Deerstream
March 16, 2009
Are the writings of William Shakespeare relevant for teenagers? Pro or Con (positions assigned) in a five sentence paragraph. A good starting place for approaching this assignment will be to read the following article: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-the-enduring-relevance-of-shakespeare-498559.html
You may also do more research on your own. You may incorporate your reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but you may look to other works by Shakespeare to defend your argument.
Best paragraphs will be clear, concise, and to the point, making one clear argument. Practice The Economy of Words. Read the following article to see an explanation of how a playwright approaches the economy of words. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/playwriting/79586 I would also like for you to read a more formal article on word economy at: http://academic.reed.edu/writing/grammar_review/word_economy.html First post is due by Wednesday at Noon.
Then after Wednesday at noon, read all of your classmate’s posts and in your second post, you will keep your same argument, but you will do it by engaging one of your classmates opposing arguments. So within your second paragraph you might say, Jimmy said, Shakespeare teaches young people to make jokes, but I don’t like the kind of jokes that are in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For instance, on page 34 Theseus makes an offhanded joke about women only being accountable to their fathers and husbands. I did not find that funny. You will write a new five to ten sentence paragraph that engages one of your classmate’s arguments. The second post is due by Friday at noon.
Don’t forget your third homework assignment: read Acts 3 and 4 for class on Monday 3-23-09
March 16th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I think that William Shakespeares writings are relevent for teens. I think this because in the plays, the main characters are usually in their late teens. This makes it easier for teen-agers to relate to the stories. Sometimes it makes it harder to read the play because the whole time your thinking how it would be for you in the sitsuation. So i think that Shakespeares writings are relevent for teens because of the main characters age.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
The works of William Shakespeare are irrelevant to teenagers. The fake romances are unedifying and polluting to the minds of youth. Lovers from Shakespeare’s plays are constantly chasing after each other, then heroically dying for love. During teen years, a person is in a stage when they are driven by emotions and willing to believe new ideas. Reading Shakespeare does not enhance this development in a positive direction.
Rebecca M. L.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Yes, Sakespear is realevant to teenagers because he talks about universal themes that still happen today. For instance, Egeus states on pg. 5 of A Midsummer Nights Dream, “I Can either make her marry demitrius-or have her killed.” Parents today still play a big role in who they want their kids to hang out around. He also puts people in positions of power for good and bad reasons which obviosly happens today. To sum it all up, people had the same habits in Shakespear’s as they do today.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
The works of William Shakespeare are completely relevant to teens. A lot of the events in his plays can be compared to real life situations. Teen gangs, drugs, and shootings are all surprisingly similar to Shakespeare’s plots. Some teens sneak out of the house at night with their boyfriend or girlfriend (like in Romeo and Juliet) to go to an unsupervised party or something. After examining all of the angles (even leaving out a lot of evidence) we can see, it’s clear that Shakespeare is relevant.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:53 am
William Shakespeare’s writings are relevant for teenagers. Most teens today know about or have at least heard of Shakespeare, and that’s because Shakespeare is commonly considered the greatest author the world has ever known and one of the finest poets to have written in the English language. He could create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. His characters come to life while you are reading any of his great novels: how they struggle just as teenagers do in real life, sometimes successful and sometimes with painful and tragic failure. Teenagers can relate with Shakespeare’s writings and experience a true poet.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
The works of Shakespeare are relvent to modern teens because of lust, temptations, and young love. In A Midsummer’s Night Dream there is alot of lust between the characters, which happens all the time with todays teens. Today there are temptations like love, sex, drugs, and gangs which does relate Shakespeare’s plays. There is also alot of young love in Shakespeare’s plays and there is alot of young love in the world today. Shakespeare’s plays are relevent to teens because of lust, temptations, and young love.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I don’t think that Shakespears book is relevant for teenagers because even though teenagers could relate to the book teenagers relate differently in the book than in other books and the book could confuse their little mind. Shakespears story is not a true story and so it would be hard for them to relate because today people don’t order people to be dead and stuff like that that is in the book, and also in the book where, and teenagers I don’t think would get Shakespear and his way of words. Also i think that Shakepear is not revelent for teens because the book encourages kids to be in love whenever they want and gives them ideas about love and stuff like that.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
The works of William Shakespeare are irrevelant to today’s youth because of the cultural differences. For example, in American culture, there are no arranged marriages. Today, most people don’t think of marriage until they are 30. Also, in today’s marriages, a woman’s belongings do not necessarily become the man’s, if she so chooses, unlike Oberon’s marriage. Cultural differences separate today’s society from Shakespeare’s, proving its irrevelance.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I think Shakespeare is irrelevant to today’s teenager in that it gives numerous bad examples of love and marriage. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena follows Demetrius out into the woods at night to try to convince him to fall in love with her.(The very reason he dislikes her is that Hermia is more beautiful than she is.) Also, Oberon and Titania quarrel and seperate over a small disagreement that could be solved if they weren’t acting so selfishly. Romeo and Juliet, another play by Shakespeare, is a passionate tale of two people who get so thoroughly carried away by their emotions that in the end Romeo kills himself before seeing the situation fully and Juliet kills herself after seeing him dead. And they had only known each other a few days! Such bad examples of love and emotional attachment make Shakespeare’s works irrelevant to today’s teenager.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I beleave that the book is not equal to teenagers of this time. Back then things were in order. They’re was nothing back then that was equally disciplined or managed like today. But teenagers who like each other do crazy things too. But compared to today life of a teenager this does not compare.