In the last 400 years civilisation has progressed beyond expectation. Technological innovations, conquerors, the rise of empires and their fall and the industrial revolution have all come in the time since Shakespeare wrote his last words. However, it’s not just the world around us that changes, it’s us too. Our lifestyle is completely different to that of a 17th century Briton. The language we speak has transformed dramatically, rendering Shakespearian language all but incomprehensible. What use to us are words that we cannot use? By studying Shakespeare we do nothing but smother, stifle and quell any possible love for the playwright in future generations. By drilling students with language they can’t understand, a prejudice is built against …show more content…
The morals of Shakespearean characters are very different from modern ones, making the characters unrealistic to the pre-GCSE classroom dweller. These unreal characters are inaccessible to pupils who would find contemporary novels, which deal with living issues, yet still give us challenging vocabulary. The vocabulary being challenging, but not so indecipherable that some of it is not even in the dictionary. Those who say that Shakespearean values are relevant today are overlooking the circumstances and morals we confront in Shakespearean text. For example, in the tempest, we see the “virgin knot” that Miranda holds and Ferdinand is not allowed to break before marriage. This is an out-dated belief and is no longer relevant in modern society. There are countless other examples, such as the murders and classist prejudice, which are not acceptable lessons for teenagers to learn. Shakespeare is a sexist writer, for example in “The Taming of the Shrew”, which is about taming a woman and her being frowned upon when expressing her own opinion. The language and morals in Shakespeare’s writing are obsolete and out of place in the minds of contemporary