Greatest writer ever? Errr…
Maybe it was because all of the plays that my school chose to be the required reading for English classes happen to be the ones that were unbelievably annoying, but I did not enjoy Shakespeare very much during my high school years.
Let’s start with freshman year. Maybe it didn’t help that my English teacher was a bit… loony and passive-aggressive. We were forced to read Romeo & Juliet or at least the ones in the normal English class. The honors English classes got to read Julius Caesar, which I am told is one of Shakespeare’s greatest and there were a few that expressed that they did enjoy it.
First off, I believe English classes tend to kill anything in the required reading. Being forced to read something is not something very appealing to anyone. In addition, there is also the tendency that overexcited English teachers make their students overanalyze every single word. That kinda kills the magic of reading critically and finding things out for oneself at a leisurely pace without the badgering of a crazed person using grades as a threat incentive.
To start off, Romeo & Juliet was most definitely not one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. I don’t care what anyone says, I find the main characters to be whiny and overly hormonal teenagers who need a good smack in the face. I don’t understand the connotation of Romeo being the poster boy of romance, when he was really a whiny brat who is in dire need of common sense. Seriously? Falling in love lust with someone whom you have met five seconds ago and then running off to get married. That’s not love, that’s just an inability to keep one’s trousers on.
Yes, it’s a tragedy that is supposed to be some sort of lesson to use your brain and common sense. But is there anyone really that stupid? Wait… don’t answer that question.
The next year, most of the students were forced to read MacBeth. This one I didn’t mind too much and I don’t really remember any sort of aggravation associated with that particular play.
There wasn’t any required Shakespeare reading for my junior year, but instead we were forced to read more John Steinbeck and to say the least I would have been more than willing to go back to Romeo & Juliet than read any novels by Steinbeck ever again. Even though I had a very awesome English teacher, it was the most painful thing we ever read… actually, no that’s a lie. We read many painful things that year.
And finally senior year. I was fortunate enough to have another amazing English teacher… not so fortunate to be forced to read Hamlet. I believe Shyaporn of YouTube sums up my feelings about Hamlet quite nicely:
Hamlet – Emo Prince of Denmark. But less painful than Lord of the Flies that was part of the required reading that year.
Filed under: school | 2 Comments
Tags: English class, Hamlet, MacBeth, required reading, Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare
Well you’re certainly not alone. I’d think it a safe bet to say that most high school students end up hating Shakespeare. Personally I didn’t rediscover the good stuff until college and beyond, and now I write about it for a living (well, for a part time living
).
Romeo and Juliet are indeed stupid kids, you’re right. The story is a tragedy, and the whole point is supposed to leave you asking “Where the heck were the adults in all of this? See what happens when you’re stubborn? Your kids get caught in the crossfire and now they’re dead.” Romeo as the poster boy for romance is, short of a few cool lines in the balcony scene, drastically overrated. Juliet’s the one with all the brains. Romeo kills himself because he’s an emotional basketcase. Juliet kills herself because everyone else in her life sucks (Father has said she either has to marry a man she doesn’t love, or he’ll disown her….Mother says “Listen to your father”….Nurse says “Would it be all that bad?”…..) so she’s not left with too many options.
Try King Lear on for size, that one doesn’t come with too much baggage…..he said sarcastically…..
http://www.shakespearegeek.com
Not only was I forced to read Romeo and Juliet, I was also forced to read that godawful moving with that godawful actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Kids dont fall in love after a day and then end up killing themselves after 2. I never got to read hamlet because my Senior engish teacher hated Shakespeare a lot more than I did. We got to read Tale of Two Cities instead. MacBeth was ok, it just had a pathetic use of conundrums that made ZERO sense. Damn those witches to hell.