Why Shakespeare Should (not) Be Compulsory to Study at Gcse

Why Shakespeare should (not) be compulsory to study at GCSE

Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest playwright who has walked the earth, one of the greatest minds to have ever lived in the 16th century. He is renowned all over the world for his famous plays: MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet etc. also famous for the 1700 english words he created for example: Amazement, assassination, bedroom, excitement etc. Shakespeare is an outstanding figure, respected by all and I believe that it should be compulsory to study his genius at GCSE.

Many people believe that Shakespeare's plays are simply too difficult to understand, too strenuous to read, and too time consuming since the text often requires deep analysis to properly follow whats going on. Although I can see how this is in a way true and can put people off Shakespeare, I can't see how people simply can't be bothered to even try to understand it. I believe that if the time and the effort is put in to get to grips with the text then the rewards and benefits are endless.

First of all if you can fully understand Shakespeare, then it automatically becomes so much easier to analyze other, more less complicated plays. Theoretically speaking, if you are able to analyze Shakespeare then you should be able to analyse anything, wouldn't that be nice! Shakespeare's works are in fact fundamental to the foundations of the English language as we know it today. Studying Shakespeare is very healthy for the reader as it exposes the student to a multitude of brilliant literary techniques and in addition to this, the complex, archaic language not only broadens the vocabulary of the people who read it but also broadens their understanding of how the English language began and has evolved over time, this therefore automatically improves their literary understanding and more important, their literary ability. Although it is very clear that a large majority of students dislike studying Shakespeare because of the complexity of the texts. Personally, above all, I believe that if effort is put in you will learn a lot and your English skills will improve.

Not only is it very beneficial literally, but it is also very enjoyable and interesting. Shakespeare wrote his plays for the public to enjoy. Why shouldn't we enjoy it like those people before? Shakespeare speaks about things we understand, like love, drama, blood, suffering and revenge. Some people say that studying Shakespeare is pointless and has no relevance in modern day society and I think that these people are just lazily blubbering on about the 'old' language because I believe that Shakespeare's themes and characters can be very strongly related to the 21st century. Every piece of writing Shakespeare has produced has so many meanings that can be related to everyday life. Each of his characters represent people