“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. “
-William Shakespeare
“Why do we have to study Shakespeare..?” If English teachers got a penny every time they heard this from their students they would be rich indeed.
Well picture this..Imagine you got home of an evening and there was no Fair City, Coronation Street or Eastenders on the telly...
Well, without Shakespeare we quite possibly wouldn’t have any of our most popular soap operas or dramas for a start. A producer for one of these popular shows always keeps the works of Shakespeare handy when deciding on a new plot line. For example, two people fall in love, both from warring families...straight out of Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare was one of the first writers to create the types of plots and characters we are so familiar with from our own books, TV and film.
We also study him for his contribution to our own everyday language. Along with the Bible, Shakespeare has given much form to the vocabulary we use today.
How many of these phrases have you heard before? ”Fair Play”, “It’s Greek to me”, “Into thin air” “Foregone conclusion”, “We have seen better days”, “One fell swoop”, “I’ll not budge an inch”....all from the pen of the Bard himself.
You can check out some more at this link below.
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-quotes.htm
Shakespeare was one of the first writers in English to address the human condition, its joys and frailties, its hope and limitations.
Currently our Sixth Years are studying Shakespeare’s sonnets as part of their poetry studies. In Sonnet 60 we are reminded that life is indeed fleeting for all:
“ Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end”
Yet despite time ravaging us ;
“Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow
Shakespeare himself will achieve a type of immortality as his name will survive through the ages in his words.
“And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.”
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.”
It is almost if, at the end of the poem Shakespeare and time have agreed a bargain. Time will take our physical bodies, hopes and aspirations away, but will allow us to live on in our words and spirit.
Shakespeare wrote a number of sonnets in which he lamented the passage of time and how eventually everything must give way to it. Sonnet 65 has a similar theme to Sonnet 60.
This Sonnet also talks about how time inevitably wears away everything.
Even sturdy objects like brass, earth, stone and sea are eventually eroded away over time just as flimsier things like plants and people are:
“Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o’ersawys their power”
The poet then wonders how such a fragile thing like beauty can survive if even these solid objects can not:
“How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea.
Whose action is no stronger than a flower”
He reminds us again that even solid rock and steel gates cannot resist the ravages of time..
He seems also to worry about a lover or friend; “Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid”
The tone seems one of despair.
But in the end, like Sonnet 65 he ends on an optimistic note;
“That in black ink my love may still shine bright”....
This implies that after his physical body is long gone, his words expressing his hopes, loves and dreams will survive in his black ink...and it is a nice touch that the poem’s final word is “bright”, in stark contrast to the gloomy images he uses elsewhere in the Sonnet.
http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=4736
http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=354
To enjoy some live Shakespearean language and action have a look at the following clips of Shakespearean plays:
Many modern writers and film directors also enjoy setting Shakespeare’s works in modern settings:
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