Michael Mack, Shakespeare professor at the Catholic University of America, gives his orientation speech, “Why read Shakespeare?” (collections 2008) in order to persuade incoming freshman students to continue reading Shakespeare. Mack convinces students of the importance of Shakespeare using a biblical allusion referencing the parable of the prodigal son in the bible. This professor argues that Shakespeare is worthwhile in order to help freshman students understand the value of such complex writing. Mack appeals to CUA’s newest students by presenting his argument in a professional, academic manner.…
The length of Shakespeare's plays is enough to strike terror into the hearts of most students, especially ones who expect "the two-hours' traffic of our stage" promised by the Prologue in Romeo and Juliet.…
-What does Romeo & Juliet have to do with these things? Lesson: (50 min) 1) Class discussion of the music and the painting and how it related to R& J (Teacher to writes themes down on the board while discussion develops) 2) Teacher introduce – Shakespeare / Globe Theatre / Explain lifestyle in 1600’s 3) Have students write (10 min ) – Have following questions on the board -What they think will happen in R & J -What would the play look like on stage - If you were to direct the play today – what would the stade look like? - The costumes?…
Thanks to Shakespeare putting in these tragedies to poor Romeo and Juliet’s life the theme was very clear. From the hatred of the families, to Romeo’s banishment, and finally to the death of the two lovers the theme was finally shown. Even though the two lovers tried to run away from fate things just got…
Shakespeare should be taught in the ninth grade curriculum because of his rare dialect, his language he created is something you don’t hear today. His plays are really entertaining and people are still interested in watching his plays from people who are living today.…
Why are the young characters of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet interesting? Every young character has a different set of characteristics which makes him/her interesting. Shakespeare portrays many important qualities of his young characters.…
William Shakespeare is a brilliant man. He wrote many great plays. It is still amazing how Juliet relates to modern day teens in so many ways, when the play was written in 1597. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is a love sick teenager who goes through a tragic romance, but it is the series of events and how she responds to them that makes her relatable to modern day teens.…
Hearing that I had to read The Taming of the Shew, I was not enthusiastic at all. I read the play previously in my eighth grade literature class, years ago, and I have not been a Shakespeare fan since then. Also, if I had the power to ban Shakespeare from any educational curriculum, then I probably would. I believe that Shakespeare belongs in a History class or a class just on Shakespeare, for its dated, old, and not quite fit for many modern English learners like myself.…
Although it is estimated that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in the 1590’s the teenage characters show a lot of similarities to the thoughts and attitudes that teenagers show still to this day. This source is a credible article found in the Literature Resource Center database. The author is a professor at University of Alberta in the english and film studies department. This article specifically will give me a lot of useful information. It gives insight into how Shakespeare creates a teenager essence into the characters that does not show up in many of his other works. This article shows how he uses language to create the character’s personalities. I will use this in my research of how Shakespeare uses language to create certain characteristics in the characters of his plays. This will help to explain how it helps in making the characters more personable, and makes the characters easy for the audience to relate…
To a large extent, I agree that it is clearly evident that Shakespeare's tregedy, Othello, will continue to be worthy of critical study due to the presentation of its treatment of issues relevant to the human condition: Universal issues.....…
Before proceeding, it is important to understand that today only 5 of Shakespeare's 37 plays are taught by 90% of all high schools. 85% of the instruction is the study of Shakespeare's tragedies which include: Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar. 40% of English classes use a textbook and 99% feature a tragedy. (How many of William Shakespeare’s 38 plays have you…
Shakespeare is still worth reading because the stories are interesting with amazing plot twist and characters. For example, Romeo and Juliet have fallen in love with each other and their families dislike each other. And Romeo kills himself because he thinks Juliet is dead. Macbeth betrays and kills the king that he adores because of the seed of greed.…
For me I personally think that Romeo and Juliet shouldn’t be taught in high school. I say this because if you honestly think about it what is there to learn from it that will help you in your future. I also say this because the book is about romance and kings, queens, princesses in like high royalty. But our lives aren’t in high royalty we aren’t kings or queens we are just your typical ordinary people. Lastly I think that the book is a more higher education of understanding for like college people because I feel like us high schoolers won’t understand the meaning of the book.…
After reading the rather confusing (and extremely hostile) essay "Shakespeare," it's not hard to tell that the author calls for an eradication of William Shakespeare's plays from English classrooms. The author feels that many of Shakespeare's great plays, including Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Knight, are irrelevant to today's society. Although the language in this essay is extremely convoluted and tangled, as I am sure everyone has noted, I believe that I have found the quintessence of the author's reasoning. In simple terms, he believes that the language used in Shakespearian plays is alienating; reading Shakespeare prevents us from discussing other global issues; and Shakespeare's works were political propaganda launched by the…
I am writing this letter in regards to the recent article that was printed in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week criticizing the study of Shakespeare in school and how it should be removed from the year 9 syllabuses. One of Shakespeare’s most famous works is the play of Romeo and Juliet which is also one of the world’s best-known love stories. A play such as Romeo and Juliet incorporates profound themes of human nature, father and daughter relationships and the inevitability of fate. In addition, exposing students to a multitude of literary techniques, challenges students with difficult language and style, expresses a profound knowledge of human behavior and offers insight into the world around us. Simply stated, I believe students should study Romeo and Juliet in school because of the incredible value within the play.…