When I blogged about “Why Is Shakespeare So Hard” based on references in my search logs, it became one of my most commented topics. I’m curious if that trick will work twice. The Romeo and Juliet thread made me think of a similar question, as seen above.
What do you hate about Shakespeare?
Now, as a bunch of Shakespeare geeks who are voluntarily spending our time talking about it, I don’t expect that the regular readers hate him all that much. What I’m hoping is that people googling the topic will stop by and enlighten us about why *they* hate him, and then maybe we can do something about it or at least understand it a little better. Of course, if you’re a Shakespeare pro and you’ve got some hatred to vent, go for it.
Not sure how old this thread is, but thought I would weigh in on just a passing consideration…..People come up hating Shaespeare for a very simple reason….you are not taught the truth about a great deal of his work-due to our lovely puritanical roots still rather omnipresent in the schools….. Romeo and Juliet is an active rumination/investigation of fate, of conflict and attraction, including lust, veiled in the seductiveness of attraction and sex. Sex oozes from every scene….both in blatant imagery, repeated references to orgasms, and even a scene of jokes about underwear bewtween the nurse and the boys…..Now, to be fair and honest, a great deal of Shakespeare goes well beyond sex… and should not be ignored as the layers and layers of both the beautiful and the ugly in his work are mind boggling…..but he was a brilliant mechanic and artist of his time. Yep. Stole most of his plots. Yep, may have even used too many words….but when done well, his work crackles with the fire of lightning and the silence of a sunrise….that this is possible with modern readers and more importantly, audiences after several centuries? Amazing…..
I really, really hate him.
I was very shocked when read [Henry 6 part 1]. She wasn't a witch, a whore, an immoral girl, and a femme fatale! T.T How could the hack insulted her? stupid!
His fan must shame about it. but they won't do it.
Maybe They can curse their parents, but can't curse him. lol
The bastard and the son of the bitch who insulted Joan of Arc groundlessly, was also a racist, a chauvinist, a sexist, a plagiarist, a drug addict and an imperialist!
It seems to me that the people In English-speaking countries worships Shakespeare than Jesus.
The British Empire idolized and overrated him. and US, too. they dominating the world, and need an idol in literature.
Thomas Carlisle said that:
Consider now, if they asked us, Will you give-up your Indian Empire or your Shakespeare, you English . . . Officials would answer doubtless in official language; but we, for our part too, should not we be forced to answer: Indian Empire, or no Indian Empire, we cannot do without Shakespeare! Indian Empire will go, at any rate, some day; but this Shakespeare does not go, he lasts forever with us; we cannot give-up our Shakespeare!
It is the worst reckless remark in human history!
India has a glorious several millennial history and a splendid civilization. How can make a comparison between the value of India and a stupid authorling? If Indian heard the remark, they will sniff or get angry! the dog barking is beautiful rather than the remark!
UK can do without Shakespeare! UK can give-up Shakespeare!
Thomas Carlisle was an idiot!
In conclusion, He was a great swindler in the history of mankind!
So, We must not admire Shakespeare anymore! we must criticize objectively him, too. do not just praise by the herd mentality any more!
To the latest "Anonymous" critic:
About your problem with expressing your hate and anger in something resembling English sentences…
I recommend some Shakespeare. 🙂
I only like Shakespeare when Patrick Stewart is acting, and then only his specific scenes; or if the story is modernized, and translated into English. I guess my hate for Shakespeare stems from High School when we were forced to interpret every line of iambic parameter. Our teacher wouldn't even finish a paragraph – she'd stop at every single line – it was really annoying. Even people from the late 1500's would argue that Shakespeare was a wordy blowhard.
I would have preferred to study the works of Mark Twain, and stories like Moby Dick, etc. At least with those, you didn't have to try and figure out what the author was trying to say.
I hate Shakespeare and I'm not alone. Tolstoy and Voltaire and Shaw hated him, also. I have tried to read Shakespeare several times in my life, wondering what people saw in him. I recently tried again. I find his supposed understanding of human nature to be superficial and full of platitudes that are only half-truths. I find the plays boring and/or silly.
I think this comment above expresses why I hate the bard:
"About your problem with expressing your hate and anger in something resembling English sentences…
I recommend some Shakespeare. :-)"
It's bigots like that who really get on my tit. I read the referenced post and it was ESL for certain and very passionately put. I this thread I have found so many reasons and so much 'reason'. It's really very uplifting.
I posted this elsewhere, and it's really just a brief summary off the top of my head:
It would take quite a while to explain why I dislike 'The Bard', but in general terms I find his work appeals to people who like to feel clever – the middle classes mainly. That's one reason. It's also not one to take lightly and it's covered in books about influencing people and having Charisma.
I also dislike his work because I find it highly contrived and unimaginative. His devices are just for ornament, and reveal a fairly feeble mind – again this hints at their appeal to the superficial types who like to look down on others without actually having any ideas of their own.
