Here we are with post number 2 of Shakespeare week.
With all the excitement about Shakespeare (which thrills me), I keep seeing articles and graphics with titles along the lines of “how you quote Shakespeare without even knowing it.”
Now, it’s a great idea. And I remember having a discussion along those lines when I began studying Shakespeare in ninth grade. But as I see these kinds of articles and graphics over and over and over again, they have really started to bother me.
There are two main reasons.
First, it is thoroughly unoriginal. I mean, seriously? The man is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers that has ever lived; we are reading his work now more than 400 years after their composition; and not only is his work still read, but it continues to inspire some of the best artists, writers, composers, musicians, etc. to this day. And all you want to bother to say is that he coined some common phrases? If that is all someone has to say about Shakespeare, then there’s no reason to bother at all.
Second, and more importantly, I believe these kinds of stories give the connotation that Shakespeare’s impact on the modern English language is the only (or main) reason that he is a great writer or that they should read his work. As you may be able to guess from the fact that I have a Shakespeare blog, I do not believe that it is even close to being true by any stretch of the imagination.
I understand the interest and desire to express and illustrate the impact that Shakespeare has had on the English language. I get it. And it is remarkable. But he has only had such impact because of his greatness as a writer – not the other way around, and I think we lose Shakespeare’s true contributions when that is all we focus on. To me, the Bard’s contribution is a collection of works that more perfectly represents the human experience than any other writer I have ever read, contains some of the most beautiful English-language prose and verse in existence, and contains stories and characters so complex that we still disagree about them 400 years later.
That is his gift to us.
