Some more about Shakespeare for Monday May 3rd

 

 MEETINGS

 Impossible matches

 

The balcony scene/ Focus on Shakespeare/ West Side Story/ Shakespeare in Love

 

 

Some more… about Shakespeare…

    Ben Jonson anticipated Shakespeare’s dazzling future when he declared, "He was not of an age, but for all time!"

The following are the top four reasons why Shakespeare has stood the test of time.

 

1) Illumination of the Human Experience

 

Shakespeare’s ability to summarize the range of human emotions in simple yet profoundly eloquent verse is perhaps the greatest reason for his enduring popularity. If you cannot find words to express how you feel about love or music or growing older, Shakespeare can speak for you:

• The seven ages of man

• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

• What's in a name?

• Now is the winter of our discontent

• If music be the food of love

• Beware the ides of March

• We are such stuff as dreams are made on

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

• To be, or not to be: that is the question

 

2) Great Stories

 

Marchette Chute, in the Introduction to her famous retelling of Shakespeare’s stories, summarizes one of the reasons for Shakespeare’s immeasurable fame:

 

    William Shakespeare was the most remarkable storyteller that the world has ever known. Homer told of adventure and men at war, Sophocles and Tolstoy told of tragedies and of people in trouble. Terence and Mark Twain told cosmic stories, Dickens told melodramatic ones, Plutarch told histories and Hand Christian Andersen told fairy tales. But Shakespeare told every kind of story – comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories and fairy tales – and each of them so well that they have become immortal. In all the world of storytelling he has become the greatest name. (Stories from Shakespeare, 11)

 

Shakespeare's stories transcend time and culture. Modern storytellers continue to adapt Shakespeare’s tales to suit our modern world, whether it be the tale of Lear on a farm in Iowa, Romeo and Juliet on the mean streets of New York City, or Macbeth in feudal Japan.

 

 

3) Compelling Characters

 

Shakespeare invented his share of stock characters, but his truly great characters – particularly his tragic heroes – are unequalled in literature, dwarfing even the sublime creations of the Greek tragedians. Shakespeare’s great characters have remained popular because of their complexity. For this reason Shakespeare is deeply admired by actors, and many consider playing a Shakespearean character to be the most difficult and most rewarding role possible.

 

4) Ability to Turn a Phrase

 

Many of the common expressions now thought to be clichés were Shakespeare's creations.

 

    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

 

    adapted from  Mabillard, Amanda Why Study Shakespeare? Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000.

 

 

►Use your own words to sum up the four reasons why Shakespeare’s works are still so famous today:

 

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► Have you ever heard some of the quotes (1)? Where do they come from?

 

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