by Genenda Milloy

Created on: June 04, 2008

Many high school students ask their English teachers, "Why did Shakespeare have to write so fancy?" What they don't understand is that Shakespeare wrote in the common language of his time. He wasn't trying to be difficult to understand. If Shakespeare's writing were incomprehensible, he would no longer appeal to the people of today. In fact, Shakespeare has continued to entertain audiences, centuries after his death, because we can still relate to the major themes from his plays. Shakespeare did not write only for the educated; he wrote for everyone. Yes, his language may be difficult to understand at first, but with practice, the Bard's words will gradually become clearer. The average person's understanding of Shakespeare also comes from high school English classes in which the plays were read, rather than performed as a play is meant to be. Perhaps the greatest reason that Shakespeare is still popular is that he wrote plays that audiences can relate to. His themes are still popular in books and movies today. We see films about people who love someone they can't have, adventure, and comedy. Shakespeare appeals to the average person more than one might guess. As a matter of fact, Shakespeare's use of double entendres adds a great deal of humor to his plays. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Sampson, Gregory, and Mercutio each tell a great deal of bawdy jokes. Sampson brags about the size of his genitals by saying, "Me they shall FEEL while I am able to STAND." Gregory responds by telling him, "Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been Poor John." Poor John was a type of dried fish that was very hard, so Gregory is comparing Sampson's genitals to a dried fish. Mercutio tries to get Romeo's attention by talking about Rosaline, the woman whom he believes Romeo is still in love with. Romeo is hiding from his friends in order to steal away to Juliet. As Mercutio attempts to call Romeo out of hiding, he talks about Rosaline's appearance. "I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,/By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,/By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,/And the desmenes that there adjacent lie." Mercutio is alluding to Rosaline's thighs and genitals. He goes on to compare Rosaline to a medlar fruit and Romeo to a popperin pear, because each of the fruit mentioned resembles either female or male genitalia. As a matter of fact, prostitutes were nicknamed medlars due to this similarity. Audiences in Shakespeare's time would have

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