Shakespeare
How many writers get to be widely recognized hundreds of years after their death? How can plays that were written long ago still apply to modern culture in such a way that they seem to have been written rather recently? There are many questions that can be asked about William Shakespeare. He was one man, but he shaped culture so dramatically that it is probably impossible to go a day without seeing his influence somewhere. William Shakespeare was an influential writer in his own time, and still is today because he created many important plays, sonnets, and commonly used phrases. First, and probably most important, Shakespeare wrote many impactful plays. He wrote his plays over four hundred years ago, but they’re still widely performed to this day. Schools use his plays for educational purposes because they influence todays culture so prevalently. A person cannot be culturally literate without first knowing and understanding Shakespeare. Hardin Craig, who wrote the book, Shakespeare: A Historical and Critical Study with Annotated Texts of Twenty-one Plays, taught as an English professor at eight different schools, including Stanford and Princeton, and joined the rare group of Americans elected into the Royal Society of Literature in Britain. In his book, Hardin Craig (1931, 5) says that “Shakespeare has been a favorite topic in the worlds thought for more than two hundred years”. Not only is Shakespeare still relevant, but he is a favorite topic. His plays still lead all other plays in importance and significance. The world chooses to study his plays because they have so much to give in terms of entertainment, education, and cultural awareness. Next, Shakespeare also composed countless cleverly conceived sonnets. Actually, he wrote about 150 sonnets and even worked sonnets into his plays occasionally. Sonnets are difficult to write because he had to follow established guidelines to consider it a sonnet. Even though they take time, …show more content…
The origin of knock-knock jokes goes back to his play Macbeth. Have you ever been “in a pickle”? You can thank Shakespeare’s play The Tempest for that one. He single-handedly shaped the English language more than anyone else. Not only did this affect the words that people use, but it helped to diversify English culture. Merely learning English words and their meanings isn’t enough to learn the language thanks to Shakespeare. He made phrases that mean something different than you’d expect. He even created new words by combining existing ones when the English language constrained him. His diligence to create words and phrases to get his points across show that Hardin Craig correctly states that (1931, 51), “[t]he belief that Shakespeare was a careless worker, who put his plays hastily together largely out of other people’s ideas is erroneous”. Shakespeare definitely put time into his work and took great pride in it. Shakespeare did not write anything by accident, but rather, he wrote and created every single word and phrase with a specific purpose. Although Shakespeare the man is long dead and gone, he lives on in culture through the plays, sonnets, and phrases that he created and influenced people with. It’s not too far fetched to say that a person cannot go a day without seeing Shakespeare somewhere. His works are such an integral part of modern culture that his influence can be seen almost everywhere, and by
How many writers get to be widely recognized hundreds of years after their death? How can plays that were written long ago still apply to modern culture in such a way that they seem to have been written rather recently? There are many questions that can be asked about William Shakespeare. He was one man, but he shaped culture so dramatically that it is probably impossible to go a day without seeing his influence somewhere. William Shakespeare was an influential writer in his own time, and still is today because he created many important plays, sonnets, and commonly used phrases. First, and probably most important, Shakespeare wrote many impactful plays. He wrote his plays over four hundred years ago, but they’re still widely performed to this day. Schools use his plays for educational purposes because they influence todays culture so prevalently. A person cannot be culturally literate without first knowing and understanding Shakespeare. Hardin Craig, who wrote the book, Shakespeare: A Historical and Critical Study with Annotated Texts of Twenty-one Plays, taught as an English professor at eight different schools, including Stanford and Princeton, and joined the rare group of Americans elected into the Royal Society of Literature in Britain. In his book, Hardin Craig (1931, 5) says that “Shakespeare has been a favorite topic in the worlds thought for more than two hundred years”. Not only is Shakespeare still relevant, but he is a favorite topic. His plays still lead all other plays in importance and significance. The world chooses to study his plays because they have so much to give in terms of entertainment, education, and cultural awareness. Next, Shakespeare also composed countless cleverly conceived sonnets. Actually, he wrote about 150 sonnets and even worked sonnets into his plays occasionally. Sonnets are difficult to write because he had to follow established guidelines to consider it a sonnet. Even though they take time, …show more content…
The origin of knock-knock jokes goes back to his play Macbeth. Have you ever been “in a pickle”? You can thank Shakespeare’s play The Tempest for that one. He single-handedly shaped the English language more than anyone else. Not only did this affect the words that people use, but it helped to diversify English culture. Merely learning English words and their meanings isn’t enough to learn the language thanks to Shakespeare. He made phrases that mean something different than you’d expect. He even created new words by combining existing ones when the English language constrained him. His diligence to create words and phrases to get his points across show that Hardin Craig correctly states that (1931, 51), “[t]he belief that Shakespeare was a careless worker, who put his plays hastily together largely out of other people’s ideas is erroneous”. Shakespeare definitely put time into his work and took great pride in it. Shakespeare did not write anything by accident, but rather, he wrote and created every single word and phrase with a specific purpose. Although Shakespeare the man is long dead and gone, he lives on in culture through the plays, sonnets, and phrases that he created and influenced people with. It’s not too far fetched to say that a person cannot go a day without seeing Shakespeare somewhere. His works are such an integral part of modern culture that his influence can be seen almost everywhere, and by