As a teacher or parent I’m sure you’ve been asked the all important ‘why’ question more than once.
‘Why do I have to finish my plate?’
‘Why do I have to do homework?’
‘Why do I have to get up so early?’
‘Why do I have to study a playwright that’s been dead for 400 years?’

I remember asking these very questions as a teenager and usually receiving the same response – ‘Because you just do’.
Now, I don’t know about you, but for me there was nothing more frustrating than being told I must do something (and do it well!) without an explanation for why I have to do it in the first place.

This was until I asked a ‘why’ question in an English class at school and was provided with the greatest opportunity – to ask why we study anything and being allowed to debate the answers given.
We discussed R.E and why it was relevant, how trigonometry would help us in everyday life, why history is an incredibly important subject and, most importantly, why we had to study Shakespeare, Marlowe and Chaucer when it didn’t appear to have any impact on our 21st century lives.
This conversation had an absolutely profound effect on my school life – my love of these writers, theatre and literature took off and it certainly improved not only my grades but my learning experience.

So when asked why we still study playwrights that are long gone, I like to answer as my English teacher did back in year 5 – with absolute honesty.

Firstly, we study Shakespeare because it is part of the national curriculum. That is highly unlikely to change (for good reason!) so you may as well try and enjoy it whilst you can.
That is the black and white answer.

The colourful answer has many points to it, the most important I will try to list here:
Shakespeare is a theatrical fossil

What do you think the people of 3017 will discover about us when looking at plays written now? That we love YouTube, smartphones and voice activated technology. That the food of choice is usually take away pizzas or convenience ready meals. That religion is becoming less and less popular and more and more people are choosing not to get married or even to have online relationships!
When we look at the works of Shakespeare it gives us an insight into what life was like 400 years ago – That carrying a weapon of some kind (sword/dagger etc) was the norm, that people would generally be married very young, what they would eat/drink etc. This gives us a little time capsule that we not only get to read about, but see played out in front of us on a stage. It’s the closest we are to time travel right now!

He understands the human condition

Each and every one of Shakespeare’s characters have such depth and complex emotions that they are so much more relatable than more modern characters. For example, have you ever watched a scary movie and shouted at the TV as the home alone female goes to investigate a scary noise? It just wouldn’t happen, and as such you find it hard to relate to that character.
All of Shakespeare’s characters have understandable traits and emotions. Macbeth agonising over the decision to kill the king and being completely manipulated by his power hungry wife to do so. Juliet spending hours just thinking and talking about how wonderful this new boy is that she’s fallen completely head over heels for. They are all extremely believable with understandable human reactions and flaws.

The language is beautiful

Whilst we wouldn’t nowadays compare our love to a summers day, is that only because we don’t have the wide vocabulary to do so? Have you ever had such strong emotions about something but just couldn’t find the words to really describe how you were feeling? I believe Shakespeare accessed this fantastic way of describing perfectly how you’re feeling that leaves absolutely no room for error. Once you understand that Shakespeare is mostly a long list of similes, it becomes much easier to understand. Yes there will be some words that aren’t commonly used (or even at all used now!) but this surely only gives you the opportunity to widen your vocabulary to better express your thoughts and feelings?

The Original Will Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s stories have been told over and over again in more modern language. There will be another blog post listing many of these, but the basic stories came from the mind of William Shakespeare and they continue to be told because they are so fascinating! They have the perfect amount of comedy, shock element and character depth to make the perfect show/film/book.

Now these are of course only some of the reasons we study Shakespeare, but with this in mind those ‘why’ questions might become a little easier to answer when it comes to classic literature.