"To be or not to be, that is the question"
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
"To thine own self be true"
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
"The lady doth protest too much"
Shakespeare's words, phrases, and quotes abound in our society today. The preceding quotes all originated in Hamlet, and they provide you with a tiny sampling of the Bard's ability to infiltrate modern culture.
How significantly DOES Shakespeare influence our society today? Novels, movies, and TV shows are just a few of the outlets that draw on Shakespeare's plays, characters, and themes. Choose 1-2 specific allusions to Shakespeare in modern culture today, and then discuss them and their importance to modern society. Part (but not all) of your discussion should focus on the question of whether or not we need to understand the original Shakespearean source to understand the modern work.
Discuss your ideas in relation to those of your classmates, but do not repeat your classmates' ideas.
All responses are due by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22nd.
Shakespeare is still very influential in our society today. I think the most obvious way we see this influence is in the movies we watch. Even if you have never read any works from Shakespeare (like me) chances are you still know about “Romeo and Juliet.” This story is about two people that weren’t supposed to fall in love but did anyway. This theme is very common in romantic comedies, along with other genres. How many movies have you seen where the main character falls in love with her best friend, or even someone she hates? These movies are everywhere and they all follow Shakespeare’s theme of a forbidden love. This is important because the movies people watch have an effect on the society.
ReplyDeleteHowever I don’t think it is important to learn the actual plays from Shakespeare, because most people know what his plays are about and have seen movies/read books that have used the same themes that Shakespeare used. Therefore I think that most people know allot more about Shakespeare then we realize because we see his influence in our society every day.
Shakespeare's work exists in various things in our society such as movies, plays, musicals, and books. The movie that came out about 10 years ago, The Ten Things I Hate About You, was a modern version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, This tells us that Shakespeare’s plots are timeless. The plots are the story line and are like by people of the 15th century as well as 20th century. Additionally, The Taming of Shrew was the basis for a musical on Broadway called ‘Kiss Me Kate’. Furthermore, who in today’s world does not know the love story of Romeo and Juliet? This story has been put into books or even movies in every century since Shakespeare first wrote the play. Even very young children will now know the story because a new movie has just been released called Gnomeo and Juliet. Last year I started to read a story called Romiette and Julio which was also about young lovers that lived in today’s time and their families were fighting. Yes, Shakespeare is all around us and has been for centuries.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare’s words have also lasted through the centuries. The words, “to thine own self be true” from the play, Hamlet , are words that we hear often and can be a valuable message to live by . By knowing oneself is a way of being true to oneself. Being true to oneself gives way to being true to others . The words are telling us not to be in denial, not to rationalize; know yourself truly and not just what you would like to believe about yourself. It's plain and simple. If you're not true to yourself, you will never be true to others. Basically speaking, if you don't like yourself and you make excuses for your actions then you will lie to others and blame them for your faults
As one can see, Shakespeare’s words in his plays are timeless. One does not need to know the background of Shakespeare’s original play to understand his words and story line period. I am sure that the young children who saw Gnomeo and Juliet really enjoyed it even though they have never heard Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
In modern media, Shakespeare is used frequently as a springboard or paper-doll for ideas. We see it in literature, cinema, theatre, fine art, and even music.
ReplyDeleteA great example of modern adaptation of Shakespeare would be the famous musical West Side Story. This is a modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, a musical that was far ahead of its time. This is a fantastic representation of how Shakespeare's works are clearly present in our culture even today. Though the story is not a flawless copy of the original Romeo and Juliet, the idea is still there, two warring families, or in this case gangs. Both present star crossed lovers who's gangs do not support their love.
Another example would be songs that are popular today. Though I am not familiar with most 'pop' music, I do know that Taylor Swift's Love Story diverges part of its lyrical 'story' from Romeo and Juliet. This work seems to be the most used in modern media. The story of star crossed lovers certainly plays a part in culture today.
I do feel that, though modern adaptations and re-inventions do give a simplified idea of Shakespeare's works, they do not give us the best idea we can receive by reading and understanding his original pieces.
