“To be or not to be, that is the question.” You may have heard this phrase many times in your life But did you know that it came from one of the most well-known writers in the world. Shakespeare wrote this line in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ back in 1595/96. In year 9 you study Shakespeare as it’s in the course outline, but most people still don’t understand why we study it and how it is worth all the effort. Shakespeare has a great influence on our society even after all these years, The things he wrote about are still relevant to problems and issues we face now and the language helped us use metaphors and puns. Shakespeare has a great influence on our society as it is with expressions like ‘Wild goose chase; Love is blind; you’ve got to be cruel to be kind; knock knock, whos there?
Too much of a good thing; good riddance.’ These are just some of the words we have taken from Shakespeare's plays but approximately 1% of the words that we speak these days were actually invented by him. Lots of movies and TV shows are remade and have clear references to his work. A dean's professor of English and professor of theater at USC, Bruce Smith explained: “Shakespeare reveals a different face to different cultures and different people at different times.” Some of the readers can identify with the characters such as Hamlet’s anguish, Ophelia's distress, the enduring love between Romeo and Juliet. One movie that was also based on a Shakespearean play is “She’s the Man” which is based on the Twelfth Night and was released in 2006. Other movies like ’10 things I hate about you’ and ‘WestSide Story’ are also influenced by the plays of Shakespeare such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Taming of the Shrew’
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Even though Shakespeare wrote his plays in the 1600s the things that he wrote about are still relevant to today’s problems and issues like class, division, racism, sexuality, intolerance, the role and status of women, crime, war, death, and disease. His confidence to write these plays have influenced other writers and movie directors to produce works that have modern-day issues. In a midsummers nights dream Hermia’s father states that ‘I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, As she is mine, I may dispose of her: Which shall be either to this gentleman Or to her death, according to our law’ Midsummer night's dream (I,1-26) In these lines he simply says that Hermia is mine and that if she does not follow my orders than she will be put to death, as the law states that they could decree death for children that disobeyed their parents.
The Athenian law states that the ownership goes straight to the father and Hermia’s mother doesn’t seem to be around, as well as all the other characters having no mothers either. The language that Shakespeare wrote wasn’t just put in the characters mouths but they were meant to stay with viewers long after the play as he wasn’t shy with his metaphors and puns such as when he describes Juliet he doesn't just say she is beautiful he says that ‘she sparkles like jewels against an ear.’, In ‘Two gentlemen of Verona’ he plays with the words ‘tide’ and ‘tied’ Panthino: Away, ass! You'll lose the tide if you tarry any longer. Launce: It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied. Panthino: What's the unkindest tide? Launce: Why, he that's tied here, Crab, my dog.
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