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[Bart]

I think that to focus on the fact that many Shakepearean plays have recycled plots is to miss the point. The plots of most of the plays on their own usually aren't much, and are certainly no more exciting than his contemporaries, who were also stealing plots from Greek and Roman writers and playwrights. The genius of Shakespeare is in the language that he uses, the WAY that he tells the stories. That's why the plays tend to flop on paper and why most high school students hate him. You have to hear it out loud, spoken by an actor who can really use the rhythm of the lines, to appreciate their beauty and power.

[lil_fairyjess]

I enjoy literature, but sometimes even I have to admit that Shakespeare's plays can be a little sluggish. However, I also love drama and theatre, and to hear an actor deliver Shakespeare's lines with conviction, is a world apart from reading it. After education is all finished, I hope to become an actor, on the stage would be great.... if I ever had to opportunity to perform one of Shakespeare'splays, I would love to.
The teaching of Shakespearean plays is rather poor; there is so much that could be done to improve it, actually make it engaging and interesting, rather than stuffy and dry, as this seems to be the current mode of teaching.

[Butterfly_83]

Hi,
Shakespeare doesn't have to be read by a great actor to undersatnd the true beauty of it.

I my in Year 7 and my class has been studying A Midsummer Night's dream. What a fabulous book! Our class has been asigned and we just read what sits in front us. I read mine with enthusiasm and others don't, but I can always tell where Shakespeare has come from.

What about, instead of complaining about how fabulously great Actors are we sit down and understand whay Shakespeare actually means.

Leonie.

[Rata]

Well I would tend to agree with the fact that Shakespeare is another author when you actually see his plays being performes, however, reading his plays can also lead you to understanding them (especially to those of us who cannot, for the life of us, actually understand enlighs actors with english --as in from England-- accents because english isn´t even our native tongue to begin with...reading gives you a headstart with the words...).
Still, to say that all Shakespeare did was in the order of language and the actual construction of the plays is not having a whole vision of Shakespeare. It is very important, but also one thing that sets him appart from other playwrights is his characters (and his plotlines, sometimes, few times, really). If you really analyze what happens, it´s not really the typical stories, they SEEM to be, but they aren´t. If you take a look, for instance, you notice that Shakespeare was even going against what Aristotle had said was tragedy to begin with! (which was what the scholars who actually had access to Aristotle thought should be tragedy and his ideas were filtered down to others...) As for the characters...well, Shakespeare managed to create the lines by which we still consider mankind today, from moral dilemmas to social anxiety to the conception of the world. I´m not saying that Shakespeare created us and no one else contributed, certainly many others did so (for example, Cervantes has many points in common with Shakespeare, as does Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, two writers VERY far away...) and it seems the time was ripe for such changes to begin in the way man viewed the world, but Shakespeare seems to communicate it VERY clearly, and with no real intention of making any lasting references to his world or context. To understand Cervantes one must understand other writers of the time (because he mocks the style and works), to understand Sor Juana one must know about the barroque estethics in the New World Spanish Colonies and Spain, and about how the Greeks and Romans were understood at the time (not to mention you have to have a hell of a vocabulary...) but Shakespeare, although not written in the very same english we all write, read and speak today, needs no extra knowledge. You don´t need to know who his main historical characters actually were to understand the essence of his plays, you don´t need to know if a Duke is higher-ranking than a Count or whatever. Shakespeare can be understood by the majority of people, given that they give him a chance.
So a lot of Shakespeare is the language and how he presented his plays, but putting aside other characteristics of his work is also limiting the range the plays can have.