Why Study Shakespeare?

My earnest desire to share the importance of studying Shakespeare is strengthened every time I meet a student that has no knowledge of the significance and relevance of his works. I realize the study of Shakespearean texts can be daunting to students and homeschool parents that are not familiar with the depth of his works.  When the study of Shakespeare is approached incorrectly - usually in a technical fashion - it can actually cause students to form a lifelong dislike for anything remotely Shakespearean. But when approached correctly, it can open the student to a love of literature of all kinds; if one can conquer Shakespeare, one can accomplish anything!  As we dive further into our analysis of A Midsummer Night's Dream, here are some key points to consider:

Significance of literature written at such a critical time in European history: 

Shakespeare lived between 1554 and 1616 and wrote 36 plays and 154 sonnets during his career as a poet, playwright and actor. The achievements that took place during these astonishing years are inescapably glorious. Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 at the age of twenty-five and her successor, James I, gave his name to another famous masterpiece, the Authorized Version of the Bible, died in 1625.

We know that both monarchs were patrons of Shakespeare’s companies, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men under Elizabeth and the King’s Men under King James. In Act II of Dream, Shakespeare offers up a veiled tribute to Queen Elizabeth, who may have been an expected guest for an aristocratic gathering at which the play premiered. In Oberon’s speech to Titania, he praises a virgin queen who shuns romantic love, remaining devoted to her kingdom alone.

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 

Other significant events include the English Reformation, the expansion of the Royal Navy and defeat of the Spanish Armada and the English colonization of the New World.  During their reigns the English language also achieved a richness and vitality of expression that even contemporaries marveled at.

Significant Richness of the Elizabethan Language: 
Many of the common expressions now thought to be clichés were Shakespeare's creations. Chances are you use Shakespeare's expressions all the time even though you may not know it is the Bard you are quoting. His influence extends from theater to literature, from movies to present day music videos to the modern day English language itself. He is credited for having coined up to 1700 English words by either creating them or combining two existing words into a compound word. The following words first appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream, indicating that they were probably coined by Shakespeare:

Bashfulness
Bedroom
Critical
Fancy-free
Flowery
Homespun
Insufficiency
Manager
Mimic
Moonbeam
Pale-faced
Preposterously
Rival
Shrewishness
Undistinguishable

He is also cited for his influence in the expansion of the English language. The fact that this expansion occurred just prior to the printing of the King James Bible is not coincidence. One recent school of thought states that William Shakespeare may have translated the 46 Psalm. Although it is this teacher’s opinion that he did not, considering that the King James Version was translated by scholars, not poets or playwrights. Still, the fact that some researchers consider it as a reliable possibility is just another example of Shakespeare's far reaching influence.

Significant anthology of Literature: 
Shakespeare used many sources for his plays including Greek, Roman, French and English histories, mythology, folk tales and the Bible. Although no written source for the plot of Dream has been found as it seems that the plot is Shakespeare's original, there are influences from following sources:

Theseus and Hippolyta
     ~ Plutarch (c.46-120), Lives (Thomas North's translation in 1579)
     ~ Chaucer, Geoffrey (c.1340-1400). The Canterbury Tales "The Knight's Tale" (1400)

The story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" and the name of Titania
     ~ Ovid (43 BC- AD18), Metamorphoses (Arthur Golding's English translation in 1567)

Oberon
     ~ Huon of Bordeau, a 13th-century French adventure tale translated by Lord Berners (1534)

Likewise, Shakespeare would have used the Geneva Bible as his Biblical references. In recounting his “dream,” Bottom alludes to 1 Corinthians 2:7-10. Paul’s argument that the deep mysteries of faith and divine love are inscrutable (“bottomless”) to human reason, (Geneva Bible, vs. 10). Inspired by English writers like Chaucer, Shakespeare went on to influence significant authors like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville.

Significant observation of Human Character: 
Shakespeare’s great characters have remained popular because of their complexity and depth that has transcended the 400 years of their existence; we recognize ourselves in the characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Father and daughter (Egeus and Hermia) struggle to communicate (he appears to be at his wit’s end and thus approaches the Duke for finality), Lysander and Hermia leave all reason behind when they enter the forest, Helena’s broken heart is made evident in her self-destructive dialogue, and almost everyone can attest to knowing a “know it all” like Bottom. Although Shakespeare’s view of human love in Dream is neither idealistic nor cynical, the human condition can certainly relate to Lysander’s statement “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

It must also be noted that contrary to the opinion of some scholars, Shakespeare is profoundly moral. His plays, especially the tragedies, deal with the deepest moral themes and issues. Serious consideration of any of his plays forces one to think in ethical terms.  Rev. Ralph Allan Smith writes in his essay, “Why Shakespeare for Christian Students,” 1999:

"The unflinching recognition of the moral ambiguity of the very best men is Biblical. It was the Bible that taught Shakespeare not to dress the good guys in white hats and the bad guys in black hats, with appropriate manners of speech and facial expressions. It is the anti-Christian world of the Enlightenment that cannot handle the reality of man's sinfulness and the need of redemption, which seeks sinless heroes to redeem man not from the profound depths of depravity, but from the quirks of evolutionary inadequacy. 

Shakespeare pictures men and women very much as the really are, an embarrassing mixture of good and evil, folly and wisdom, kindness and cruelty, while at the same time maintaining a view of God's providential rule and judgment that does sort things out in the end. We associate Shakespeare and the Bible, then, because Shakespeare has borrowed the Biblical view of human life and the moral government of the world, even though he expresses it subtly."

So Puck's observation:"Lord, what fools these mortals be" is not so far from the scripture that describes one that trusts in their own devices.  Hermia and Lysander's elopement and Helena's scheme to win Demetrius' love is not so far from the Biblical truth: "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise." (Proverbs 12:15)

Sources:

Narrative and Dramatic Sources of all Shakespeare's Works
http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/shakespeare/source.html

The Scrivener: A Midsummer Night's Wordmaster:
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2009/12/a_midsummer_nig_1.php

Why Shakespeare For Christian Students?
http://www.berith.org/hsres/shak/shak01.html

Did Shakespeare Write His Name in the 46 Psalm?
http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=925