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Adaydreambeliever

Is Shakespeare overrated do you think? I dedicate this to my daughter who, as we speak, is taking an English exam.

She had to do Much ado about nothing, which I think is at least one of the more accessible of his writings. I had to Macbeth, and I passed that exam but can remember nothing of the play!  

I do wonder... how relevant, how useful it is to include Shakespeare in the English exams here... I have nothing against him.. and quite like a play or two :P but I do wonder.... why do they hang on to this, almost impossible to understand archaic author? Were there not any others? Was he that *great* I am just not sure of the need to include or rely so heavily on Shakespeare? 

She's also doing Jekyll and Hyde, which she hates and, 'An Inspector call' which she also doesn't much like..  I had 'Of Mice and Men'  

I think it's at least good that they don't ONLY do Macbeth and Of Mice and men now.. but I do wonder if they should widen it up still more...

Anyway... I felt this song was appropriate 

Posted - May 26, 2017
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Responses


  • 16772
    Not overrated, but not as good a playwright as GBS either.

    Shakespeare may not have written the plays attributed to him, either - this was the days before typewriters. It has been surmised that the combined works would have taken more than one lifetime to actually compose, WITHOUT the added time pressure of producing said plays and putting them on the road, which it is known that Shakespeare did.

    One theory is that in Elizabethan England, Catholic monasteries were being raided and despoiled - and one such raid turned up those plays. These were offered to an enterprising producer hight William Shakespeare - and the rest is history.
      May 26, 2017 5:08 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    We will never know.. I don't hate Shakespeare - they are entertaining to watch even today but I don't get what the fuss is all about to be honest, and I wonder about the relevance of making kids today study the plays and analyse the characters? It's so hard for them to even understand the language, and it's not like they need to use that kind of language...

    Now to share a story that touches on this.. .

    My daughter is home from her exam and the leavers assembly that followed.. She said she had huge problems in the exam because she has a scribe and every time my daughter said the word 'thee' the scribe couldn't get that she didn't mean 'the' and when my daughter explained.. the scribe still didn't get it and kept writing 'the' instead of 'thee' and this lady is a much older lady.. so one wonders.. if she doesn't get the language what hope is there.. 
      May 26, 2017 6:57 AM MDT
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  • 22891
    it might be
      May 26, 2017 2:50 PM MDT
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  • I have read and reread "Hamlet" and "MacBeth" and very much enjoy them.  "King Lear", "The Tempest" were less engaging.  "Midsummer Night" was not worth finishing.  And I'd paraphrase the author/ comedian David Sedaris who said read Shakes made him fell dull and stupid.  But speaking it made him feel powerful.  I think this is true.  Shakes wrote plays.  Plays re meant to be watched and heard, not read as a novel. 
      May 26, 2017 8:19 PM MDT
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