Another reason, partial reason – is that I grew up with the King James Bible. I was skimming through Will's work at about the age of 10 – Macbeth, and various other ones from there. I didn't find anything unique or interesting or difficult in the language. I find his use of it quite pedestrian.
Another reason is that 'people relate to his work'. In other words he's playing to the Stalls, or The Gallery to be precise. Again, it's a shame people haven't grown in intelligence since his time. 'Human Nature' is still an excuse for lack of personal insight.
Shakespeare seems to be of great use as a class thing – kids and bogans walk straight into it and it's proof that they need factory schooling. His work forms part of an antiquated justification for values which should have gone out with the advent of the 20th Century, but alas.
I have to do project about Shakespeare about whether he's relevant or not. The majority of my class agrees that he is relevant and I'm split straight down the middle. Unfortunately, you have to pick one of the two sides and I sided with the 'He's not relevant' side. Mainly, because I wanted a challenge since all the teachers in my school seem to be very supportive of Shakespeare being relevant. From perhaps, a student or a teacher may I have the input of how you feel about Shakespeare, should he be replaced in the classroom with something like Serial? Thoughts would be great and FYI I'm not looking for people to do my homework but I've struggled with finding great opinions and evidence when it comes to Shakespeare not being relevant. 🙂
–Re: the comment by "A sh"
"It's bigots like that who really get on my tit."
"… in general terms I find his work appeals to people who like to feel clever – the middle classes mainly."
" I was skimming through Will's work at about the age of 10 – Macbeth, and various other ones from there. I didn't find anything unique or interesting or difficult in the language. I find his use of it quite pedestrian."
–Perhaps you can briefly alight from on high and cite some examples of the "pedestrian" to those of us in that particular "class". What was that you were saying about bigotry?
Simple oversight on my part, you guys are resurrecting a post from 8 years ago. I think at this point you've got my email address directly anyway, don't you? So feel free to ping me directly if you have something in the queue that I've missed.
I hate the fact that people think he was so brilliant when the fact of the matter is that if he never existed some other guy would have taken his place and given much of the same to the world. I do not believe he is brilliant I just think he was the first to do what he had done. He created very broad plots so that every time someone creates a story the inadvertently copy him. Someone who has never even heard of Shakespeare's works would still end up copying some aspect of his writings because they are so incredibly simple and broad. At the same time his story's are incredibly predictable. I do not feel like I'm in a wonderful world of writing when I read his works I feel like I'm reading a Manuel for a car.
Most of them are adaptations of plays by other people, so it’s not even him you would be copying.
I didn't say 3rd graders were smarter than *anyone*. But I did say quite a few other things. A lot of them are acknowledged facts. Perhaps you should formulate an argument to refute them. Then we might have a discussion about something other than your hate and my perceived condescension.
Of course Shakespeare does not fit in with language of today. Language has evolved over centuries. His work is hundreds of years old. When the plays are studied and put into modern concepts they are just that, plays.
Not everybody can understand the way it is written or the old English of Chaucers Canterbury Tales. It takes effort to learn and if you want to learn it great. If you don’t then don’t. It is taught in school and if you don’t like it then have to study it that can make you hate it even more.
I hated R&J. Still do. My favourites are Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Macbeth. I’d love to be able to get copies of further plays to read.
I don’t know if being in the UK makes a difference but I found it not too difficult to learn. My Dutch friends however call it alien language.
Some people who do like Shakespeare can tend to be snotty. I don’t think that’s Shakespeares fault. They just happen to think they are better than everybody else because they’ve learned something different. People will be snotty over anything they think makes them “better” in their view. I have next door neighbours who look down on everybody, I’ve not yet discovered why.
People should learn Shakespeare in school, same as history and algebra. It gives your brain a workout and you find what you like best.
Imagine people in classrooms looking at text speak A/S/L, lol, smh, gr8 and popular things like flossing and these 😂😮😎🙄 (whilst trying to think of the true meaning behind the emoji) along with Brexit, Trump and Boaty McBoat Face. You may have gotten off lightly with Shakespeare…. lol
I hate the fact that my teacher will try to make it out as if the plays stories are out of this world and they are by themselves revolutionary. I can appreciate that his language was very well thought out and something to behold but to say that the stories themselves are good. THAT is a step too far. Take for example one of his most popular plays: Macbeth. The story is about a power hungry man who is told by some witches that he will be king and so he kills the king in order to become one, the rest of the story is about how he is punished for his actions. That is a boring story. There is no twists to it. No surprising plot, it is just too straightforward and it is boring. Yet I have to endure 2 hours of agony trying to annotate his work. I wish that we did something more fun like annotating something else like an anime or some film like inception, actually no. just anything else would do that’s not from the 1600s.
The irony level is always turned up to eleven. It’s like the ending of The Gift of the Magi, but stretched out over 38 plays. It’s irritating.