All students are required to comment TWICE a week. A week goes from Monday to Sunday. A comment can be a response to my or others' posts --- or a new post. All posts must be relevant to class discussions and assignments. Each post should be 1-3 paragraphs.
Remember, it is OK to disagree with one another, but we must always be RESPECTFUL of one another.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Shakespeare
Use this post to blog about an experience you had reading or learning about Shakespeare. Was it positive or negative? What are your general feelings about Shakespeare? [Note: If it negative, your answer still needs to be academic and engaging.]
I haven't had many experiences with Shakespeare, but the one that I remember most is reading "Romeo and Juliet" last year. At first the old english was confusing (thy, thou, etc.), but I eventually got the hang of it. My overall experience wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.
My feelings about Shakespeare are that there is more to his writing that just the story he tells. You can infer so many things from thinking about his writing on a deeper level. Besides just being somewhat entertaining stories, Shakespeare's plays give the mind interesting topics to think about.
I've read Rome and Juliet as well as a Midsummer Night's dream, both of which i had mixed feelings about (mostly positive). I liked the creativity of Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as the fantasy to it, yet it still related back to reality.
Romeo and Juliet was very creative as well and you didn't see any of the events coming and it wasn't predictable.
In both Romeo and Juliet and a Midsummer's Night Dream, i thought that the language as well of the flow of the words was outstanding. I love how they wrote during that time period. The words and sentence structures are emotional and effective towards the plot. The play's complexity made it hard to understand, but still fun to read.
With both of these stories, I felt parts of the plot were idfficult to understand. If it was in modern day language, it might have been easier to digest. Other than that, both plays were very enjoyable.
-Up until 8th grade I had never experienced Shakespeare's writing before. Then I was thrust into the extensive 8th grade unit on Shakespeare, in which ever class performed one of his plays. First I read Romeo and Juliet, as well as a Midsummer's Night Dream. Then my class put on Romeo and Juliet. Due to the exhaustive amount of time we put into practicing the play, I became an expert on Romeo and Juliet. Our class delved into all the hidden meanings and humor contained in Shakespeare's writing. Besides performing, I also got to film the plays, so I had the opportunity to see Macbeth and A Midsummer's Night Dream in detail.
-My feelings of Shakespeare are mixed at best.The low production quality of the plays certainly detracted from the experience, however my readings of his plays were not much better. I did enjoy the many puns and jokes in Romeo and Juliet, yet surprisingly I did not find anything about a Midsummer's Night Dream amusing. The fact that I thought a tragedy was more funny than a comedy likely points to a difference in tastes between Shakespearean and modern times. The one aspect of Shakespeare that annoyed me the most, however, was how improbable and perfect the plot always was. Even though I understand that Shakespeare did not aim at being realistic, his plots flow too much like clockwork and all of the situations are too unlikely to be enjoyable for me.
I have only had one experience with Shakespeare, and it was in 8th grade and I read "Romeo and Juliet". My experience with reading the play was very good. I liked the plot of the play and I liked reading the old english (even though it got confusing at times). The part that I did not like about reading Shakespeare was that my teacher made us act out the play in class. It was OK to act it out, but the teacher made us read only the old english which was hard to follow, especially when most of us did not know how to pronounce words. I would have enjoyed it more if we were allowed to take the book home and read a little bit each night instead of having to sit in class everyday and act it out. My overall experience was neutral. I liked the play, but I did not like the way my teacher made us read and act out the play. This; however, did not affect my feelings on Shakespears writing. I am really interesting in his writing and I can't wait to read another play by him, as long as we do not have to act it out.
Last year in eight grade I read Romeo and Juliet too. It was the first piece of Shakespeare I had read and I found it to be very difficult. His way of writing was not what I was accustomed to and I found it frustrating to understand what he was trying to say. Also the books we read had Shakespeare's modern english on one side of the page and then on the other side of the page it was translated into present day language. This helped me understand it as we were going through. As I got further in the book though I found that I didn't need to look at the translation as much. Overall my experience with Romeo and Juliet was neutral. I found it to be very dramatic and not realistic as if what was going on would never happen in real life. But also at the same time Shakespeare's writing could be very poetic and some of the things he wrote really caught my attention.
