Chloe S

William Shakespeare and Modern Society

Everyone (including myself) probably dreads when the  teacher says we are learning about Shakespeare and you probably think it is a waste of time but you don’t understand how important he really is!

William Shakespeare is relevant to us as modern students because of his wonderful plots which are used in modern day entertainment. Shakespeare is well known for his plays and their themes, including the anger and revenge in Hamlet, The love and romance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Macbeth’ and the epic love story,  ‘The Taming of the Shrew’.

Do you realise…All of these are used in modern day entertainment !! Who would have thought that the well known disney film The Lion King is ‘Hamlet’ and 1999 movie Ten Things I Hate About You which is ‘Taming of the Shrew’ and much, much more. Shakespeare is an important icon in history and will be for many years to come.

Shakespeare Himself

Shakespeare was born in Stratford- Upon-Avon. No one knows about his early life but they assumed that Shakespeare would have gone to the local King Edward VI Grammar school, no wonder he got into writing plays. Shakespeare published he first poem in 1593 called ‘Venus and Adonis’ and ‘Rape of Lucrece’ a year later. You probably think all this is boring but it is important because writers have to start their career somehow. Shakespeare had written fifteen plays by 1599 that is fifteen plays in six years!! he must have been incredibly busy. In 1599 the globe theatre which shakespeare co owned was built and he wrote plays which were acted there. Boring!! I know that is what you are thinking but this guy is important. Unfortunately shakespeare died on his fifty-second birthday but there was not specific birth or death records to prove why of how he died. He was only 52 thats young!

The Lion King is all about the circle of life!! 

Everyone loves ‘The Lion King’. ‘The lion king’ is one of the most well known disney movies of all time and not many people know that the plot in the movie is from a shakespearian play called ‘Hamlet’ all they know is it is a story on a young lion cub whom will take throne as future king and goes on a long journey after his uncle requests him to leave pride lands and to never return. Some similarities that ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Hamlet’ have are that the King is killed, The Brother takes over the throne, The Prince leaves home, Prince sees fathers ghost – Prince returns to take throne – Both fight their uncle for the throne and both evil brothers die. But it’s not entirely the same, the differences are that Hamlet sees his fathers ghost at the beginning and near the end of the story and simba only sees his father near the end of the movie. Also ‘Hamlet’, Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius and Ophelia die in hamlet but only Scar dies in ‘The Lion King’. Shakespeare is still relevant to modern students and will be for many years to come. It is all part of the Circle of Life!

 Ten Things I Hate About You!

 

Everyone likes a movie with a love story in it and the 1999 hit film ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ is the perfect move to tell a love story form a shakespearian themed play called  ‘Taming of the Shrew’. The similarities of ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ and ‘Taming of the Shrew’ are that Bianca falls for a guy, both Patrick and Petruchio receive some money to tame the shrew and in both stories the girls don’t have a mother. Although the plots are the same that differences are the time period, the rule is dating instead of marriage, the characters are all high school students and the father does not choose who’s daughters date. That is why shakespeare is still important to modern students.