Photo courtesy of Matt Riches via Unsplash.
Disgruntled students often complain that there is no value in reading Shakespeare for a variety of reasons. One could argue that it’s not relevant to how people speak today because it’s written in Early Modern English, or that reading a play isn’t as worthwhile as watching one.
While Shakespeare’s works can be challenging, the idea that they aren’t useful as texts due to their different language style is shortsighted. If anything, much of the usefulness of reading Shakespeare’s plays is due to their antiquated language, especially in the context of English curriculums that typically emphasize texts that are more thematically than linguistically challenging.
With the close reading that Shakespeare’s language necessitates, these classic plays are often the first time that high school students encounter a text that is hard to understand. Students are forced to use context clues while they read, which is a valuable skill. The experience of reading Shakespeare prepares students to read texts from different eras that have been translated or that use vocabulary and modes of speaking that they have not encountered.
Reading texts from different generations also helps students learn about how our language has changed over time and gives students a greater understanding and appreciation of Modern English. These works guide students to think critically about our current language conventions in a similar way to foreign language classes. Both teach students about rules in the English language that may be a subconscious practice or no longer used.
Shakespeare’s texts are perfect for this, as they are some of the most impactful texts of the English language. Shakespeare’s works have standardized many spellings and grammatical rules, contributing greatly to the development of Modern English. According to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Shakespeare’s works contain the first documented uses of over 1,700 words.
Shakespeare also changed many existing words by making them compound words and adding prefixes or suffixes, further cementing these types of words in the English language. Shakespeare is credited with the introduction of common words like bedroom, eyeball, worthless, downstairs and undress.
While students often take issue with the fact that Shakespeare plays are intended to be acted out rather than read, simply watching a Shakespeare play does not allow students to properly analyze the language. The idea that you shouldn’t read parts of larger visual or auditory works such as plays, movies, television shows and songs discounts the textual content of these works.
Shakespeare’s plays are so dialogue heavy that they can still be understood and enjoyed as written works. Most of all, Shakespeare’s plays are just good and deserve to be read. They are universal stories that speak to the human condition, transcending the era in which they were conceived.
Oftentimes when Shakespeare is taught, performance is still in mind. In my high school English classes, we supplemented our readings with viewings of performances and read lines out loud. While students are not necessarily expected to act out the plays, having students read lines is an opportunity for students to read aloud, which is an important skill that they are expected to do less and less as they go through their education.
Many of the negative experiences that students have with Shakespeare’s texts could be the fault of teachers. Teachers perhaps forced socially anxious students to embarrass themselves by acting or did not emphasize the etymological importance of Shakespeare’s plays.
When taught properly with a focus on the language and an appropriate amount of emphasis on performance, Shakespeare’s plays can be a valuable and entertaining unit in English classes that give students a break from a novel-heavy curriculum. Teachers who do not make the most of these works are disrespecting both the works themselves and their students.
