2. I believe that it is very useful to study Shakespeare. First of all, he created if 2000 words when he was alive. This is an amazing task and reading Shakespeare would certainly improve anyone's vocabulary skills. Another reason that it is important to read Shakespeare is because Shakespeare is an important historical figure. He is the figure head for writers in that time period and changed the style of writing. His works are also still relevant to this day. They talk about problems that are still relevant. They also give us a look into the past unlike other stories. We also have more work from him than other writers of that time which is another reason why we choose Shakespeare over other writers. Shakespeare was also a wonderful story writer. His stories were often very complex and contained many twists and turns. His characters were also wonderfully created. He didn't just have them black and white like other stories of that time. He gave depth to them. He made some seem good and then do a bad thing or too. They weren't just good or bad, some were in between. He has also influenced our culture, and many stories now are based off of his stories, like the Lion King. Many people use quotes from Shakespeare and in order to pick up on these quotes one must read Shakespeare. Those are the reasons why I believe Shakespeare is still useful to study.
I disagree and agree at different parts of your argument. I do agree that it is important to learn about Shakespeare due to the fact that he was an extreremly well known literature and historical figure. Regarding the vocabulary, I don't think it is necessary to read Shakespeare for that reason just because it in written in old English, and we don't really need to learn that because we don't really speak old english ya feel.
ReplyDeleteNeither did Shakespeare. He spoke Early Modern English. If it were Old English, you DEFINITELY wouldn't be able to understand it, lol.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to attempt to read Old English, check out Beowulf in its original form! http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/beowulf-oe.asp
I mostly agree with your post, though I do not agree with on the subject of reading Shakespeare for the words he created. Many of the words that Shakespeare created are now archaic and no longer in common use, and the ones that are still being used today you will likely already know. While it is interesting to know the origin of a common word or phrase, it seems unlikely that reading Shakespeare will increase your vocabulary in any meaningful way, unless, of course, you enjoy using words most people will not understand.
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ReplyDeleteI agree, I though Shakespeare had some pretty interesting characters and plot twists in many of his stories which can be useful to us today when story writing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also disagree because I think that many of the words that were used back then are not relevant to us today because it seems like they are rarely used and because it may confuse people.