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The works of Shakespeare continue to be irrelevant to the teenager of today. In her paragraph, Morgan claimed that “The works of Shakespeare are revlent [sic] to modern teens because of lust, temptation and young love.” While these behavior patterns are similar, it still remains to be unedifying for a young person, whom is already growing up in a world stained by sin. The last thing a teen should do is read about it in plays published several hundred years ago! It is best for teens to learn about these normal feelings in a healthy environment, such as from a parent or other close relative. Not from Old English plays. No matter how famous Shakespeare’s works may be, they still should be read with caution, awareness, and certainly not by teenagers.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Shakespeare is not relevant to the life of a teen today. Shakespeare is a language on its own. Being a teenager is an experience. In teen years you learn very important things that will help you for life. Shakespeare starts out in adult life with many of the experiences past. Aside from this, Shakespeare takes place in an earlier time period. Since that time, we have grown in technology and fashion. We now have cars that move at flying speeds and new clothes. Unlike the puffy dresses, over coats and feather hats, we have a desire for simple clothes without all the puffs and folds. The way things happen in this life today and how they happened long ago are much different.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Ben stated that in todays day there are no arranged marriages. But if you take a look at it, even though there may not be nearly as many arranged marriages, parents still play a very big role in who they want their child to be with. If a parent wants their child to be with one person, but the child wants to be with another undesirable person, a good parent would not allow it. This is very close to what happens in many of Shakespeare’s plays. Besides arranged marriages, there are common human missteps in his plays that teenagers can easily relate too. With that said, I think Shakespeare is very relevant to teens.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:34 am
You are each posting excellent work. Keep it up and remember to focus on Shakespeare’s actual writings as you make your cases for relevancy. –Mr. Linney
March 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Shakespeare’s writings are irrevalent to teens today, even though some of his characters are teenagers. Maddie said, “This makes it easier for teenagers to relate to the stories.” As I see it, just because teens are in the story doesn’t mean modern teens can relate. For example, teens today aren’t forced to marry anyone, at least in the U.S. And if you don’t want to marry someone, you won’t hear: “You’ll be executed or never see a man again”, as Hermia did from Theseus on page 7 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Modern teens will have a hard time relating to Shakespeare’s writings.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Harry states that, “the way things happen in this life today and how they happened long ago are much different.” I do agree with that statement. This have changed alot over the years, but Shakespeare’s plays are mainly about love, life and greed, and we still have all of those things in modern day. Shakespeare’s play are not very different from modern life.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Rebecca L. claims that Shakespeare’s works are irrelavent should not be read by teens because, “The fake romances are unedifying and polluting to the minds of youth.” however, if your going to judge a guy that was writing in the 16th century based on the movies and TV junk we watch today. You’d find that Shakespeare’s relavency trumps the movies and TV. If Shakespeare isn’t rlavent than I don’t know what is.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Rebekah’s three points indicate that teenagers today will not relate to Shakespeare’s writings, but I disagree. First Rebekah said it’s difficult to understand Shakespeare’s writings because of the hard vocabulary and the way he says things. Learning new words and understanding Shakespeare’s time back in history helps educate the reader. Secondly, Rebekah said that his works are not true stories. Lots of stories which are not factual can teach truth about real life, for example, Pollyanna, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Aesop’s fables. Thirdly, Shakespeare’s plays do not encourage teenagers to be in love. Although romance is a topic that teenagers will find in Shakespeare, it is something they are naturally interested in and will relate to the characters. Rebekah made some good points, but digging deeper you can see that Shakespeare is relevant for teenagers today.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Julie bases her statement of Shakespeare’s relevancy on the “fact” that “Shakespeare is commonly considered the greatest author the world has ever known and one of the finest poets to have written in the English language.” The goodness of his work is not up for question, but its appropriateness for today’s teen. Though it is undoubtably good literature, because of the arguments I advanced as well as others, it simply isn’t appropriate reading for today’s teen. It does not give good role models in love and emotions.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Morgan states that today is not much dufferent then in the life of Shakespear, but I disagree. Today is different for teens because they don’t get married at 14 and younger. Teens would have a hard time relating though to Shakespear because the characters in the play don’t go through what the teens in this world are going through today. That’s why I disagree because even though Shakespear had teens in the book, the characters aren’t going through the same things teens are today.
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Julie states that Shakespeare is relevant to teenagers of this day an age because he is a well known wrighter. Just because he is a well known wrighter doesnt me his plays are relevant to kids. And most kids of this day and age dont really care about love stories and Shakespeare.
March 22nd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I find what Alex states isnt true about the teenagers in the world. Shakespeare did change the romance life very much in the economy. When you walk in the mall you will see more and more young kids that are dating. Shakespeare took the world by storm with his books everybody knew who he was and wanted to live in his books. Morgan said that life now hasn’t changed very much from back in that time. She is right the romance in this life time is basically the same as it was back in that time.
March 27th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Shakespear is not relevant for teens because we do not know how old the characters in the book really are. Even if the characters in Shakespear’s book are in their teens,the characters in the book are likley not to be going through the same things as the teens in the world today.There are some things though that teens are going through, For example,teen girls in the world get into fights with other girls or get jelious because of boys. For instance, on page 106 Hermia says “You theif of love, What have you come by night and stol’n my loves heart from him” while Helena is trying to convince her that she isn’t and the Hermia is stealing her love. Like I said before the things that teens are going through are different and the teens in this world handle them differently then the characters do. For example, in the book, Hermia’s father makes her marry Demetrius and back then they had no choice and you had to do it while today, teens refuse to do things. Also there still are children that people makes them get married at early age, but then they will react to that differently than the characters.