The only experience that i've had with Shakespeare was reading and performing in the play Romeo and Juliet last year. I would say that it was both positive and negative. I thought that some parts of reading it were dull and hard to understand but when we went over the reading in class it would make more sense. It was interesting how one short line could be very deep if you looked into it and thought about it, but how easily it could be read over. I was a dancer in the play last year so i got to watch alot of the actual acting rehearsals. The language makes alot more sense when it is acted out rather than read in a book. It's also easier to pick up on things when you've heard it a couple of times. I think that Shakespeare is difficult but if it's studied enough to where it's easy to understand the plot is interesting. I would definatly be interested in reading or watching more of his plays.
Last year I read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. We also saw the play A Mid Summer's Night. My class performed the play Macbeth. I liked Romeo and Juliet because it was about kids our age but I hated having to stop after every scene and go back to see what it meant. I personally think Shakespeare is hard to understand if you don't really know what is going on. Since my class performed Macbeth I understood it a lot better because we practiced it every day and after a few weeks you already knew what each word meant and what it was supposed to mean in context. On the other hand I liked reading the play better that watching one. When I saw A Mid Summer's Night I had no idea what was going on, not just because of the language but the plot was confusing. My favorite play was defiantly Romeo and Juliet and my experience was neutral with Shakespeare.
My experience with Shakespeare hasn’t been a very big one, but it was a positive one. In middle school, my class and I read Romeo and Juliet, and surprisingly I enjoyed it. I thought the way that Shakespeare viewed and described love in it was fantastic, even though it was difficult to understand. My teacher let us use books however, that had our type of English on one side, and Shakespeare’s original texts on the other. This was very helpful because if I ever couldn’t understand what was going on in the play, I could just look over and the same paragraph would be written in easier English.
There were some lines in Romeo and Juliet that actually really stood out to me. I looked back in my old writer’s notebook, where we had to write down two of our favorite lines from the play itself, my favorite is “Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate, but thankful even for hate that is mean love.” This line was my favorite throughout the entire play, and there were many others like it that made me enjoy my first Shakespeare experience; I would say my experience was very positive and I’m excited to continue it.
my expirence was very negative in terms of reading shakespeare. whenever we read it back in english in 8th grade it always felt like the longest period of the day. in general i havent had a lot of expirence reading shakespeare so i wont judge so quickly,
the worst part about shakespeare for me was the fact that a simple hello can turn into a whole five paragraph long description. for me, it just feels unnecessary.
i am looking foward to reading Othello because i may be more advanced and older now. the language may not seem as difficult.
I really like Shakespeare and sadly, I have not had any experiences with his work yet. I've never read any the playwright's works and I wish I would have. My teacher never got around to it last year and I hoped we would read Romeo and Juliet, but we never did. In 7th grade, a teacher introduced one of his works to us, but it was only the last week of school and she didn't have much time to do much. So far into "Othello", I can say that the writing is very good and I enjoy it a lot, although it is rather difficult sometimes. I feel that Shakespeare is a major asset to literature (or play-writing) although from what I've learned about him, he only did it to make profit, not to create something extraordinary in and of itself.
I have read play scripts from Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. The early modern english was a little hard to get into at first, but after a while I got the hang of things and could pick up on it real well. The story in itself was actually very starry-eyed. Upon first reading his works, I found this to be true, as the things that happen in his stories aren't exactly the most rational ideas. Such as two families that turn a love at first sight situation into a bloody tragedy, instead of finding a logical answer for their problems. Or three Scottish witches that make prophecies to only the two most important characters. It was things like these that made me dislike Shakespeare. However, as I began to look over the stories again and again, I found that Shakespeare had an amazingly complex way of scripting his stories. One cannot sum up a paragraph of any of his works with one paragraph, but rather an essay. Shakespeare must have had a lot of thought put into his writing to create such a deep level of literary understanding.
I have read a few writings of Shakespeare and have had mixed feelings between all of them. I have read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Night Dream, and sections of Macbeth. I thought Romeo and Juliet was good, however it was a very predictable love story. I had very strong hatred towards A Midsummer's Night Dream. I did not enjoy it at all, and I thought it was a complete waste of time after reading it. When my English class read sections of Macbeth, I did not hate it, and I did not love it. From what I read, I was neutral toward it. Throughout my previous readings of Shakespeare's works, I believe I have had a neutral experience. It has not been amazing and it has not been terrible. I think neutral is better then having a negative experience.
