When I was in high school, it seemed that the standard Shakespearean canon was Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and the Scottish Play.
Is Shakespeare still taught in high school? Should it be?
It was a long time ago, but I can still recite some of the soliloquies from the last three plays, along with two or three sonnets that I read on my own. (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments . . .”)
Just recently, I’ve resolved to plow through some of the history plays, to which I had no previous exposure. I just finished Richard II and am about to go out and buy a copy of Henry IV, Part I. I’m also trying to memorize at least a few phrases from each scene:
Act I.1: “The most precious treasure mortal times afford/Is spotless reputation. That away/Men are but gilded loam or painted clay”.
Act I.2: “That which in mean men we entitle patience/Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.”
Act I.3: “The apprehension of the good/Gives but the greater feeling to the worse./Fell sorrow’s tooth doth never rankle more/Than when he bites but lanceth not the sore”
That’s one reason I like Shakespeare: even in one of his less-widely-read plays, I can find interesting philosophy, powerful language, and intriguing psychology on nearly every page.
Do you think reading Shakespeare is important? What have you read? Have you memorized anything from Shakespeare because you liked it?
Reading Shakespeare is essential if you want to claim to be literate. There is more in his plays than in the writings of any five other authors.
I don’t usually read Shakespeare; I’d much rather see it performed.
What I’ve seen:
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
The Scottish Play
Othello
Henry IV
Richard III
Much Ado About Nothing
The Tempest
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Twelfth Night
Love’s Labour’s Lost (the musical, which is fun, if not strictly Shakespeare)
Taming of the Shrew
Richard II
Julius Caesar
As You Like It
I’ve memorized bits and pieces (“I am but mad north northwest; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”), but not all that much.
I love Shakespeare, but it took me a long time to appreciate it. It probably wasn’t until I was actually IN a Shakespearean play, so I think reading it in highschool is beneficial, but you may not appreciate reading it until college. MAY not. It’s just my opinion.
I’ve played Viola in Twelfth Night, who I think is a strong, funny, wonderful, smart romantic woman.
I’ve also played Isabella in Measure for Measure which was immensely challenging, Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, and Phoebe in As You Like It.
And my husband (who’s played innumerable Shakespearean characters) played The Porter in Macbeth and I was “the porter’s whore”. No lines, but it was a riot. A damn riot.
I’ve memorized a lot of Shakespeare because it’s so beautiful, but my favorite line is an insult from As You Like It:
I love Shakespeare, and am glad my English class covered Macbeth this year. I must say, however, that seeing the plays performed outshines simply reading them.
I’ve been in a number of Shakespeare’s plays, and enjoyed the experiance a great deal. Most recently I performed in a production of Macbeth, as Angus, one of the king’s retainers. I got to use a broadsword :D.
An interesting side effect of being in Macbeth was that I came out of it knowing several monologues, including “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” and Lady Macbeth’s appeal to “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts”.
Sorry to ramble, suffice to say I think Shakespeare is still relevant and powerful in this most modern era.
I’ve memorised a couple of sonnets, that’s about it.
I like Julius Caesar & the Comedy of Errors.
Not that I dislike the other stuff, just that I particularly like those. And feel the need to juxtapose them, making those with preconceived notions of the separation of highbrow and lowbrow uncomfortable.
I always have to point out that the Comedy of Errors is a great play. It’s a riot. I saw it once; on PBS; performed by a circus troupe. Brilliant.
And Brutus in Julius Caesar: great character with a terrible conflict.
“Out, out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by ann idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” from Macbeth.
Needless to say, I think Shakespeare is still relevant. Then again, I’m always one to advocate a classical education, with a strong emphasis on the foundations of western culture (although I think that in this day and age, other cultures can not be ignored). An educated person should be familiar with at least a few of Shakespeare’s plays.
What I’ve read:
Julius Caesar
Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Tempest
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
Twelfth Night
Hamlet
Macbeth
Othello
King Lear
Really, I should get around to seeing some of them performed, and reading some of the others as well.
I think it’s definitely worthwhile to teach Shakespeare. I also think it’s important to teach about the historical and linguistic context, and that Shakespeare played a huge role in defining modern English.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t bother trying to memorize Shakespeare. If you really get into the words, memory of them will come of its own volition.
I adore Shakespear (Venice, Lear, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Taming of the Shrew being my favourites.).
Anomolously, I get more out of reading them than out of watching them performed. (I really must read The Tempest…I was rather underwhelmed by watching it, but, the premise intrigues me, so I feel I should give it another chance.)
I’m not good at memorising things at all, so I don’t have any Shakespear memorised, but I used to know 2 of Hamlet’s speeches (‘To be or not to be…’, which I can still quote swaths of, and his speech to the players.) pretty solid. Ditto with LARGE portions of Lear, Venice, and Anthony’s ‘I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him’ speech.
I’ve read, acted in, or seen:
The Comedy of Errors
Twelfth Night
Julius Caesar
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth
some sonnets
Good stuff. The one I’ve read most closely was Julius Caesar. Filled with social commentary and puns, it’s very entertaining and very well-known.
Also, anyone else see the ~1998 movie version of Twelfth Night with Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia?
Full disclosure: I’ve read everything except “Rape of Lucrece” (I’ve tried, but it’s awfully thick), and I’ve performed maybe a dozen of the plays.
