Books - Shakespeare: To read or not to read, that is the question!

Dingbat · 02-03-2005, 09:38 AM

Hey, just wondering if anyone out there is a fan of Shakespeare? I'm not sure if this should be here since he wrote plays instead of books. But I personally love Shakespeare.

Sorry if this was already posted.

xallyx · 02-04-2005, 04:58 AM

I'm not a huge Shakespear reader, mainly because I don't have the persistence to endure the language, but I like the concepts and the storylines. Shakespearian play I've enjoyed the most to date is Twelfth Night.

StellaSlight · 02-04-2005, 05:30 AM

I'm a huge Shakespeare fan. I read almost all his works, and there are few that I did not like.
My favourite play has to be Twelfth Night too, even though I also loved Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew among others. I'm one to prefer his comedies over his great tragedies.

IdrilAurora · 02-04-2005, 06:04 AM

FAVE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS:

1.Taming Of The Shrew
2. Macbeth
3. Othello
4. Twelfth Night
5. Midsummer Night's Dream

Dingbat · 02-04-2005, 07:34 AM

I thought i was the only Shakespeare fan out there. I haven't read alot of his work, as i am at the young age of 17, but the ones I have read are:

Romeo & Juliet
Twelfth Night, or What you will
Macbeth
and next semester i will read Hamlet

But i have seen numerous plays.

About the laguage, I love it. everyone says its so hard to understand and follow. I find it very easy.

Star5 · 02-04-2005, 12:07 PM

To read!

I'm a huge Shakespeare fan. Some of my favourites are -

Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing

AdriaMichelle · 02-04-2005, 05:11 PM

William Shakespeare is my favorite author. I find his plays to be like a dream that you don't want to wake up from and they are illustrated w/ detail in such a beautiful way.

In fact, my high school yearbook quote was from Hamlet, "This above all: to thine own self be true, as this must follow as night to day, thou canst to be false to any man..." (but I left out man) My best friends took me to see "Shakespeare In Love" knowing how much I enjoyed reading Shakespeare and throughout the movie they can kept on asking, is this part real? The only thing I was able to say its historical fiction.

Favorite plays ~

"As You Like It"
"Romeo and Juliet"
"Hamlet"

*For lit class* - I will be reading "The Taming of the Shrew" and I cannot wait!

For fun, I plan on reading "A Midsummer's Night Dream".

WinterPolaris · 02-07-2005, 12:01 AM

I think I must be the only one in my AP Lit class that is actually fascinated by Shakespeare. Everyone else is so nonchalant and indifferent about the plays.

My favorite play is definitely A Midsummer Night's Dream (we're doing a production of it for spring semester! Yay!).

I love how all of his plays are so relatable. Yes, not many people have their fathers killed by usurping uncles, or take the place of their identical twin brother only to have someone fall in love with him mistakenly, but the themes in general are so broad and familiar. Everyone has experienced some level of love, happiness, sadness, revenge, anger, confusion.

I don't know if this is an appropriate question, but it's Shakespeare-related. For my senior project, I am doing a community service where I teach kids (middle-school-aged, most likely) the basic foundation of how to understand Shakespeare and Elizabethan language/culture. Does anyone here have any ideas of how to go about the project? I'm thinking about taking some of the easier to comprehend passages from more familiar plays such as Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream and explain them both in context and taking them apart to learn the language structure. I also talked to our director and the main cast of our A Midsummer Night's Dream production and do some sort of "workshop" (theater/acting in general and Shakespeare interpretation). Are there any other workable ideas?

80sBabygirl · 02-07-2005, 05:17 AM

I love Shakespeare. I tend to prefer the comedies/tragedies to the historical plays though (like Henry V for instance). My favorites (of what I've read) are: Othello, Romeo and Juliet, A Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Measure for Measure.

LittleMilkJug · 02-07-2005, 09:06 AM

I adore Macbeth

"Out,out, damn spot" is my favorite line of any of his plays

Crossbow · 02-07-2005, 02:56 PM

Love Shakespeare. I'm not crazy about reading it - I don't usually read a play until after I've seen it, otherwise I can't get the rhythm right in my head.

Best productions I've seen: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Barbicon in London in 1992; "Richard III" starring Ian McKellan at the Ordway in St. Paul (a million times better than the movie version they made with him); Kenneth Brannagh's "Much Ado about Nothing" and "Hamlet"; "Love's Labors Lost" at the Idaho Shakespeare festival.

I also love Shakespeare parodies: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," "Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth," and "The Compleat Works."

I like writing parodies too:

Most Abbreviated Shakespeare - 10-second versions of all the plays I know and some I don't.

Julius Caesar: Feel the Love - My first impression of this play, written as I was watching it for the first time.

Fun With Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet starring Lex Luthor as Romeo and Clark Kent as Juliet. Because Dude, someone had to do it. Two households both alike in dignity and all that.

Why, yes, I am a geek.

amusic20 · 02-09-2005, 05:10 PM

I'm a huge fan of Shakespeare! My favorite is Romeo&Juliet; I read out loud Juliet's part in 9th grade--it was sooo fun!! My second favorite is Hamlet. The main thing I

about Shakespeare's plays is the language; yes, @ times it can be impossible to understand what's going on, but who cares? It's just so beautiful & lovely!!

fallfromgrace · 02-28-2005, 10:36 PM

I do enjoy Shakespeare but I haven't read very many of his works. I read Romeo & Juliet on my own, and then Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Macbeth and Hamlet in high school.

brendo1988 · 03-05-2005, 10:24 PM

i dont really like shakespeare that much... mainly because some of the language it hardish to understand... the storylines and such are quite good. but im doing macbeth in school now and if i read it myself i ahve no clue wots happening.. only when someone explains it to me

in_flames · 03-06-2005, 05:20 AM

I also loved Shakespeare's plays. I'm not a huge fan, but I like to read them. My favourite plays are Othello and Midsummer night's dream.