13 comments:
I haven't had many experiences with Shakespeare, but the one that I remember most is reading "Romeo and Juliet" last year. At first the old english was confusing (thy, thou, etc.), but I eventually got the hang of it. My overall experience wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.
My feelings about Shakespeare are that there is more to his writing that just the story he tells. You can infer so many things from thinking about his writing on a deeper level. Besides just being somewhat entertaining stories, Shakespeare's plays give the mind interesting topics to think about.
I've read Rome and Juliet as well as a Midsummer Night's dream, both of which i had mixed feelings about (mostly positive). I liked the creativity of Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as the fantasy to it, yet it still related back to reality.
Romeo and Juliet was very creative as well and you didn't see any of the events coming and it wasn't predictable.
In both Romeo and Juliet and a Midsummer's Night Dream, i thought that the language as well of the flow of the words was outstanding. I love how they wrote during that time period. The words and sentence structures are emotional and effective towards the plot. The play's complexity made it hard to understand, but still fun to read.
With both of these stories, I felt parts of the plot were idfficult to understand. If it was in modern day language, it might have been easier to digest. Other than that, both plays were very enjoyable.
-Up until 8th grade I had never experienced Shakespeare's writing before. Then I was thrust into the extensive 8th grade unit on Shakespeare, in which ever class performed one of his plays. First I read Romeo and Juliet, as well as a Midsummer's Night Dream. Then my class put on Romeo and Juliet. Due to the exhaustive amount of time we put into practicing the play, I became an expert on Romeo and Juliet. Our class delved into all the hidden meanings and humor contained in Shakespeare's writing. Besides performing, I also got to film the plays, so I had the opportunity to see Macbeth and A Midsummer's Night Dream in detail.
-My feelings of Shakespeare are mixed at best.The low production quality of the plays certainly detracted from the experience, however my readings of his plays were not much better. I did enjoy the many puns and jokes in Romeo and Juliet, yet surprisingly I did not find anything about a Midsummer's Night Dream amusing. The fact that I thought a tragedy was more funny than a comedy likely points to a difference in tastes between Shakespearean and modern times. The one aspect of Shakespeare that annoyed me the most, however, was how improbable and perfect the plot always was. Even though I understand that Shakespeare did not aim at being realistic, his plots flow too much like clockwork and all of the situations are too unlikely to be enjoyable for me.
I have only had one experience with Shakespeare, and it was in 8th grade and I read "Romeo and Juliet". My experience with reading the play was very good. I liked the plot of the play and I liked reading the old english (even though it got confusing at times). The part that I did not like about reading Shakespeare was that my teacher made us act out the play in class. It was OK to act it out, but the teacher made us read only the old english which was hard to follow, especially when most of us did not know how to pronounce words. I would have enjoyed it more if we were allowed to take the book home and read a little bit each night instead of having to sit in class everyday and act it out. My overall experience was neutral. I liked the play, but I did not like the way my teacher made us read and act out the play. This; however, did not affect my feelings on Shakespears writing. I am really interesting in his writing and I can't wait to read another play by him, as long as we do not have to act it out.
Last year in eight grade I read Romeo and Juliet too. It was the first piece of Shakespeare I had read and I found it to be very difficult. His way of writing was not what I was accustomed to and I found it frustrating to understand what he was trying to say. Also the books we read had Shakespeare's modern english on one side of the page and then on the other side of the page it was translated into present day language. This helped me understand it as we were going through. As I got further in the book though I found that I didn't need to look at the translation as much.
Overall my experience with Romeo and Juliet was neutral. I found it to be very dramatic and not realistic as if what was going on would never happen in real life. But also at the same time Shakespeare's writing could be very poetic and some of the things he wrote really caught my attention.
