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Relevance of Shakespeare in the modern world
The relevance of William Shakespeare in contemporary society
The relevance of William Shakespeare in contemporary society
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Shakespeare has been around for centuries and will continue to be around for many more centuries to come. With the current day and age, Shakespeare is still relevant in today’s time. It is especially more relevant to young adults in this age of time. Shakespeare’s plays are a classic that can be interpreted in many ways. The human nature and human behavior has not changed, but only the motivating factors and conditions through time. Shakespeare’s play is used in English classes from high school to collegiate levels. The interpretation of Shakespeare can be manipulated to reflect today’s time. In the Masquerader’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, the setting was in New Mexico rather than old time Messina in Sicily. The fields of Tuscany …show more content…
The setting and time might have changed, but internally we are still the same human species that walked this Earth. Much Ado About Nothing reveals the courtship of Beatrice and Signior Benedict. Nothing much has changed, we still love the same way and fall in love the same way. The cunning ways of both their friends on merging the two together still exist in today’s society. It is comparable to high school romance. The childish ways are still present and it is not easily distinguishable in today’s world. Shakespeare mocks our ways, but shed insight on how we go about our ways. It is easily relatable to anyone at any age, and especially young adults. We do not see ourselves doing it directly, but stepping back and having an outside perspective we can easily see ourselves replicating the same actions. Shakespeare’s play exposes the young adults to more experiences that can reflected upon a later time. To my point of view, Shakespeare writes for emotions, not for action and glory for what a movie depicts. This is why Shakespeare is still around and can be considered timeless. It is easily malleable to fit in any …show more content…
The play evokes an exemplified expression of frustration and love which we bottle in. With today’s technology, social media makes it harder for us to communicate to each other; it was a tool that was meant for us to easily connect to each other, but that is not the case. We hide behind it and we start to lose our ability to communicate to each other face to face, failing to reveal our true emotions to each other. We fail to notice this dilemma because our cultural norm has changed and it is acceptable for us to hide behind text messages instead exchanging words with our mouth’s. It was a part of the play when Beatrice and Signior Benedict tried to hide their love from each other. In the end of Much Ado About Nothing, both parties tried to hide behind their excuses claiming that they only loved one another because one was madly in love with the other. Signior Benedict was flushed out when one of his friends revealed his sonnet for Beatrice that truly came from his heart. Beatrice was uncovered by Hero the same way since Beatrice also professed her love to Signior Benedict in a piece of paper. Both of them never planned to read it to each other. In a way Shakespeare understood human emotions and interactions. His works is a necessity of the years to come. It shifts us back into the lost ways in the art of
William Shakespeare is known for his use of dramatic irony and complicated story lines. In Much Ado About Nothing, he also adds in the element of disguise to what the characters know, or what they think they know. There are multiple characters trying to ensnare others in different facades, whether it be for better or for worse. The deception and illusion in the play can either assist the characters or completely shatter the situation, but in both cases, Shakespeare advises us to infer about what we hear or see before we jump to conclusions.
...ut Nothing is an extremely fast paced and witty play, Shakespeare very much has love as his central theme. There are two very different, yet equally compelling relationships that are explored in depth. They run through the play concurrently, allowing the reader to compare and contrast the different facets and complexities between the two. The playwright’s rich understanding of relationships, and particularly his understanding of the fact that love is not always as formulaic as many a writer would have us believe, makes for a fascinating read. In fact, by directly comparing a realistic couple, full of real world self doubt and a fear of rejection with a very stereotypical love-at-first-sight type of relationship, Shakespeare is possibly making the point that love and relationships have more depth than is often given credit.
Transformations inherently contain traces of the author’s social and cultural context. Much of the same can be applied to “Much ado about nothing”. It incorporates comical features, yet retains the sense of tragedy which is attached to almost all of Shakespeare’s plays. Brain Percival’s role as a director, was determining, understanding and distinguishing the social norms and the social structure of the society, and how the themes represented in the play can be transformed into a modern text. The Elizabethan society was typically a patriarchal society. Percival has used as well as transformed certain themes and textual features to ensure, that the film is more appealing and assessable to the critical modern audience.
The Transformation of Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing. In "Much Ado About Nothing" Shakespeare manages to transform Benedict. from being a bachelor to being in love with Beatrice. Shakespeare does extremely well to make this change of character seem believable as it such a big one.
William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a play involving by deception, disloyalty, trickery, eavesdropping, and hearsay. The play contains numerous examples of schemes that are used to manipulate the thoughts of other characters; it is the major theme that resonates throughout the play. Ironically, it is one of these themes that bring serenity to the chaos that encompasses most of the play.
“Language is frequently used to stir up & manipulate emotions.” - Mary Hamer. The words that people say can appear brutal or detrimental. These violent words take up many forms such as lying, insulting, etc. Along with its’ comedic formula, William Shakespeare's, Much Ado About Nothing is enhanced with humorous mockery and intertwined dialogues. In the play, the soldiers have just returned from a successful war. Love is traveling through the village; however the “language of war” appears rooted in the language. Numerous times do the characters joke around in cruel dialects. The mockery, however, is not considered to be as harsh due to the presence of comedy within the play. William Shakespeare’s intricate use of language in his play, Much Ado About Nothing, allows immense aggressive language to thrive in the characters yet is able to use this to alleviate the violence.