Shakespeare has been around for a very long time now, his plays have been read and seen by much people living today.I feel that his writings have very well influenced people all around the world. The ideas he writes about have to do with things that different people can relate to. Shakespeares works are unique and are different then what anyone else is used to, even though he presents things in a different way I believe people could still relate to them. I believe his most known play would have to be the famous "Romeo and Juliet". In this play it explains about a love story between two opposites who are saposed to be but continue with it anyway. People relate and know this play because they can consider relating it to their everyday life. Shakespeare's work will continue for centuries to come and will be read for understood for as long as we can know.
ReplyDeleteEven though Shakespeare has been gone for a long time, his influence is still apparent in TV shows, plays and movies today. For example, the play "WestSide Story", my favorate play, is a modern interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. The writer of the play took the storyline and added the violence and gang fights that happen in today's day and age.
ReplyDeleteAfter taking Mr. matts class last year, i know alot about the influence of Shakespeare in todays society. Almost every popular play has some relation to shakespeare. He was the most popular writer, not only of his time but throughout history. His works and quotes live today in everyday life. You can almost always find a movie on TV that was one of his plays or atleast based on them. I think his most famous play was either Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet because there has been so many translations of that over the years. I once saw a movie called Hamlet which was a comedy about people putting on the play at their high school. Although it was a comedy, it still showed aspects of the play and what it was about. That just shows that Shakespeares influence expands not only to re-makes of his plays but also new renditions of it where the director takes his own opinion of it and makes the film their way. Im glad that they teach us about shakespeare because almost everyone has seen something that has come from him and its important to understand his works for how he made them
ReplyDeleteShakespeare is very important to modern day society. His writings have an effect on most modern day writing and television shows. There are a few examples in which we see Shakespeare’s writings in today’s culture. One of the most recent example is the new children’s movie call Gnomeo and Juliet. This movie is just like the play Romeo and Juliet but children can relate to it and it’s easier to understand.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is important to understand Shakespeare’s work to understand the modern day work. This is because modern day work is easier to understand and they are usually worded in a way that we are familiar with. I believe that one has to have a very small understanding of Shakespeare to understand the modern work but not much.
Shakespeare has influenced most of all the modern day romances. Forbidden love seems to be the thing that modern movies focus on more than anything else. It seems that all the romance movies the main character falls in love with a person that isnt in the same social class or from a rival family, nationality, or a different sex. An example is: Brokeback Mountain because society looks down upon the gay communtiy and people already have a preset prejudice against the gay communtiy. Another example would be Titanic. In Titantc, Dicaprio is in a lower social class then Kate Winslet and they, of course, fall in love. This seems to be the theme for alot of movies because love always finds away to work out like in Romeo and Juliet.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare has had a major influence on todays society. We use a lot of words that he has made up and they are part of our everyday vocabulary. Many of his works are hard to understand because of the language he uses, but in that time period they didn't understand it either.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare has written A LOT of works. A lot of them are famous. Most of his plays were made into movies like Romeo and Juliet. A lot of people can relate to this. There is even a childrens movie comming out about it called Gnomeo and Juliet. We use words that he has and although he was a little crazy, he was one of the best play and sonnet writers of all time. If you do a full analysis of his works you can better understand them and begin to process them better.
I believe Shakespeare had a big influence on our current day society. The one influence was when I was watching one of my favorite shows "hey arnold", where the kids put on a performance of Romeo and Juliet inside of the cartoon. It shows how far Shakespeare really reached when you start seeing his plays in childrens cartoons. Another influence tha.t is kind of similar is when in another cartoon show for kids, "jimmy neutron" the characters in that show also did a presentaion. This time however the play was MacBeth and not Romeo and Juliet. I also believe that it is important for to understand the origanal source to be able to understand the shakespeare hints inside of the cartoons.
ReplyDeleteOne example of how Shakespearean ideas are presented and referenced in modern society could be every day little sayings such as the quotes presented above or even in movies and books. He has made popular the sonnet form of poetry. I think it is in fact important to understand the Shakespearean source of our modern way of speech. His English and our English are one and the same but clearly ours is an adaptation and a more or less dumbed-down version that has emerged over the years due to the general sheer laziness of people. If we understood – or at least learned to understand – the differences between our current version of modern English and the version Shakespeare spoke then we would have a better grasp on the overall English language and could apply it every day speech.
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