My opinion: Shakespeare is required consumption for anybody who claims literacy. I’m in full agreement with Harold Bloom’s thesis in The Invention of the Human – what Shakespeare did is simply an incomparable achievement in the annals of human creation.
My rant: Shakespeare is almost invariably taught very poorly. It should be spoken aloud or heard, not read silently from the page. Instructors rarely provide a cogent explanation of how the verse works, they get bogged down in the vocabulary, and so on. In some cases, I’ve seen instructors whose teaching seemed obligatory, who were doing it out of a sense of duty without any real interest, understanding, or passion. It pains me to say this, but I’d rather Shakespeare not be taught at all as opposed to teaching it badly. It’s a rich, rewarding treasure, capable of expanding one’s emotional and intellectual beings, but if it’s forced on somebody like a month-old holiday fruitcake, the experience may spoil one’s appreciation for good.
Regardless, I do have long passages committed to memory. Sometimes I speak them out loud when I’m driving, just to taste the language in my mouth.
“That you were once unkind befriends me now…”
“If’t be your pleasure and most wise consent that your fair daughter, at this odd-even and dull watch of the night…” (I know, I didn’t break up the verse.)
I’ve read more Shakespeare than I can remember. I love his writings.
It would indeed be a sad day that Shakespeare is not required reading in school. It has taught me a love lof language and the beauty of the written word that I didn’t have prior to reading Romeo & Juliet (on my own) at 10 years of age.
Required in school:
grade 10 - Twelfth Night
grade 11 - Julius Caesar
grade 12 - Hamlet
I also adore MacBeth. A Midsummer’s Night Dream is my favourite, and I could get lost in the sonnets.
After several years of reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that Romeo and Juliet is crap. It’s a bad play about unbelievable characters in unbelievable situations resolved ineptly. Star crossed lovers? Um, no. Try angst ridden 13 year olds who think they’re in love after one date. Thank god they killed themselves before they woke up from their day dream and wondered what the hell they were thinking.
On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, Hamlet is an absolutely fabulous play. Complex situations and characters, the psychological trauma Hamlet goes through is riveting. By far the best of his work, though I would also recommend Julius Caesar and Macbeth.
I personally didn’t care for Taming of the Shrew, but I can see how others might like it.
I’ve read most of Shakespeare’s plays. There’s a lot of great stuff, and there’s a LOT of bad stuff. You ever read “Timon of Athens”? Whoa, Nelly. That play stinks to high heaven. “Antony and Cleopatra”? Boooooooring. However, when he was on, he was really, really on.
Despite Enderw24’s contention that it’s a piece of crap, “Romeo & Juliet” is one of my favorites by Shakespeare. I guess it’s just because I’m sentimental and I like plays about love. Yes, yes, I know … it was infatuation, not love. But in Shakespeare’s world that he creates for us, it’s love. And it’s believable. Besides, it’s a hot-blooded play, with plenty of fighting, dirty jokes, and partying. It’s like life in a college dorm!
“Hamlet”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are some of my other favorites. And “Julius Caesar” plays like a great political thriller for the first half, then devolves into mushy whining for the second half. Otherwise, it’s pretty cool.
I wonder how “well” it could be taught. I’ve done a bit of acting and linguistics, and read most of Shakespeare. Even getting a relatively good understanding of what’s being said takes work. Although many things seem understandable, knowing what Shakespeare actually wrote starts with reading annotated versions with the OED at hand.
Also, there’s a fair amount of academic and professonal baggage attached to free expression. A surprisingly large number of people’s primary livelihood comes from teaching or acting Shakespeare. So when, for example, I suggested in a CompuServe forum that the Scottish play had been far more corrupted than the others, the debate went on for months. In the end the moderator, a Shakespeare teacher, said that it had been interesting but that now we should get on with important things like arguing whether Kenneth Branagh’s latest performance was acceptable.
…whoops…and the point being that he had not lead the discussion, and was clearly not able to characterize Shakespeare’s vocabulary or plotting well enough to be able to decide whether writing was Shakespeare’s or someone else’s. Just the kind of person to be teaching Shakespeare!
One of life’s delights is the evening your child says, “Dad, you know the way you keep saying,’ How sharper is a serpents tooth is a thankless child?’ Did you know that’s Shakespeare?” With that you know that your kid is coming closer to having an education.
When I was in collage, Shakespeare and the King James Bible were taught as a unit in the core survey of English literature course.
Kids in high school will most probably not appreciate it. As a freshman class we acted out Romeo and Juliet last year, each one of the 160 of us, got a part. I’m still bitter that although I knew all the lines I wasn’t allowed to be Mercutio in the fight scene although my period got act 3. Instead I directed the fight and explained the lines to my guy friends that did get the good parts. I’m disgusted with my class, half of them had no clue what they were saying and you could tell. I’m terribly sorry but when you’re taking about taking a girl’s maidenhead you’re not supposed to act mad, you just made a dirty joke, laugh dammit! I explained lines and jokes to a lot of people, but overall I just wanted to cringe. This year in Drama a group of us did R&J in 8 minutes with 6 people. Wonderful preformance, everyone who saw it loved it (except for the judges at Drama festival). However, most kids show no interest for shakespeare in highschool and you really can’t force that kind of thing. Of course that might just be my school we’re math and science based.
