2. William Shakespeare
On April 26, 1564, William Shakespeare was born. He
was born in Warwickshire, London. He grew up to be
an English poet and playwright. Over his lifetime, he
has written 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and many other
English texts. He is widely regarded as the world’s
greatest English writer. His plays have been translated
to every major language and still are known and
performed throughout the world.
3. Why Are They Still So Relevant?
Shakespeare is one of the most relevant playwrights
of the modern age. His plays are not just for show.
Many of his plays have meanings and lessons behind
them. While the audience is learning, they are also
being entertained and amazed by the genius comedy
and/or tragedy that takes place in the play. These are
good reasons why people like his plays. I have
concluded that there are five reasons why his plays
are relevant in today’s society.
4. 1. Timeless Themes
All good plays, movies, books or other forms of
entertainment have good themes.
In Shakespeare’s plays, there are themes people never
get tired of.
Three of the timeless themes are: friendship, love, and
vengeance.
These themes are easy to relate to because they come
from human emotion; no matter how hard one tries, we
always feel emotions.
These themes have been displayed through out all time,
even before Shakespeare put them in plays.
Shakespeare put them into the limelight and made
people more aware of them in serious and funny ways.
5. 2. Characters Are Real
Of course the characters for the plays were made up
but the positions that they had and the fact that they
were people is why I say they are real. For example,
King Lear, from his play King Lear, can be compared
to the president or another person in a high position of
modern times. His characters weren’t animals or
anything else. The characters in his show were also in
submission to the real social classes and laws of the
land during his era.
6. 3. Quotable Quotes
Many of shakespeare’s quotes are very easy to remember
and fit so well in modern society. Shakespeare’s quotes
probably have been used the most in media including
movies. Honestly, ask yourself how many times you have
heard, “To be or not to be”. These quotes are very
inspirationally and helpful for life also. Recently, it has been
discovered that Nelson Mandela had a book that was
smuggled into prison for him during his 27 year sentence.
This book was full of shakespeare’s plays. His signed his
name by a certain quote that he lived his life by. It was
Julius Ceasar and it was, "Cowards die many times before
their deaths/The valiant never taste of death but once.“ He
lived his life exactly like this giving an example that or
some people, it is not just a quote. It is a way of life.
7. 4. Language
He most certainly influenced the modern language
and commonly used phrases of today’s generation.
Shakespeare himself introduced nearly 3,000 words
into the English vocabulary and introduced phrases
that were so easy to pick up, a lot of people forget
were it originated from. For example, the world is my
oyster. This is used in every day conversation but is
credited to shakespeare because everyone says it. He
was able to create these new words because he wrote
in his own style rather than to sucumb to the general
writing style of all playwrights back then. He often
used iambic pentameter and blank verse to get his
point or theme across in his work.
8. 5. Gave a voice to everyone
Back then, only certain people of certain classes were
allowed to do such things. For an example, Viola in 12th
night dressed as a man in one part of the play so that she
could get a job. He was a rebellious voice telling people to
overcome there social status and do what they want and
what is right. Ironicly, all of the actors in his age were men
because women could not act. It was frowned upon. He
basically spoke out against something that he participated
in.This mainly goes to the women because at the time and
time after it, women were looked upon as not equal to
men. I believe that Shakespeare actually helped with
women’s rights and breaking down social class.
9. Conclusion
In conclusion, Shakespeare has given the world more
than just fantastic plays. He has given them social
changes, improvements to the english language,
quotes that no one will ever forget, and themes that
are used for almost everything that is done today.
