I don't enjoy Shakespeare

[Eddi]

I don't enjoy any of Shakespeare's works

They bore me

Maybe I would like it more if was in the latest most up-to-date version of English

Why do people like his stuff so much?

I think a big factor is that we are told from an early age that it is totally ace

I hate people who think their cultural tastes make them superior to others and I think there is a lot of that going on in the Shakespeare fandom and that many people only say they like it to sound more cultured

There is an enormous pressure on people to like it and I resent that

 

[Rival]

Most of it is lost on a modern audience; the puns, the in-jokes, the 16th-17th c. cultural elements etc. One does need to know these things to be able to appreciate it more, but it's probably worth it. His sonnets are very good and if you watch recitations of them in actual 16th c. pronunciation they sound so much better.

It's the same with Chaucer. If you don't know the Medieval context, the way the words are meant to sound, don't get the puns and cultural associations it might not wash with you.

But theatre and poetry isn't everyone's thing, either.

I enjoy the Romantic poets (Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Wordsworth, Blake, 'The Big Six'), as well as reading Dickens (I can tell why he's so popular and classic).

You might appreciate some other authors better.

The theatre was low-brow in Shakespeare's day and has really only become high-brown within the 20th c.

 

[Yerda]

Same, mate. So dull.

I think a lot of people only pretend to like them.

 

[Kathryn]

You don't have to care for him, but many people consider him to be the greatest writer who ever lived. Here are a few of his quotes which have stood the test of time:

Famous Shakespeare Quotes

Read 55 of Shakespeare's most famous quotes. Some William Shakespeare quotes are famous for their beauty some for their everyday truth. Quote 1:

nosweatshakespeare.com

Maybe you should watch a few of his plays that have been made into movies, such as Hamlet, or Othello, or Henry V, or Much Ado About Nothing. Then see how you feel. They can show the timelessness of his works.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Why do people like his stuff so much?

Because Shakespeare was one of the greatest English language wordsmiths in history whose plays are often masterpiece commentaries brilliantly addressing significant themes.

 

[Rival]

Shakespeare is also considered a likely Recusant and some of his plays showcase subtle Catholic themes.

 

[Regiomontanus]

I don't enjoy any of Shakespeare's works

They bore me

Maybe I would like it more if was in the latest most up-to-date version of English

Why do people like his stuff so much?

I think a big factor is that we are told from an early age that it is totally ace

I hate people who think their cultural tastes make them superior to others and I think there is a lot of that going on in the Shakespeare fandom and that many people only say they like it to sound more cultured

There is an enormous pressure on people to like it and I resent that

Don't hate people

 

[Eddi]

Don't hate people

All the people I know who think that their cultural tastes make them superior are contemptible to me and I think deserving of a slight measure of hatred

Nothing wrong with loving Shakespeare but if people think that doing so makes them a superior being then they can sod right off

 

[Kathryn]

Don't hate people

Bingo. It's quite unattractive.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

All the people I know who think that their cultural tastes make them superior are contemptible to me and I think deserving of a slight measure of hatred

Nothing wrong with loving Shakespeare but if people think that doing so makes them a superior being then they can sod right off

^ informative

 

[Estro Felino]

For those who love theater, Shakespeare's tragedies are a cornerstone, for world literature.
Someone even defined his tragedies treaties of psychology: and it was the 17th century.

 

[Eddi]

Bingo. It's quite unattractive.

So we can only have strong feelings if they are positive?

I think hatred and contempt are healthy in small measures

But that one shouldn't let them take over and get in the way of you living your life

 

[Regiomontanus]

All the people I know who think that their cultural tastes make them superior are contemptible to me and I think deserving of a slight measure of hatred

Nothing wrong with loving Shakespeare but if people think that doing so makes them a superior being then they can sod right off

Next time try a slight measure of love instead

 

[Kathryn]

So we can only have strong feelings if they are positive?

I think hatred and contempt are healthy in small measures

But that one shouldn't let them take over and get in the way of you living your life

Please don't read more into what I'm saying than I'm actually saying.

 

[Valjean]

Ignorance of Archaic modern English and the culture and history portrayed would certainly make Shakespeare's works obscure. This speaks ill of the education system and literacy of the readers.
If you don't understand what you're reading, how could you be expected to appreciate it?

 

[ChristineM]

I don't enjoy any of Shakespeare's works

They bore me

Maybe I would like it more if was in the latest most up-to-date version of English

Why do people like his stuff so much?

I think a big factor is that we are told from an early age that it is totally ace

I hate people who think their cultural tastes make them superior to others and I think there is a lot of that going on in the Shakespeare fandom and that many people only say they like it to sound more cultured

There is an enormous pressure on people to like it and I resent that

I find reading Shakespeare bores be silly. But seeing a play, on stage performed by the RSC is (to me) a magical experience.

 

[Brickjectivity]

There is an enormous pressure on people to like it

I never felt any pressure to like it. They made us watch Hamlet in an English class which I hated. What a sad and awful story. Some of the poetry of Shakespeare is accessible and fun, and he makes some funny insults. Some funnier works are Much Ado About Nothing and The Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew.

I also had to watch West Side Story, another horrible story which is not Shakespeare but imitates the plot of Romeo and Juliet. Nevertheless I felt no pressure to like it. I just felt it was genuinely awful to have a play about people that stupid that they would commit suicide each following the other. Which was the point of the play, but who would ever pay to watch it? It was written another age when people would go out to see hangings and beheadings. I guess anything is better than a hanging.

 

[JustGeorge]

I know I read it in high school, and it was okay, but it didn't really stand out as something memorable for me.

I'd take the Stooges over Shakespeare any day. They left a lasting impression!

 

[Debater Slayer]

You don't have to care for him, but many people consider him to be the greatest writer who ever lived.

The greatest writer in one language or even multiple languages, perhaps, but since no one could possibly learn all major languages in enough depth to evaluate the quality of their literature and writers, I don't believe that anyone can confidently declare a specific writer to be the "greatest writer who ever lived." That would only be a comment on the one writer compared to other writers the person making the claim was familiar with.

 

[Rival]

The greatest writer in one language or even multiple languages, perhaps, but since no one could possibly learn all major languages in enough depth to evaluate the quality of their literature and writers, I don't believe that anyone can confidently declare a specific writer to be the "greatest writer who ever lived." That would only be a comment on the one writer compared to other writers the person making the claim is familiar with.

But I can say with confidence that Percy Shelley is the absolute greatest writer who ever lived.

Whoever disagrees with me is a racist.