relation to a contemporary reader and not refer to the given models.
Shakespeare’s development of characters allows the reader to better understand, and be able to associate with occurring situations in the text. When Titania is forced to explain to her husband why she has a child, she recalls the tale of her old friend. Who “sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands, marking the embarked traders on the flood, when we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind” (2.1.130-3). When Titania
These plays are presented as slightly distorted mirrors of reality, so by having audiences invest themselves so deeply in the understanding of the literature, they are likely to gain a greater understanding of themselves and the worlds they live in. By pushing the imaginative burden onto the audience, Shakespeare is able to make commentary on human nature and human history without being held responsible for its implications. Because the audience is encouraged to fully embrace their role in the production, any commentary and critique is aimed towards themselves and their inability to effectively understand, resulting in an increased appreciation for Shakespeare himself, and the complexity of literature as an art
Many details of Shakespeare’s person life were left a mystery for which we as readers must wonder if his plays and sonnets give clue. When going to a Shakespearean play one will find the experience in its self, is one of love, loss, and tragedy. People would come from all around to feel the way Shakespeare wanted the audience to feel. He wanted to express his life and his way of thinking through his art which was dramatic writing. 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.
In today’s world the quality of the art form called writing is said to be somewhat diminishing, it is important for English literature to keep some studies of classic literature, such as Shakespeare. I think well rounded education must have a strong foundation in both modern and classical literature, for the foundation in classical literature, an in-depth study of Shakespeare’s works would be more than sufficient. Not only was Shakespeare so skilled in his writing that he has become a significant point in the history of literature, but a majority of his works were written on such basic human themes that they will last for all time and must not be forgotten.
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 motvation can any teacher ask for than that students WANT ? That alone is sufficient reason for any English teacher to start a course in Shakespeare.
Thatcher, David. Begging to Differ: Modes of Discrepancy in Shakespeare. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.
William Shakespeare, an illustrious and eminent playwright from the Elizabethan Age (16th Century) and part owner of the Globe theatre wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which he portrays the theme of love in many different ways. These include the paternal love seen in the troubled times for Egeus and his rebellious daughter Hermia, true Love displayed with the valiant acts of Lysander and Hermia and the destructive love present in the agonizing acts of Titania towards her desperate lover Oberon. Through the highs and lows of love, the first love we clasp is the paternal love from our family.
Dutton, R., & Howard, J.E. (2003). A Companion to Shakespeare’s Works.(p. 9) Maiden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
He wrote many different works as in plays and poems. “In addition to his thirty-seven plays, Shakespeare wrote an innovative collection of sonnets and two long narrativ...
Shakespeare thus leaves his audience to fabricate their own perception with serving only minor stage directions. They are then left with Hamlet’s lingering words, actions, and the reactions to predisposed whether Hamlet’s madness is actually feigned or legitimate. Nevertheless, The evidence does not actually define Shakespeare’s character, Hamlet. To relate, modern audiences must do their research to become accustomed to the way of thinking done by people of the Renaissance. All in all, Hamlet’s true soundness is left up to the people of today’s
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:
The impeccable style and craft of Shakespeare’s writing has always been looked upon with great respect, and it continues to serve as an inspiration to writers and thinkers today even as it did when it was being first performed in London. Shakespeare’s modern audience, however, is far less diverse than the one for which he originally wrote. Due to the antiquity of his language, Shakespeare’s modern readership consists mostly of students and intellectuals, whereas in Shakespeare’s own time, his plays were performed in playhouses packed with everyone from royalty to peasants. Because of this, Shakespeare was forced to write on many different levels, the most sophisticated of which appealed to his more elite audience members, while the more straightforward and often more crude of which appealed to his less educated viewers, and the most universal of which still appeals to us.
Literature is an art form, it is entertainment, history, and a medium of self-expression. There is something magical about the creative power that is within literature. With words alone, literature illustrates the rise of nations, the fall of tyranny, the power of true love, and the tragedy of unescapable fate. When discussing timeless literature, it is almost impossible to not bring up the works of William Shakespeare. However, while some are enthusiastic about discussing Shakespeare, many can’t help but sigh. Some find his work outdated, his language cumbersome, and question: for what purpose is society so fixated on his work? Despite complaints from a few contemporary readers, Shakespeare’s work exhibits quality and thoughtfulness that is
Throughout the United States and the entire world people are aware of Shakespeare; however, many people wonder why society wants their citizens to continue to read William Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Shakespeare continues to influence today’s environment and brings people together by speaking of a common author that most people know. All across the world, students must read at least one of Shakespeare’s works; which often develop those children who read his works into better writers. During the Elizabethan Era, William Shakespeare experienced an uneventful childhood and had a basic education; however, his life still seems to be shrouded with mystery and raises the argument that he was not only the most successful, but also the most mysterious playwright, actor, and poet from that time period.
Shakespeare got much recognition in his own time, but in the 17th century, poets and authors began to consider him as the supreme dramatist and poet of all times of the English language. In fact, even today, no one can match his works or perform as well as he did. No other plays have been performed as many times as Shakespeare’s. Several critics of theatre try to focus on the language of Shakespeare and to take out excerpts from the literary text and make it their own resulting in various persons, poets, authors, psychoanalysts, psychologists and philosophers.