Why Shakespeare'n Plays Should Be Taught in Schools

There is still reluctance among many high school students to accept Shakespeare work as an author who speaks to them and their problems. This misguided them into thinking and focusing on the fact that Shakespeare's language is “too difficult”. His work shows various perspectives that surround a variety of societal and internal concepts. So in that case, following up with my reasons, I say yes, Shakespeare's work should be taught in school. The form of how it should be taught however is important. Some fail to realize who he was and what the purpose of his work was.

William Shakespeare was an English poet. His exact birth date is still unknown till this day but it has been estimated to be on the 26th of April 1564. He lived a 52-year-long life, passing away on April 23, 1616. Till this day, William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers of the English language and the world’s most famous dramatist. He wrote many plays, sonnets, poems, and narrative poems. His plays have been translated to be available in a variety of languages ranging from eighty different languages and they have been staged many times worldwide. Shakespeare isn't as complex as it looks if we just simply his work as he intended it.More of a teatre than a narrative. If we listen how to listen the work instead of reading, if we visual the scenarios Shakespeare presents rather seeking for metaphors and essay topics then we will indeed begin to recognize the ordinariness and real-life experience Shakespeare gave us. He gave us something to relate to before we got the chance to experience it. 

William Shakespeare set societies norms and moral values. He gave us real characters that people could all relate to. A quick example would be wrongful leaders seeking control like in Macbeth. The play Macbeth is a play of contradiction and ambition. A man so driven to rule above all, Macbeth will kill all and any that get in his way. He trusts the prophecies of the three witches and puts his faith in their hands. Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, is the motivator to Macbeth's ambition and downfall. Like Macbeth, Trump is power-hungry, motivated by money and controlled by high power, he will go any length to get more money and control of things. This brief example helps show how certain individuals in the position of higher power have a hard time maintaining their private and public lives. It reveals the form in which people in the position of power manipulate the population for self-interests. Who knows what these individuals have done to get to the position that they are in today. 

An addition for my reason would also be that the work of Shakespeare is great at analyzing murders and conspiracy, which can help students like myself who want to pursue a career in criminology. His work also explores other problems like gender, love, and war within people. This comes to prove that Shakespeare's characters are in fact real, and true to who we are as people. The work of William Shakespeare is something one can relate to, and they show real human life traits. Of course, Shakespeare’s work should be taught in high school because we as students are young and there is a whole world out there that we are not ready for. The many aspects of life are portrayed in his plays as he proposed all aspects of life from love, hate, romance, and vengeance. We are yet to experience those many things and Shakespeare has portrayed those situations in his plays for us to understand and come to realization with. I had a great experience with the way my teacher taught Shakespeare throughout my years in high school. Yes at times it may have been a little boring and hard to understand, but the times where we acted out plays and put ourselves in such scenarios helped me as an individual to learn how to interpret a play, analyze it and express it through acting to get a better understanding of the characters, and the play in general. It has also benefited me in the part where I became comfortable to perform in front of a crowd. 

This comes to show that, once high school is over, thanks to the play studies and acting through Macbeth and a Midsummers Night Dream, I learned how to be comfortable talking in crowds, expressing my thoughts and learning how to portray my ideas.