Impenetrable Shakespeare

The Halk

The Halk

The Halk

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I'm Scottish and our education doesn't focus on Shakespeare as much as England, however we did still get some on it - I remember being taken to A Midsummer Night's Dream, and watching Romeo and Juliet. I also remember being made to read The Merchant of Venice.

At that age however I would have disliked anything and everything that was being taught to me - I'm sure you know how it goes at that age. :)

Now, however, I'm at a loss when it comes to Shakespeare. I'm acutely aware of his reputation, and even without knowing a great deal about his works I'm aware his influence is enormous on many forms of literature and culture.

I, however, cannot get into Shakespeare. I find the language utterly impenetrable. I attempted to watch Richard III (the 1995 one) tonight, and sadly I couldn't. I was seconds behind because I had to translate the dialogue into English I understood, and struggling to do so because I couldn't catch all of it.

The nearest I can explain it as would be if I was to go to a gig for a band I've never heard before. Everybody else knew the band intimately and through the competing badly placed speakers they could easily tell the lyrics from the songs being played, but since it was my first time I had no chance of success.

Can anyone suggest a way for me to consume some Shakespeare that would perhaps help me around the barriers?
 
Understand where your coming from theres a lot of unnecessary prose? to it - just take a general idea of whats going on and fill in the blanks.

On a related note its often believe that much of "shakeseare's" work is actually the work of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sidney who is an ancestor of mine tho I'm not sure how directly.
 
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Shakespeare is very very difficult. No doubt about it. It's highly evolved and complex English, light years above what you'll hear and be able to cognise these days. It's also extremely clever.

My only advice is to read read read more and go to more plays. And just read the same play over and over.

A lot of performances are also based on the actors' understanding of the part. If the actor doesn't understand the language they're using, the audience won't have a hope of doing so. That's why films are Romeo + Juliet are so bad, they didn't have a clue as to what they were really talking about.

But Shakespeare was a genius, truly. I remember studying Merchant of Venice for A level, loving it, but realising during the actual exam just how clever it was. Great timing. The guy was amazing.
 
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Start off with Polanski's Macbeth, and then take in the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet (excellent, in my mind). They ought to start you off on a decent base level.
 
Why on earth would you want to force an interest in something you don't 'get'?

If you don't get on with it then you don't get on with it. Focus on things you actually enjoy.
 
A number of reasons...

First of all I feel I'm missing something that everybody else knows. Secondly if he's so widely rated and it's possible for me to get past the barriers then I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Thirdly, I -am- interested. I've seen his work referenced in many, many places and I already have an interest.

I'm going to get this, and see how I get on.

If Shakespeare is half as good as his reputation, then I owe it to myself to give it a damn good try to "get it".
 
The Halk said:
If Shakespeare is half as good as his reputation, then I owe it to myself to give it a damn good try to "get it".
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That's a redundant argument since by the same logic you should spend hundreds of hours researching Cubism, because it has a reputation for being the most important art movement of the 20th century, and thus you owe it to yourself to give it a damn good try.

Personally I don't get cubism, so I'm not going to waste my time.

Good luck though.
 
To be honest I found that when it came to Shakespeare that it was a case of much ado about nothing.

To be fair I haven't read much of his work, only "Romeo and Juliet", "Macbeth" and "Hamlet". I could probably still bandy about some quotes from each having had to learn them off for the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert and feel that I understood the plays but think that the presentation of the stories prevented me from enjoying them or, perhaps, from seeing their true worth. I do recall being annoyed during Macbeth with both the "none of woman born" and the great Birnham forest coming to Dunsinane prophecies, they resolutions just seemed so mundane but that's about the most feeling I had from the three plays I read.

Perhaps the fact that the stories have been so often copied also led my reading of them to have less of an impact on me.

If you are intent upon understanding the plays there are books out there which can help with the language.

Also, I don't mean to in any way belittle Shakespeare as he very obviously was a literary genius in his time, he just doesn't float my boat.
 
Van Hellseek said:
That's a redundant argument since by the same logic you should spend hundreds of hours researching Cubism, because it has a reputation for being the most important art movement of the 20th century, and thus you owe it to yourself to give it a damn good try.

Personally I don't get cubism, so I'm not going to waste my time.

Good luck though.
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Enjoy your happy box of happy comfort and never stretching yourself.
 
Van Hellseek said:
I just think that too many people try too hard with Shakespeare because they feel they should rather than because they actually enjoy it (as with the OP, who admits he doesn't).
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Give people the chance, though, before you go insinuating that it's alright not to give a monkey's. Just the way your post came across.

I, too, never cared too much about Shakespeare until I read Macbeth and, subsequently, saw the two films I referred to earlier.

If anything, he was far beyond his time as his dramatics weigh excellently towards filmic representation above all.
 
Pestilence said:
Give people the chance, though, before you go insinuating that it's alright not to give a monkey's. Just the way your post came across.

I, too, never cared too much about Shakespeare until I read Macbeth and, subsequently, saw the two films I referred to earlier.

If anything, he was far beyond his time as his dramatics weigh excellently towards filmic representation above all.
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In your case I wholeheartedly recommend some study of his work (and English lit in general).
 
Definitely watch some of the more accessible Shakespeare films like Romeo+Juliet as above. You eventually get an ear for it, it's not as far removed from modern language as you may think.
 
Probably A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Merchant of Venice.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you'll be able to undestand the plays right off the bat though. Even the 'accessible' ones. Here 'accessible' only means 'less challenging'. They're still hard. Take this speech from Hamlet for instance:

I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Now when I first read this I didn't know what the HELL it meant but after a few goes it made sense. Sometimes you will have to read the same speech over and over but it will click.
 
I don't mean to come across badly, but I've no* problem with that, it's when I hear it/see it on screen that it's difficult.

Edit : * Few problems, I can't read it at the speed I'm reading Game of Thrones, for example, partly because there's more in that paragraph than there is in a chapter of most stuff. But I can "get" it.
 
The Halk said:
I don't mean to come across badly, but I've no* problem with that, it's when I hear it/see it on screen that it's difficult.

Edit : * Few problems, I can't read it at the speed I'm reading Game of Thrones, for example, partly because there's more in that paragraph than there is in a chapter of most stuff. But I can "get" it.
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That's because, in my experience at least, you have to get to know the play very well before seeing the film. That goes for each play.

However, I do remember going to the cinema to see Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing years ago and being able to understand a lot of it pretty much straight off. Maybe try that?
 
That really just confirms what I had feared - that it's like a live gig for a band you don't know... you can't get the lyrics you miss some of the experience, while people who know it inside out enjoy it more.
 
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