The Joys of Shakespeare
I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone by now who has read my blogs that I love Shakespeare. I wouldn’t say that I’m a full-out expert though, meaning I’ve only read maybe about one-third of the plays and about the same amount of sonnets. However, for whatever reason, those characters and the things they say populate my brain a great deal. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in the middle of some situation or discussion, when suddenly a quote from Sir Toby Belch or Iago or the Third Witch pops into my mind, and solves the problem. Well….if not solves, then at least it contributes to the mystification of my companions or onlookers. That’s always fun. “Oh, that’s right. You’re an EEENG-lish TEEECH-er” um.. *sneering distastefully*”
Anyway, my favorite plays are (in order) Othello, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Much Ado about Nothing, the Merchant of Venice, The Tempest and then probably Henry Vth. My least favorites , frankly, are Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. Calling all English teachers….do you find anything ironic or jarring here? You astute people have likely realized that my least favorites are the MOST REQUIRED for high school students. Imagine how disappointing this is for me!
The Less Joyful Side
Thank goodness, I haven’t taught tenth grade EVER (I have taught every other high school and middle school grade). Julius Caesar, to me, is just a giant snoozefest with really long, political speeches…which is a topic of interest to me, but not in this case. Those damn ancient Romans were too gullible, manipulative, long-winded, and power hungry for me. And I don’t prefer the toga fashions either.
But now we come to the dumbest-shit teenagers of all time, Romeo and Juliet. How many times have I had to endure it? Too many to count…but it’s over 130 for sure. I have also taught Macbeth at least 75 times, yet I do not tire of it, not at all. Meanwhile, every time Romeo opens his mouth I want to spew. Every time the Nurse rambles I want to strangle her, and every time Mercutio waxes “poetic” with his imaginative storytelling, I want to stick a fork in my eye.
Ok, so that’s me. Now let’s imagine how the students feel.
First, I would venture to say that by the third page, most of them are convinced that they are not reading English. Secondly, they can’t imagine that any person, much less teenager, would talk that much AND even sometimes rhyme!!! Not in the rhyming rapping way they like either- it’s in “ iambic pentameter.” That means it sounds like
ta-TAH-ta-TAH-ta-TAH-ta-TAH-ta-TAH.
Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer’s DAY
The instructions are to say those bold printed syllables with more emphasis, so you too can sound ridiculous. Here’s a common conversation I’ve had with students:
Kid: Ms. Silverman, why do they talk like that?
Me: Well…at that time people used language to sort of show off their skills and vocabulary, especially Shakespeare and a few other poets of the time. But everyone understood it, and the Queen loved his plays.
Kid: What does “thee” mean?
Me: it means “you.”
Kid: what does “thou” mean?
Me: it also means “you.”
Kid: Is it lunch time yet?
(SPOILERS UPCOMING) But seriously, once they realize they are stuck reading Romeo and Juliet for at least four weeks, they kind of just give in and go with the flow. They like it pretty well when the teenagers defy their community and parents, when they kiss, when they have sex, and when they kill themselves. I guess those are the universal highlights, as they were in 1597. In fact, the poor folks called “groundlings” standing on the floor in front of the stage, as it is said, cried so much that the actual tears wet the stage at the Globe Theater. (Sounds suspect, but…it’s a legend.)
The concluding paragraph is to be said in a theatrical British (or even Scottish) accent:
Ergo, let not the reeky-breathed, green-eyed monster deter you from making a visit to the foul and fair vistas created by the Bard. And if thou gettest annoyed, wondering if thou art hearing actual English, tell all of them to Sneck Up!! Then go and take thou some new infection to thine eye.
Here’s an article about whether Shakespeare is still relevant in education:
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