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Shakespeare literary analysis
Shakespeare's use of language
Shakespeare literary analysis
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Shakespeare is known all over the world as the greatest writer and pre-eminent dramatist in the English language. He defines what literature is today and has set the ultimate goal for any aspiring poet, playwright, or author. Some commenters believe his plays are timeless and will continue to be influential. However, as the decades go on, most believe that Shakespeare’s work must be disregarded because it is so outdated. Because of his use of language, his lack of connection, and his vigorous competition of notable poets and playwrights, Shakespeare must be deliberated as irrelevant in the 21st century.
Shakespeare is famous for writing in a way that challenges the reader’s brain. He uses irony, simile, and other literary devices to form depth
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Even more so, the words that Shakespeare uses for description are archaic even though the plots are elementary. Students often resort to online sites that provide an English translation of the original plays, including No Fear Shakespeare and Spark Notes (Amrhein). Using those online sites to understand Shakespearean language dismisses the learning opportunity that students could receive from the original text. Furthermore, a student's’ spelling can be jeopardized from reading Shakespeare’s works, especially a student who is learning English as his or her second language. Because Shakespeare lived in an era when dictionaries had not been invented yet for the English language, he often shortened or altered the spelling of many words since there were no restrictions against it (King). The language written in Shakespeare’s plays is not relevant to everyday …show more content…
It is simple: Shakespeare’s plays do not connect to today’s modern issues. Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare was a popular and rich individual who bought expensive properties and lived his life in luxury. His world was much different and smaller than what it is now, and because of this, students reading his work are finding it difficult to imagine scenarios such as kings and queens in power and servants waiting on them. Today’s society has not experienced what Shakespeare considered “normal” back then. Also, he is blatantly racist towards any race other than white European. Because the time period was in the 1600’s, there was a lot of racial and religious minorities that were excluded from the original plays (Beech). Women’s rights were also nonexistent. In the time of William Shakespeare, acting was considered to be a man’s profession; sometimes women’s roles would be performed by men. For example, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main characters Ophelia and Gertrude were portrayed as weak and obedient women and they were both manipulated by the male figures in their lives. Women throughout his plays had a lack of free will, no voice in any decision making, and always agreed with the men even though they might be wrong. The average Shakespearean play has only three roles for women, and most have few lines (Beech). Encouraging a portrayal of women and minorities in
Throughout history, there have been few writers whose works have influenced society more than those of the English playwright William Shakespeare. His use of language in all of his plays, especially Romeo and Juliet, is one that impacts its audience both emotionally and intellectually. For anyone wishing to pursue a career specifically in the Language Arts, the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare should be continued to be studied and analyzed for its unique and clever uses of English dialect.
By using just the right combination of words, or by coming up with just the right image, Shakespeare wrote many passages and entire plays that were so powerful, moving, tragic, comedic, and romantic that many are still being memorized and performed today, almost four centuries later. But the greatness of Shakespeare’s ability lies not so much in the basic themes of his works but in the creativity he used to write these stories of love, power, greed, discrimination, hatred, and tragedy.
Although William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most revered and well-renowned authors of all time, controversy surrounds the belief that he actually produced his own literary works. Some rumors even go so far as to question the reality of such a one, William Shakespeare, brought on by paralleling the quality of his pieces with his personal background and education. With such farfetched allegations, it persuaded others to peek into the person we all are taught to learn as “Shakespeare”, but who is actually the person behind these genius works of literary promise and enlightenment? To some, Shakespeare is as much accredited to his works as frequently as you see his name placed. To others, Shakespeare is a complex enigma into which we the people are supposed to unravel; the true author behind a falsely-given pseudonym. The debate pertaining to the true authorship of William Shakespeare’s works are still questioned in today’s society.
William Shakespeare, poet and playwright, utilized humor and irony as he developed specific language for his plays, thereby influencing literature forever. “Shakespeare became popular in the eighteenth century” (Epstein 8). He was the best all around. “Shakespeare was a classic” (8). William Shakespeare is a very known and popular man that has many works, techniques and ways. Shakespeare is the writer of many famous works of literature. His comedies include humor while his plays and poems include irony. Shakespeare sets himself apart by using his own language and word choice. Shakespeare uses certain types of allusions that people always remember, as in the phrase from Romeo and Juliet, “star-crossed lovers”.
Throughout the historical literary periods, many writers underrepresented and undervalued the role of women in society, even more, they did not choose to yield the benefits of the numerous uses of the female character concerning the roles which women could accomplish as plot devices and literary tools. William Shakespeare was one playwright who found several uses for female characters in his works. Despite the fact that in Shakespeare's history play, Richard II, he did not use women in order to implement the facts regarding the historical events. Instead, he focused the use of women roles by making it clear that female characters significantly enriched the literary and theatrical facets of his work. Furthermore in Shakespeare’s history play, King Richard II, many critics have debated the role that women play, especially the queen. One of the arguments is that Shakespeare uses the queen’s role as every women’s role to show domestic life and emotion. Jo McMurtry explains the role of all women in his book, Understanding Shakespeare’s England A Companion for the American Reader, he states, “Women were seen, legally and socially, as wives. Marriage was a permanent state” (5). McMurtry argues that every woman’s role in the Elizabethan society is understood to be a legal permanent state that is socially correct as wives and mothers. Other critics believe that the role of the queen was to soften King Richard II’s personality for the nobles and commoners opinion of him. Shakespeare gives the queen only a few speaking scenes with limited lines in Acts two, four, and five through-out the play. Also, she is mentioned only a few times by several other of the characters of the play and is in multiple scenes wit...
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.
It is harder to imagine a more universal writer than William Shakespeare. Rarely if ever is one of his many plays not being performed somewhere in the world and similarly rare is the tertiary English student who has not examined his work at length. His plays, sonnets and poems are common fodder for high school English departments across the globe.
William Shakespeare's Relevance Today For as long as formal education has existed in Britain it has been a largely standard assumption that teaching the works of William Shakespeare is relevant and necessary. Perhaps the relevance of his writing is taken for granted, perhaps it is necessary to re-examine the role of Shakespeare for the modern audience. There are indeed many people who question the relevance of this 440 year old playwright to a 21st century audience, taking it even as far as perhaps the greatest heresy of all, questioning the necessity of GCSE pupils learning Shakespeare at all.
Shakespeare has created stories that are so powerful, emotional, comedic, tragic and romantic that they are still continuously remembered and studied in the modern era. Though the essence of his talents does not lie in the simple themes behind his plays, but more so in
In the past women characters have been presented as dependent on men and limited by the conversations of a male dominates world. A typical example of this is seen in Hamlet by William Shakespeare,
Jajja, Muhammad Ayub. "Women In Shakespearean Comedies: A Feministic Perspective." Journal Of Educational Research (1027-9776) 16.1 (2013): 112-119. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
After overcoming the troubles of becoming an actor and a playwright, William Shakespeare has become well renowned. His works reach to people all around the world despite the language barriers and different races and cultures. For centuries, the popularity of his work...
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.
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
In his time, Shakespeare was the most popular playwright of London. As time passed, his smartness covers all others of his age; Jonson, Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, Dekker, Heywood—none had the craft or the kindness of character. He was the master of poetry writing and he did it well. He created the most vivid characters of the Elizabethan stage. His usage of language, both high and low, shows a remarkable fun and insight. His themes fit all generation even to this day.