The works of William Shakespeare should be taught and studied in high school.
Shakespeare covered many different topics that make up society, from humour to war to
portraits of people to family crisis, and even to treachery. These topics are timeless as he
was a master of literary technique. He wrote plays for people, not for wealthy aristocrats
who commissioned them from him. This is why they have not aged at all in todays
modern society.
Shakespeare's works are constantly being thrown into young people's lives.
Several films have updated his plays with teen casts, modern settings, and a modern twist
on the plot. This is because the subject matter of Shakespeare's plots cease to age over
time, with the exception of the vocabulary. It is hard to comprehend that Shakespeare
wrote so long ago. Examples of these films include Othello, where the focus is two men,
a woman, and basketball. Romeo & Juliet is another excellent example, as the plot
remains the same with two young lovers being brought apart by their feuding families,
but the families are business rivals and guns have taken the part of swords. Dialogue is
also tampered with which somewhat disappoints people, except again in Romeo & Juliet,
which is masterful as not one word of dialogue is changed, yet the plot has been
completely updated as have the main elements of it. Updating these plays on film is a
perfect way of helping high school students understand Shakespeare. This reason differs
from the main topic of whether it should be taught and studied in high school, but is a
solid example supporting why high school students have a chance of studying
Shakespeare through film.
Shakespeare gives a student insight into human nature and the continuity that
people haven't changed much at all in 300 some odd years. Human Nature was a major
part of his plays. His play Juli...