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| Yes | 24% | 290 votes | Total: 1207 votes | |
| No | 76% | 917 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesIt is, if like me you were born in France, and thus the old English Shakespeare used, makes it even harder to read or understand. But over a period of years as I came across some of his expressions, I got to understand this truly remarkable man. In fact the French have a saying -when they want to speak of English, and say it was written : Dans la langue de Shakespeare ..In the language of Shakespeare. As most of you know the French are not as a rule Anglophile, but they do admire this one Englishman!
For indeed this wonderful man, writer, author of plays still in vogue today, has never gone out of style, in all those centuries since his death; For he speaks of the same troubles we have nowadays, whether it is antisemitism , still with us sadly, the same hate that allowed the Nazis to kill six millions Jews during WW 2- while the world watched silently, and helpless. Or when he wrote -To thy own self be true- I especially love that one, for I have made it the guiding light of my own life, I really have tried throughout my eighty years... to be truthful with my self first, for then it is so much easier to deal with others, whether my friends but especially my whole large family; In fact there is a saying amongst them ... If Grandmere said it, you can believe ii!
Then you have .What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet? That is sooo true. we tend to worry about so many foolish things, our names, or in my case my french accent, the address of the town we live in..when the reality is that eventually we get found out-good or bad- not by our so called names - but for the person we really are..wasn't it our great President Lincoln who said- that we could fool some of the people some of the times, but not all the people all the times. (I bet Lincoln read a lot of Shakespeare!)
I think people don't change much, whether it was in the Bard's time or now, people always stay the same -only circumstances change. It maybe the reason that Shakespeare writings and plays are still in vogue today. I also think it's wonderful that the English have preserved the Bard's house in his home town, even named it after him...and so now 600 yrs later, Bards-on-Avon is still benefiting from his work, enjoying prosperity, as tourists from all over the world, come over to honor him and visit his home.
Just think of this..A lot of houses of consequence that belonged to our signers of Independence in Philadelphia ,have just about disappeared..If you go there today, in a busy street you might see a little sign that says: On this corner once stood Benjamin Franklin's home. Can you imagine that! So in a way you have to admire the English... I do! (even if I am French) ha! ha!
Learn more about this author, Pierrette Komarek.
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No
The fact that there is a question as to whether or not Shakespeare's writing is comprehensible saddens me to the very core. I cannot help but to wonder about the state of our educational system which has produced a country of people who have become literarily lazy. William Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. These were times where the English language was in flux. This means that there was no guide for proper spelling or grammar. In fact, because Shakespeare mainly wrote plays, which were not intended to be read, but instead to be heard and experienced in a theater, the rules governing his writing were few. Perhaps one of the most stringent rules which govern Shakespeare's writing is his use of iambic pentameter. Having attempted to write in verse, I can attest to the difficulty of this task.
One of the most important factors to remember when considering the difficulty of Elizabethan/Jacobean English, is that one is still reading English. Consider another important English author, Lewis Carroll. His poem, The Jaborwocky, is filled with words he created himself and exist nowhere other than this poem. Depending on your background a medical journal or stereo instructions may seem "incomprehensible", however through the use of careful reading techniques and using a lexicon, one can develop the skills which will help in the understanding of difficult text. As long as you are still reading the same language the barrier to understanding the text is not the author, or even the difficulty of the text. It is the reader who is responsible for adapting his own skills to the level of the text.
Finally, it is my opinion that Shakespeare is not actually difficult to read. The stigma of reading Shakespeare sets the stage for the reader to encounter difficulties when faced with the text. My first exposure to Shakespeare was as a young girl. I had found an excerpt of A Midsummer Night's Dream in one of my weekly readers. The language was not altered, there were no pictures, and there was no lexicon to help me translate the more difficult words. Still I was not only able to read the play, but was disappointed when it was only the first act. That night, at dinner, I described what I had read to my parents in the hopes that they would know where I could find the rest of the story. It wasn't until my father handed me a dusty copy of William Shakespeare's Complete Works that I met Mr. Shakespeare. It would take a few years before he would be discussed in school, but because I had been exposed to his writing without someone telling me it was hard, I always had the advantage over my classmates.
What makes Shakespeare's plays so brilliantly timeless is that there are many layers for every reading level. On the surface Romeo & Juiet is a story about teen lovers, but upon closer inspection one can find discussions about society, rivalry, hamartia, social class, fate and more. While the topic of discussion is if Shakespeare's writing in incomprehensible, it should really be, who doesn't understand Shakespeare?
Learn more about this author, Taina Patmore.
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