Should Students Have To Read Shakespeare Essay

In Michael Mack’s speech “Why Read Shakespeare?”, he argues the merits of reading Shakespeare no matter your intended major, however, his argument has weaknesses due to the bias and fallacies in his speech.  As a matter of fact in his speech, he say,”I am a professor of Shakespeare, which, given my topic today”(Mack,1). For the reason that he is an english professor would make him bias due to the fact that he would favor Shakespeare. As a matter a fact, he would arrange for the students to read Shakespeare even those whom major is not on English. Those whom major is a another major should not need to be convinced by a english professor.

People quote Shakespeare on a regular basis and don’t even know or realize they do. A lot of people don’t believe Shakespeare wrote the plays and poems. The great controversy was started in the 1850s 200 years after Shakespeare

(Doc 5). Even if he did not write every work you find by him today, he did change our world of literature as we know it. As you may know by now, Shakespeare is an ideal Renaissance man. Others may still think he is the opposite, but there is many things that can show you he is. He works are still used today even for teaching.

School was made to challenge students and quench the thirst for learning something new. By teaching the play during school, students can get just that. Although the language in Romeo and Juliet is outdated and confounding at some points, it should still be taught because the themes are relevant to students, the meaning in his plays touches the hearts of many it and relates to many situations in communities and individual people’s lives. The foremost rationalization of why Shakespeare should be taught in schools is because the themes included in Romeo and Juliet are relevant to modern day society and are relatable to the students who will read them. His works were written over 400 years ago, and if his works have survived this long, there must be special qualities within his plays that allow them to not only persist throughout the years, but thrive and become one of the most influential and notable compositions of all time.

Have you heard of the book and play called Romeo and Juliet? Some people disagree on whether the book should be able to be taught in the 9th grade curriculum because of its lack of theme and old english along with the explicit content; suicide. In regards to this book I think the exquisite literature should be taught, it will give 9th graders a better understanding on the customs, society, and vocabulary used in the 15th century. In doing this it will let students comprehension skills rise.

The play Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare has been taught in school for many years now. Some say that we should continue to allow our teens to read this tragic love story, while many argue that this play should no longer be allowed in schools. The issues concerning this tragic love story are the inappropriate jokes, the unrealistic view of love, and the promotion of suicide. These issues will indeed prove why Romeo and Juliet is ill suited to be taught to freshmen. Ninth graders should no longer read Romeo and Juliet because it is has very inappropriate jokes that should not be associated with school.

The theme of love is often associated with peace and kindness. However, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers’ suicidal impulse shows love as a cause of self-destructive violence, as seen through their thoughts, words and actions. Firstly, Romeo and Juliet’s suicidal thoughts reveal the violence caused by their love. In other words, it is their intense passion for each other that leads to their contemplation of suicide. For instance, when Romeo is told of Juliet’s supposed death, he immediately thinks of killing himself and begins to plan his suicide, as demonstrated by the following quote: “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Should Shakespeare be taught ? Do you think Shakespeare be taught in school? Shakespeare should not be taught in 9th grade. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet should not be included in the ninth grade curriculum because it is very hard to understand and not many students may like his plays.

Finally, the Bard of Avon shouldn’t be taught in classes because it’s difficult for students to understand, his work is not culturally diverse, and is outdated for today’s students. Of course though some people would disagree and say that Shakespeare should continue on being taught in class because “Shakespeare is truly a writer for for the whole world” (378). Yes, he may be a great writer but classrooms everywhere so diverse culturally this generation. Dana Dusbiber a english teacher from Sacramento who refuses to teach Shakespeare to her students said “I do not believe that a long-dead, British guy is the only writer who can teach my students about the human condition” ( Bradford Thomas). A dead 400 year guy year old guy shouldn’t be the only one who teaches students of today’s generation the values of love, war, and life.

It has been agreed upon between both sides that the Shakespeare of Stratford went to grammar school- the equivalent of elementary school if you live in America- but that is where the disagreements start. According to Simon Schama, Stratfordians believe that Shakespeare possessed the capability to write his extraordinary plays because he studied works of classic literature written by authors such as Cicero, Virgil, and Plutarch. Since Stratfordians believe that ”most of his plays were adapted from earlier works,” he could have been creative enough to write all of the works in his name (Farouky, 2). On the other hand, the Anti-Stratfordians say that there is no proof that the Shakespeare of Stratford was even literate, as there are only 6 surviving copies of signature, all of which are almost illegible (Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship,1). Some of these signatures are even spelled differently than the rest.

In spite of the fact that reading a Shakespeare play may not speak to most students, there are actually numerous advantages of reading Romeo and Juliet. Teaching Romeo and Juliet in schools will most certainly be helpful to students. The key advantages associated with the study of Romeo and Juliet consist of; students getting to learn about the way people spoke during Shakespeare’s time, the theme of the play being the ones that students can relate to, and the useful life lessons that can be learned. One advantage of studying Romeo and Juliet is the way Shakespeare composed it, we learn about the way of life he was living in. Where family honor and loyalty to your family were vital, this is shown by the way Romeo and Juliet are forbidden

The data that I have shown supports my claim because It shows how people are still using Shakespeare’s literature to this day. More data that supports my claim Is a study back In 2016 discovered that Shakespeare was most quoted In pop songs and there has been over 160 references tied to Shakespeare from the 1950’s to 2018 The Author Is currently the one talking right now. And my data supports my claim because It shows once again how Shakespeare Is still being used today. These 2 sets of data that I have provided are sufficient enough to support my

I personally believe that Michael Mack does a wonderful job throughout his speech to the college freshmen. I for one believe that he strongly was able to get his point across to the freshmen and perhaps even help them learn to enjoy the thrill of reading his works. In the second paragraph Mack relates Shakespeare to music which in a way is exactly true. Shakespeare to me is interesting in and of itself however for others it may not be quite so. For those types of people looking at Shakespeare in comparison to music may help them to open their eyes and see the beauty of it all.

William Shakespeare has composed countless, breathtaking phenomena. He produced many plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer night’s dream. Furthermore, Shakespeare compiled one hundred and fifty four sonnets. I strongly feel that Shakespeare is very influential through his texts. Judging by the fact that the many schools have implemented Shakespeare’s work as part of the mandatory curriculum, he has clearly influenced many people over the ages.

William Shakespeare was a brilliant writer for his time, he created the Shakespearean Sonnet, created over 1700 new words to the english dictionary. He was a very talented poet and playwright. Yet, should we force students to read and watch Shakespeare as part of the curriculum? No, we should not force them in or out of class to read Shakespeare. Shakespeare is not interesting to students, the language he uses is not applicable to today, and reading is not Shakespeare’s intention for his plays and poems.