Shakespeare wrote his plays to appeal to Elizabethan audiences. Much of the text is dated or archaic and is initially unknown to the typical student. Yet upon thorough study, the student will gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of Shakespeare's words and the English language. Despite the difficulty that dated text presents, the passions and emotions described by Shakespeare touch the hearts of his readers and audience, students included. Vivid imagery and poetic descriptions are presented effectively and have a great impact on the audience.
Allie Cheek English 1102 Julia Maher 14 October, 2011 End Rhyme in The Tempest There are many striking elements to Shakespeare’s prose that make it both magnificent to read and difficult to understand. One way Shakespeare does this is by crafting his work in a way that makes it rewarding to a reader once he or she is able to work through the language, eventually figuring out just what Shakespeare was trying to say. Shakespeare speaks in a language that we, in today's modern culture, are completely unfamiliar with. As a result, readers today are left mystified, blaming their misunderstanding on the cultural gap; but perhaps this is exactly the way that Shakespeare intended the reader to respond, even as he wrote it four hundred years ago. Within his works, Shakespeare writes with elaborate language but carefully includes contextual clues in the prose to aid readers in understanding.
In act IV scene VII lines 123-164 of Hamlet there is a very long exchange of words of revenge towards Hamlet between Claudius and Laertes, but in the David Tennant version much of the unimportant speech is cut out and only the most important of the conversation is left. This appeals to a modern audience, because this particular scene is very long with many allusions and metaphors to seeking revenge on Hamlet, but in this version most of these are cut out and the point is made very quickly instead. The director, Gregory Doran, also chose to add parts and dialog to certain scenes, this passage is no different as the characters are talking about how the plan to take revenge the director adds the word rapier in to the dialog to let the modern audience know that they are talking about a sword, and later changes the word unbated to “unblunted” to describe to a modern audience who may not know the meaning of
He confesses: “What I am about to say to you has taken me more than twenty years to admit: A primary reason for my success in the classroom was that I couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student” (598). Richard Rodriguez also explains that how he tactfully avoid hi family’s inquiry about his new-found love for books. He would hide inside of a
Reaction to our respective characters: I was given the role of Cheswick in the play “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” We openly stated what personality of character we would prefer to play, and subsequently read through as a group the extract of the script we had been given. I had said that I view myself good at acting eccentric individuals and enjoy portraying my character in colourful events. “Cheswick” fitted this description almost perfectly. I believe he is a fun character to play, and even though he isn’t among the main characters, he is quite important in linking conversations and also providing a colourful break in a piece of conversation if it seems to drag on a bit. We realised there were more characters in the extract than people in our group, so when designating specific roles to the different members of the group, one person was given the task of playing two characters, whom very often had lines one after the other.
I hated the assignments to turn out “compositions”, and went at them like heavy labor.” (Baker, 2nd paragraph, pg. 66) I felt that part of the paragraph just reminded of myself of the same things like in this paragraph. The genre of this essay is a narrative essay because Baker explains his high school and college experiences. When Baker said “I had begun to think of myself as a writer. It was the only thing for which I seemed to have the smallest talent, and silly thought it sounded when I told people I’d like to be a writer, it gave me a way of thinking about myself which satisfied my need to have an
Romeo and Juliet, just like any other play by Shakespeare, are not written to be read, instead, it is written to be seen on the stage. Looking back at the time when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet the theatres are different than it is now. Theatres today are quieter, has good lighting effect, air conditioning and all these new technologies which help the audience to pay more attention and understand the play more. So the playwright must include some interesting scenes. One example of which, is the act of violence.
It was sort of a game to me but I learnt a lot from it because the next time he gave me an essay, I tried to make it better than the previous one. I remember growing up with lesser red ink on my work. Little did I know this experience will have such an impact on my writing
Reading literature and analyzing it is something I have been doing since middle school, but it never really dawned on me as to why we read literature. It was just something that I had been told to do, so I did it. Thinking more about why we should read it is something I am very interested in finding out about. When I was in high school and we would have to read books and take quizzes every day and it made reading seem like a chore and not enjoyable. I now realize how that has helped me not only for college but for the real world and thinking critically.
David Lerner 6/13/2010 English 12 The Correct Approach to Conflict Few literary works have been critically analyzed to any similar degree as Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. This is due to the vast amount of depth and insight contained in the text, such as the variety of advice Polonius gives to his son, Laertes, before he leaves abroad. One of these pieces of advice is an important concept that relates to the rest of the play. It is, “Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, bear’t that th’ opposed may be beware of thee.” (I,iii,65), meaning that one should restrain from being drawn into a fight, though once in, make sure to be able to finish it. The play illustrates the importance of this idea by contrasting the actions of Laretes, Hamlet, and Fortinbras.