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Why Study Shakespeare?

The Reasons Behind Shakespeare's Influence and Popularity

Ben Jonson anticipated Shakespeare’s dazzling future when he declared, "He was not of an age, but for all time!" in the preface to the First . While most people know that Shakespeare is, in fact, the most popular dramatist and the Western world has ever produced, students new to his work often wonder why this is so. 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. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages. Shakespeare's work is the reason John Bartlett compiled the first major book of familiar quotations. Here are some examples of Shakespeare's most popular passages: • The seven ages of man • Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? • We band of brothers • The -eyed monster • What's in a name? • Now is the winter of our discontent • If music be the food of love • Beware the • 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: was the most remarkable storyteller that the world has ever known. Homer told of adventure and men at war, Sophocles and Tolstoy told of and of people in trouble. and Mark Twain told comedic stories, Dickens told melodramatic ones, told histories and Hand Christian Andersen told tales. But Shakespeare told every kind of story – , , history, , 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 on a farm in Iowa, and on the mean streets of New York City, or 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 example, we can see ourselves as gentle , forced against his better nature to seek murderous revenge. For this reason Shakespeare is deeply admired by , and many consider playing a Shakespearean 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. Chances are you use Shakespeare's expressions all the time even though you may not know it is you are quoting. You may think that fact is "neither here nor there", but that's "the short and the long of it." Bernard Levin said it best in the following quote about Shakespeare's impact on our :

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's ", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your , 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 , if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair , slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a 's paradise - 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; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted , bloody- minded or a blinking , then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. (The Story of English, 145)

Shakespeare's Influence on Other Artists

Shakespeare influenced every generation of since his death and he continues to have an enormous impact on contemporary plays, movies, and poems. The Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) was so influenced by Shakespeare that he kept a bust of the Bard beside him while he wrote, hoping that Shakespeare would spark his creativity. Keats's poems duplicate Shakespeare's style and are full of Shakespearean imagery.

In a letter to Benjamin Robert Haydon, dated 10 May 1817, Keats writes: I remember your saying that you had notions of a good Genius presiding over you. I have of late had the same thought - for things which I do half at Random are afterwards confirmed by my judgment in a dozen features of Propriety. Is it too daring to fancy Shakespeare this Presider? It is interesting to note that Bernard Shaw (1865-1950), who ridiculed those who worshipped Shakespeare (inventing an insulting term to denote the study of Shakespeare - ), secretly admired Shakespeare a great deal and often told his close friends that he thought the Bard had an unsurpassed command of the language.

Shakespeare's influence is summarized nicely by (albeit a bit over the top): This King Shakespeare does he not shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying-signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all Nations of Englishmen, thousand years hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of Parish-Constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one another, 'Yes, this Shakespeare is ours; we produced him, we speak and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him. (Thomas Carlyle, The Hero as Poet, 1841). Many authors have used phrases from Shakespeare's works as titles for their own novels. Here is a list of just a few: • by Aldous Huxley (, 5.1) • by Robert Stone (Julius 3.1) • The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck (Richard III, 1.1) • The Undiscovered Country by Auther Schnitzer (Hamlet, 3.1) • Something Wicked this Way Comes by (Macbeth, 4.1) • Bell, Book, and Candle by John van Druten (, 3.3)

In 1899, Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree produced King John, the first movie based on a play by Shakespeare, and since then there have been dozens of movies and adaptations loosely based on Shakespeare's work, including: • (1940) - The Two Gentlemen of • Joe Macbeth (1953) - Macbeth • Kiss Me Kate (1953) - The Taming of the • (1956) - The Tempest • (1957) - Macbeth • (1961) - • (1967) - various plays • Ran (1985) - • (1991) - 1 Henry IV • (1997) - King Lear • 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - • Scotland, Pa. (2001) - Macbeth • O (2001) –

The English group Mumford & Sons, nominated this year for two Grammy awards, borrowed the title of their debut album, Sigh No More from Shakespeare's About Nothing.

Mabillard, Amanda. Why Study Shakespeare? Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/whystudyshakespeare.html >.