In William Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, there are many instances of trickery and deception, which seem to surround the whole of the play.
William Shakespeare said: “Women may fall when there's no strength in men” (Romeo and Juliet). Throughout history gender role have been a big, whether someone is a feminist or someone believes there is no equality between males and females; everyone has different opinions when it comes to the matter of gender roles. The same thing can be said about William Shakespeare who was a feminist (Shakespeare of Stratford). This ideology can be seen in his play Much Ado about Nothing. In this comedy Shakespeare focuses on two pairs of lovers named Claudio and Hero who are set to be married in a week but before their marriage day, they plan to conspire with Don Pedro, the prince of Aragon to trick their friends Beatrice and Benedick to admit their love for each other. Don John, the brother of Don Pedro, meanwhile plots to prevent marriage of Claudio and Hero by accusing Hero of being unfaithful. Don John initially succeeds in his plan as Hero is accused and ashamed at the marriage ceremony, but at the end Claudio and Hero are united and marry each other. Also, Beatrice and Benedick finally declare their love for each and dance at the end of the play. Shakespeare uses a lot of sources for this comedy and one of them is “Orlando Furioso” written in 1591, which gave Shakespeare the idea of Hero and Claudio’s marriage and Don John’s plot to prevent it. Another source Shakespeare used to write the play is the courtier written in 1588, which gave him the idea of the romance between Beatrice and Benedick. And also “La Prima de la Novelle” written in 1554 by Matteo Bandello gave Shakespeare the idea of putting the setting in Messina, Italy (Shakespeare in quarto). Because Shakespeare was a feminist, some of the women appear as supporting and central...
With its entangled double plots and eloquent use of words, Much Ado About Nothing is a story that has the ability to entertain the masses both young and old. Shakespeare’s use of figurative language along with situation creates such vivid imagery for which carries the drama from beginning to end. For example, when we look at Act 1 Scene 1 of the play ...
William Shakespeare’s plays are being made into box office film hits at an incredible rate. Films such as Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, Othello with Laurence Fishbourne and Henry V with Kenneth Branagh have been seen by a surprising number of teenagers. Often they have not understood it all, or even half of it, but they have been affected by the powerful characters and by the Shakespearean magic which has affected audiences around the world for centuries. They want to know more, they want to understand, and what better motvation can any teacher ask for than that students WANT ? That alone is sufficient reason for any English teacher to start a course in Shakespeare.
Across the Universe of Time: Shakespeare’s influence on 21st century society. It is harder to imagine a more universal writer than William Shakespeare. Rarely, if ever, is one of his many plays not being performed anywhere in the world and similarly rare is the tertiary English student who has not examined his work at length. His plays, sonnets and poems are common fodder for high school English departments across the globe.
After being unknowingly lied to and told that Beatrice loved him, his character turned drastically. His character turned to the classic character trait of a shoujo manga of a “tsundere”. Tsunderes are people who “hate to love but love to love” or in other words, people who are aggressive and cold at first but reveal their warmer side as they get to know the person. Benedick shows this character trait in the form that after he “learned” that Beatrice “loves him with an enraged affection: it is past the infinite of thought.”(2.3.921),he did not know what to do. His once sharp and “bachelor” nature changes to that of a person who wants to find true love. He shows this by not only writing a letter, but also stating,” with no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee.”(4.1.1930)Further revealing that his heart was now opened up to Beatrice, and that once aggressive nature changed to one of love. Contrasting his original behavior of a “rude gentlemen” to his behavior now of a “ sweet man”, towards Beatrice surely shows that he is a Tsundere. Benedick’s character change is the biggest character change in the whole play. From the once rude and self-doting Bachelor to the lovey dovey yin and yang couple. Benedick was not only a punching bag, but also a tsundere. By combining these two unique character types, Shakespeare is able to create a character that was both well rounded and interesting in the fact that he was hated in the beginning but loved in the
Also love today includes sex unlike courtly love. If a man kept pursuing a woman today to marry him and she continued to refuse the man would most probably give up on her, dissimilar to the courtly lover that would keep on trying. Shakespeare mocks the idea of courtly love in his play in his use of language, the characters and how they go in and out of their roles of courtly love. I aim to look at the plays moral, philosophical and social significance. Also I will analyse Shakespeare's stagecraft and appeal to the audience and to look at the patterns and details of words.
William Shakespeare and the new millennium seem to be diametrically opposed, yet his works are having a renaissance of their own after 400 years in the public domain. Why have some major film producers revisited his works when their language and staging would seem to be hopelessly outdated in our society?Perhaps because unlike modern writers, who struggle with political correctness, Shakespeare speaks his mind with an uncompromising directness that has kept its relevance in this otherwise jaded world.
Shakespeare’s plays were written in the 14th and 15th century in England, yet until this day it still has a huge influence on American English class. Why? Well because Shakespeare has a universal appeal with a rich language, complex characters with a theme that is timeless. Shakespeare should be taught more, one play per semester because it is part of American literature culture, it challenges students reading levels and as it expands students vocabulary and enriches their speaking. Shakespeare plays are relevant today as the themes of the plays involved what teenagers like and experience such as love, betrayal, courage,politics and corruption.The themes can be set in such basic forms that the plays are universal and timeless, it can set in