# What's the Big Deal About Shakespeare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839 "2019-05-11T22:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/1 "2019-05-11T22:43:01Z")
Even to this day he seems to have an almost godlike status in literature. But why? William Shakespeare. I must say I find his quotes rather flowery and perhaps concise at times. But he doesn’t impress me at least anymore than many other authors, esp. of that time. :):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/2 "2019-05-11T22:51:14Z")
Yeah! All his plays are just a bunch of famous quotes strung together! What’s with that? ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/3 "2019-05-11T23:05:16Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Yeah! All his plays are just a bunch of famous quotes strung together! What’s with that? Heh heh All his word are plays… ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/4 "2019-05-11T23:07:44Z")
"\*…I should like to salute William Shakespeare. In this language he’s called Willie the Shake. You know why they called him Willie the Shake? Because he shook everybody. They give him a nickel’s worth of ink and five cents worth of paper, he sat down, wrote up such a breeze, brrt, that’s all there was, Jack, there was no more. That’s all she wrote! Ever’body got off! Got so many studs arguin’ about findin’ about who he was they blew his right name. Understand what I mean? Here’s a stud that’s so powerful and so great they dig him up every six months, say, “Yeah, dat’s him, put him back. He’s alright…\*” –Lord Buckley, excerpted from _Willie The Shake_ ETA: I thought Mr. Shakespeare did an excellent job helping to write _Forbidden Planet_ (1956). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/5 "2019-05-11T23:18:49Z")
[I guess you really hate Shakespeare.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOjkFhhrnQ) Shakespeare has never been topped as entire package: great use of language, strong and memorable characters, psychologically astute characterizations, and stories that still are relevant today. He went beyond what any other writer has ever achieved. The main reason he’s still being performed today is that people see the universality of his plays and characters. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/6 "2019-05-11T23:22:46Z")
The scholar Harold Bloom famously claimed that Shakespeare did no less than inventing _ **our conception of what it is to be human** _: > [@](#): > > … When Bloom claims that Shakespeare invented the human, however, he doesn’t merely mean that he pioneered these psychological fields in literature before they became established in what gradually became our modern disciplines. According to Bloom, Shakespeare-especially in his creation of Falstaff and Hamlet-so utterly altered human consciousness that after him the world was a different place and we were different creatures. … > > …Bloom claims that if Shakespeare had died at twenty-nine, like his friend Christopher Marlowe, the world would be a different place: “we would be very different, because we would think and feel and speak differently. Our ideas would be different, particularly our ideas of the human, since they were, more often than not, Shakespeare’s ideas before they were our own.” [http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html](http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html) A sweeping claim. But the book expressing it was a best-seller, and its theories widely accepted by many. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/7 "2019-05-11T23:32:39Z")
The scholar Harold Bloom famously claimed that Shakespeare did no less than inventing _ **our conception of what it is to be human** _: > [@](#): > > … When Bloom claims that Shakespeare invented the human, however, he doesn’t merely mean that he pioneered these psychological fields in literature before they became established in what gradually became our modern disciplines. According to Bloom, Shakespeare-especially in his creation of Falstaff and Hamlet-so utterly altered human consciousness that after him the world was a different place and we were different creatures. … > > …Bloom claims that if Shakespeare had died at twenty-nine, like his friend Christopher Marlowe, the world would be a different place: “we would be very different, because we would think and feel and speak differently. Our ideas would be different, particularly our ideas of the human, since they were, more often than not, Shakespeare’s ideas before they were our own.” [http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html](http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html) A sweeping claim. But the book expressing it was a best-seller, and its theories widely accepted by many. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/8 "2019-05-11T23:40:30Z")
duplicate ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/9 "2019-05-11T23:46:39Z")
Apologies for the unintentional triplicate post. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/10 "2019-05-11T23:54:01Z")
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in these petty posts from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time… ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/11 "2019-05-11T23:55:41Z")
Too good, silenus!!! ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/12 "2019-05-12T00:00:17Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > The scholar Harold Bloom famously claimed that Shakespeare did no less than inventing _ **our conception of what it is to be human** _: > > [http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html](http://bostonreview.net/archives/BR24.1/atwan.html) > > A sweeping claim. But the book expressing it was a best-seller, and its theories widely accepted by many. Yup, if Shakespeare had died as a child, nobody today would know who the fuck they are. Sounds about right. I probably would mistake myself for a camel or something. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/13 "2019-05-12T00:06:52Z")
What a piece of work is **Jim B…** ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/14 "2019-05-12T00:09:02Z")
…and what to me is **Two Many Cats,** — this quintessence of dust? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/15 "2019-05-12T00:11:10Z")
OP, Have you mainly read Shakespeare or have you seen a play or a film of a play? On the printed page much is lost. I can read the plays now because I have seen them performed and can visualize. You might try renting a film version of Julius Caesar (with Marlon Brando maybe?) or Hamlet or MacBeth. Then you might begin to get it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/16 "2019-05-12T00:18:44Z")
The comedies will snap yer stix. My favorites are **As You Like It** and **Much Ado About Nothing.**. Everyone seems to love the 1993 movie of the latter, with young Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/17 "2019-05-12T00:19:49Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > But he doesn’t impress me at least anymore than many other authors, esp. of that time. Just out of curiosity what other authors “of that time” do you consider just as good? And please don’t say **Edward de Vere** :). ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/18 "2019-05-12T00:23:24Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Yup, if Shakespeare had died as a child, nobody today would know who the fuck they are. Sounds about right. I probably would mistake myself for a camel or something. “What it is to be human” isn’t the same thing as “human as compared with other animals.” Bloom’s theory isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, of course. But it was influential, nonetheless: > [@](#): > > … [Bloom] acknowledges that there were great, creative writers before Shakespeare; indeed, “The idea of Western character” defined as “the self as a moral agent” came from many sources. But, he contends, die predecessors created “cartoons” and “ideograms” rather than developing personality. " … [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/459905](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/459905) > [@](#): > > … Bloom argues that no author rivals Shakespeare in the creation of personality, that Shakespeare went beyond all precedents and “invented the human as we continue to know it.” According to Bloom, Shakespeare not only invented the English language but also created the concept of human nature as we know it today-before Shakespeare there was “characterization,” and after, there were “characters,” men and women capable of change, with highly individual personalities. … [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674370004500911](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674370004500911) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/19 "2019-05-12T00:26:27Z")
I hated Shakespeare when in high school. I too wondered what was the big deal. We were poorly taught, only reading the plays, not even out loud. Never saw a performance. One teacher wanted to take us to see the 1968. Whiting/Hussey version, and some parents nixed it because of a brief flash of Romeos butt, and a one-half second flash of Juliets breast. Then I was house sitting for my grandmother, and for whatever reason sat to watch the BBC production of _Measure for Measure._ I had never known the plays could be funny, that one could laugh so hard. This is the play that should be used to hook high schoolers. It has illicit sex, trash talk, hidden identities, bad government officials, and, at the end true love and a happy ending! Then I read/viewed other comedies, and re-read the tragedies from high school, gaining a new appreciation for the universal themes they have. Now I love Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839/20 "2019-05-12T00:32:55Z")
As Dr. Porter put it: Brush up your Shakespeare Start quoting him now Brush up your Shakespeare And the women you will wow [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-big-deal-about-shakespeare/833839.md?page=2)