To think Shakespeare is boring and crap !

[Lardlizard]

Bloody hate it

YABU, the contribution he’s made to the English language is incredible and his work is rich and fascinating.

I do think it makes a massive difference to see it performed though- you get more enjoyment from the rhythm of the words and it’s much easier to get the jokes and the subtext. There’s plenty of bits of Hamlet, for example, that are really quite funny if performed well- but A levels always seem to brush over that and present it as unrelenting misery.

I only like seeing them as plays. Reading them.is very difficult . As play though, the details of the language is less.important and it is easier to understand
I enjoy a lot of Shakespeare though the historical ones less so

Then why have his plays have lasted so long?

YABVU

Hamlet is one of my favourite pieces of literature.

Some of it dates and not all is going to be something you like but surely you can see there is a reason he is still taught in schools - and loved by lots of people

Try watching the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet (With a young Leonardo Di Caprio). It was the one version of a Shakespeare play that could get through to even the most committed Shakespeare hater.

Took the dc to Macbeth, just a local performance, last year, ds aged 12, dd2 aged 15 and they were absolutely riveted the whole time. I think they talked non stop about it all the way home and for about 2 days afterwards.

Try a midsummer nights dream. It’s brilliant.

I think it's all in the teaching and not reading the plays but watching them. The language is challenging. I've been impressed with how the DC are learning Shakespeare at school. They are doing a lot of the contextual stuff and learning the stories before studying the plays in any depth. I watched the Branagh/Thompson film version of Much Ado with them. We did have to pause and discuss some of it but DD1 said when they watched it at school she was then the only one in her class (top set, middle class school) who really enjoyed it. I took them to see the RSC do As You Like It and they enjoyed it (didn't get everything but watching a live version there's so much going on it doesn't matter). In Stratford they do shorter introductory versions of the plays which would be great if we were close enough. DD2 has watched the NT production of Twelfth Night during lockdown and seemed to enjoy that. I think there are so many plays about so many topics that some are always relevant to current times.

I have never played the Dane 😂

I really think that Shakespeare has a way of articulating things that really resonate with people but that they would struggle to express. He captures the human experience in a way that I've not seen from any other writer. Sonnet 116 gets me every time, it is so beautifully written.

If you think Shakespeare’s boring and crap, don’t read or watch any of the plays. Problem solved.
I assume you’ve done your GCSEs.
I don’t watch soap operas or reality tv for the same reason, but others are addicts.

I'm an English teacher (a good one - 20 years experience, excellent results).

I love Shakespeare, but my first question when we are choosing texts is 'What film versions exist? Are they any good?'

It's not supposed to be read in a drowsy classroom. That's like trying to enjoy Mozart by reading the score, & I'm sure people can & do, but it's not how you'd start off selling it to newbies.

Shakespeare at school should be huge huge fun. Watching cool stuff ideally live (not feasible for me, I'm in very Forn Parts) but if not great film adaptations & filmed stage productions.

You analyse BITS - because the language is amazing & if you don't see a glimpse of that, you are missing so much - & you do a LOT of really detailed technical analysis with those bits, so your students can see how amazingly fucking clever & beautiful what they're looking at is. Like tuning up a microscope to higher resolutions.

& then you teach them to construct a decent essay about Shakespeare - & then they can write a decent essay about anything.

& then they leave school & if they never go near another play or poem by Shakespeare then fair play to them.

I quite liked quadratic equations but I don't do those for fun.

I hated chemistry, but I can completely see that it's awe inspiring & fascinating if you 'get it'. It's not chemistry's fault that I don't.

It's arguably not my fault either (I wasn't taught it well), but it certainly doesn't mean that I can make sweeping statements like 'Chemistry is crap!'

Or if I did, I'd expect most people to correctly conclude 'Alas poor Crowy, she does not understand chemistry', rather than 'oh yeah. Chemistry. All bollocks obviously.'

Dull as fuck to read, mesmerising to watch.

I can’t believe anyone with a decent understanding of Shakespeare can say this.

How can anyone not love sonnet 18?

I always assume people who don't get the beauty of Shakespeare are a bit thick

My ss took part in a children's version of the tempest in year 6 at school. They performed the play in normal English with a few songs in ' Shakespearean ' language . They then went to see a proper adult open air version of the play and every last one of the.11 year olds loved the play includiing my ASD/.ADHD child who normally couldn't sit still for a disney film, let alone a a shakespeare play

They already knew the story inside out.ao they just enjoyed the theatre of the production. It was a fantastic way for.young children learn Shakespeare

I don't really understand most of the language unless it's explained to me, I think it's one of those things that people pretend to enjoy

Other people might just be different from you and enjoy getting to understand different cultures and find it's worth a bit of effort. If you're that kind of person learning something new and then getting it is part of the enjoyment. We're all different.

@howaboutchocolate

Shakespeare isn't really meant to be read.

Yes. Agree. Same as poetry. They are meant to be heard/watched.

His use of language astounds me. So, so clever. Funnily enough, I only got that 'wow' moment when teaching him. Bringing him alive for the class made me work harder than my own studies [embarrassed].

I think he is fantastic. We are so lucky to have him in our heritage.

Oh, and it is a myth about school children not liking him - I have never taught a class where they were not curious about him and wanted to understand.

I get that they can be turned off if it seems impenetrable, though.

YY to the mention of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. I also recommend the Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson version of Much Ado About Nothing. I like my Shakespeare frothy!

I have never played the Dane

Monty you terrible...

The plays are supposed to be acted and watched, not read! The way Shakespeare is taught is a tragedy of education... Sure, study it afterwards , but show a production or even a film first!!

It’s saddening to read this but I think poor teaching means a lot of people feel this way. I’m an English teacher and have been teaching, reading and watching Shakespeare for over 30 years. He is a genius and a really good production will make him accessible. Emma Smiths new book is great. But ultimately you don’t have to engage if you choose not to. Claiming he’s boring and crap is just ignorant though.

YANBU. He’s been dead for hundreds of years. Give someone else a turn for study for exams.