The only experience that i've had with Shakespeare was reading and performing in the play Romeo and Juliet last year. I would say that it was both positive and negative. I thought that some parts of reading it were dull and hard to understand but when we went over the reading in class it would make more sense. It was interesting how one short line could be very deep if you looked into it and thought about it, but how easily it could be read over. I was a dancer in the play last year so i got to watch alot of the actual acting rehearsals. The language makes alot more sense when it is acted out rather than read in a book. It's also easier to pick up on things when you've heard it a couple of times. I think that Shakespeare is difficult but if it's studied enough to where it's easy to understand the plot is interesting. I would definatly be interested in reading or watching more of his plays.
Last year I read Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. We also saw the play A Mid Summer's Night. My class performed the play Macbeth. I liked Romeo and Juliet because it was about kids our age but I hated having to stop after every scene and go back to see what it meant. I personally think Shakespeare is hard to understand if you don't really know what is going on. Since my class performed Macbeth I understood it a lot better because we practiced it every day and after a few weeks you already knew what each word meant and what it was supposed to mean in context. On the other hand I liked reading the play better that watching one. When I saw A Mid Summer's Night I had no idea what was going on, not just because of the language but the plot was confusing. My favorite play was defiantly Romeo and Juliet and my experience was neutral with Shakespeare.
My experience with Shakespeare hasn’t been a very big one, but it was a positive one. In middle school, my class and I read Romeo and Juliet, and surprisingly I enjoyed it. I thought the way that Shakespeare viewed and described love in it was fantastic, even though it was difficult to understand. My teacher let us use books however, that had our type of English on one side, and Shakespeare’s original texts on the other. This was very helpful because if I ever couldn’t understand what was going on in the play, I could just look over and the same paragraph would be written in easier English.
There were some lines in Romeo and Juliet that actually really stood out to me. I looked back in my old writer’s notebook, where we had to write down two of our favorite lines from the play itself, my favorite is “Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate, but thankful even for hate that is mean love.” This line was my favorite throughout the entire play, and there were many others like it that made me enjoy my first Shakespeare experience; I would say my experience was very positive and I’m excited to continue it.
my expirence was very negative in terms of reading shakespeare. whenever we read it back in english in 8th grade it always felt like the longest period of the day. in general i havent had a lot of expirence reading shakespeare so i wont judge so quickly,
the worst part about shakespeare for me was the fact that a simple hello can turn into a whole five paragraph long description. for me, it just feels unnecessary.
i am looking foward to reading Othello because i may be more advanced and older now. the language may not seem as difficult.
I really like Shakespeare and sadly, I have not had any experiences with his work yet. I've never read any the playwright's works and I wish I would have. My teacher never got around to it last year and I hoped we would read Romeo and Juliet, but we never did. In 7th grade, a teacher introduced one of his works to us, but it was only the last week of school and she didn't have much time to do much. So far into "Othello", I can say that the writing is very good and I enjoy it a lot, although it is rather difficult sometimes. I feel that Shakespeare is a major asset to literature (or play-writing) although from what I've learned about him, he only did it to make profit, not to create something extraordinary in and of itself.
I have read play scripts from Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. The early modern english was a little hard to get into at first, but after a while I got the hang of things and could pick up on it real well. The story in itself was actually very starry-eyed. Upon first reading his works, I found this to be true, as the things that happen in his stories aren't exactly the most rational ideas. Such as two families that turn a love at first sight situation into a bloody tragedy, instead of finding a logical answer for their problems. Or three Scottish witches that make prophecies to only the two most important characters. It was things like these that made me dislike Shakespeare. However, as I began to look over the stories again and again, I found that Shakespeare had an amazingly complex way of scripting his stories. One cannot sum up a paragraph of any of his works with one paragraph, but rather an essay. Shakespeare must have had a lot of thought put into his writing to create such a deep level of literary understanding.
I have read a few writings of Shakespeare and have had mixed feelings between all of them. I have read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Night Dream, and sections of Macbeth. I thought Romeo and Juliet was good, however it was a very predictable love story. I had very strong hatred towards A Midsummer's Night Dream. I did not enjoy it at all, and I thought it was a complete waste of time after reading it. When my English class read sections of Macbeth, I did not hate it, and I did not love it. From what I read, I was neutral toward it. Throughout my previous readings of Shakespeare's works, I believe I have had a neutral experience. It has not been amazing and it has not been terrible. I think neutral is better then having a negative experience.
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