Researching Shakespeare is a tedious task. In my school we were introduced to Shakespeare in 8th grade, and have read the 400 yr old plays ever since. Some classes were lucky enough to have good teachers who would read Shakespeare with them, I on the other hand was not so lucky. Both my 8th and 9th grade teachers hardly read any Shakespeare with us, so while some of my peers have 3 or 4 of his plays under their belts, I only have the one Romeo and Juliet.
William Shakespeare the genius behind many plays, poems, and sonnets had quite the life. He is a controversial historical figure with theories on whether or not he was an actual person (which he totally was). One of the things I found the most interesting in our class discussion was how gender and sexuality was based on a sliding scale back then. That explains how Shakespeare had romantic relationships with both genders.
Shakespeare’s works are over 400 years old yet we still read them in school today, and when we do read them they are still somewhat comical, dramatic, interesting, and relatable. That is why my number 1 question about Shakespeare was “How was Shakespeare able to write works that still connect with modern ideas?”. From the article “Why do we still care about Shakespeare?” on the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts website I was able to answer my question. Shakespeare’s is one of the greatest poets of all time, and creates rich themes of love, tragedy, etc. that make his writings still appealing, and relevant for today’s generations.
Reading Shakespeare out loud in class will always be a stressful event for fear of messing up the language. My number 2 question was “Why did Shakespeare speak in a certain language?”. It is said that Shakespeare wrote in Old English. Shakespeare-Online website says that he actually wrote in what is called Early Modern English (which I guess could still be Old English to us). This was the language spoken at the time therefore the complex sentences and weird words were just natural to Shakespeare. However he did choose to write in iambic pentameter (which is another story).
Having only Romeo and Juliet under my belt I wonder how Shakespeare was able to write such a complex drama. Even as a child I knew about Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare. My number 3 question was “What was Shakespeare’s inspiration for Romeo and Juliet ?”. Surely he had to have some inspiration for such a tragic love story. The American Repertory Theater website provided a detailed comparison to Shakespeare’s inspiration “A Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” by Arthur Brooke and Shakespeare’s version. As it turns out the story of Romeo and Juliet was passed down under different titles since 1530. Shakespeare simply just took a simple old love story, added drama and tragedy, and made it one of the oldest love stories of all time.
I learned much about Shakespeare’s life, and style of writing. Shakespeare has survived 400 years, and I am confident that he is not dying out any time soon.
