Poll: Shakespeare, your thoughts?

[Legion]

I am not into poetry but I appreciate his work. You have to remember that he wrote plays, they were meant to be seen.

This. Reading his plays in class were horrible; Seeing one of his Comedies performed by a decent set of actors is definitely worth a watch.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

He's pretty good I guess.

I get bored trying to read his work, due to the fact that it's hard to tell what he's getting at sometimes due to how different the english language was about four hundred years ago. Pretty clever sod all things considered though. Could make a joke or two from what I've gathered.

 

[justnotcricket]

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I guess, but personally I think Shakespeare is fantastic.

Iago is my favorite character ever, in anything, because he's such a breathtakingly magnificent bastard.

I have to agree, on both counts =) Othello is my favourite of his plays, and 116 my favourite sonnet, but I like most of his works. He can take some getting into, but if you take the time to explore his language, the rewards are great indeed. =)

 

[Steve Dark]

I am not into poetry but I appreciate his work. You have to remember that he wrote plays, they were meant to be seen.

This. Reading his plays in class were horrible; Seeing one of his Comedies performed by a decent set of actors is definitely worth a watch.

This again. Reading the same soliloquy over and over in secondary school was god damn awful boring. Watching David Tennant and Patrick Stuart perform Hamlet from the front row however, another matter ENTIRELY.

 

[Silva]

I am a writer myself, and to not acknowledge Shakespeare's genius would be foolish. His plays weren't just dirty jokes for working class people; they had amazing philosophical insights which many philosophers still quote him for. King Lear and Hamlet were both particularly amazing in that way.

Another thing that speaks for Shakespeare is his incredible ability to do more than one genre well. He could do fantasy (Midsummer Night's Dream), historical dramatisation (Macbeth), court drama, tragedy and comedy.

What's more, his plays showed a passing knowledge of other parts of life, for example, the medicine systems of the time, the predictive and psychological systems of astrology, astronomy, and other sciences.

He wasn't a Jack of All Trades - he was a Master of Several. And that's probably still underestimating him.

This again. Reading the same soliloquy over and over in secondary school was god damn awful boring. Watching David Tennant and Patrick Stuart perform Hamlet from the front row however, another matter ENTIRELY.

David Tennant doing Hamlet... my God that would be good. Somehow I just find him perfect for any role in that play.

 

[edinflames]

I am not into poetry but I appreciate his work. You have to remember that he wrote plays, they were meant to be seen.

This. Reading his plays in class were horrible; Seeing one of his Comedies performed by a decent set of actors is definitely worth a watch.

This again. Reading the same soliloquy over and over in secondary school was god damn awful boring. Watching David Tennant and Patrick Stuart perform Hamlet from the front row however, another matter ENTIRELY.

I am so jealous of you.

I have seen Sean Bean as Macbeth (with Samantha Bond as Lady Macbeth) and that was outstanding.

Othello is another good play - just love the tragedies.

But yeah, Shakespeare must be seen as performance to be fully appreciated.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it; he died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he owed, as 't were a careless trifle" - Macbeth

 

[Captain Blackout]

The positive votes outnumber the negatives by just over 2 to 1 at the moment. That ought to say something.
Slamming Shakespeare is a little like ripping on Mozart. You may not like his work but that doesn't change the fact that he was incredibly talented for his time and his plots hold up exceptionally well even today. Complaining that he's too hard to understand isn't a complaint. Learn the language or let it go. I can certainly understand having a hate on for the guy because you don't like his work and have to study him. Blame an un-integrated educational system. I got everything I needed from Shakespeare in one class and had the option of taking a different literature class to fulfill the requirement.

Not that I'm a fanboy or anything. No, really...

 

[RAWKSTAR]

After studying his work for my Alevels Shakespeare can fuck right off.
He was ALRIGHT. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Space Spoons]

I enjoy and appreciate the man's work when I see it acted out, as it was intended to be. On paper, I always found it kind of impenetrable.

 

[FROGGEman2]

The main reason that people don't like him is because they don't understand his writing style. Until one can completely understand Shakespearian, please know that we completely disregard your hate-statements and you should all go fucking die because you are a plague to our earth. I HAAAAATE YOOOOOOU!

 

[Harlemura]

I really, really don't like him.
It's probably because, as people are saying, I'm forced to not only read his stuff, but to analyze things like "How does this person saying something to that person result in this person doing blah de blah de blah."

 

[CakeDragon]

His work is really good, and I guess in its' time it was a literary genius... I just don't understand what the flip he goes on about sometimes.

 

[Skeleon]

To be honest, I read only one of his works, so my opinion may not be valid.
However, we read Macbeth in English in school and I found it to be totally awesome!
I love Victorian English and the story itself was great: Lies, murder, ghosts, it had everything.
So, from my limited experience with Shakespeare, I'd say, yes, he's a literary genius.

 

[kingcom]

The context of his work is obvious outdated and unrecognised but the messages are still rather insightful.

 

[The_Deleted]

Titus Andronicus is of the most powerful plays ever written. Makes MacBeth look like an episode of Hollyoakes.
If you get the chance then look for the Anthony Hopkins film. Fan-bastard-tastic.

 

[Slash Dementia]

Shakespeare is good. I need to read more of his writings though.
Any suggestions?

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

He's great! Othello is one of my favourite plays.

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

If you get the chance then look for the Anthony Hopkins film. Fan-bastard-tastic.

"Othello" with Anthony Hopkins as Othello and Bob Hoskins as Iago? I saw that, it was fan-fucking-tastic!

 

[Lullabye]

by todays standards he's good, in his time he was probably a literary god. but we have had better since. I liked romeo and juliet, but macbeth was almost painful to read, it was so morbid and dark and the humor(if you can call it that) was just.....awful. ugh...