Shakespeare blog party including quiz – What Shakespeare character are you?

Feel free to direct others to this blog party today which marks the day Shakespeare was born.

I welcome contributions whether you want to try and convince me to like Shakespeare more or you want to voice your opinion that he is overrated.

To contribute paste links to any Shakespeare related posts that you have written into the comments and / join in with your point of view about Shakespeare in the comments section.

In this green I have highlighted possible topics for posts or discussions to try and inspire.

For example:

Any reviews of Shakespeare plays or films? What is your favorite Shakespeare quote or play and why? Is learning Shakespeare in schools now outdated?

First how about a quiz from Christine Valenter to find out Which Shakespeare character you are please click on the link below (press skip when screen fills with adverts).

Which Shakespeare character are you?

I got Portia and did not even know which play she was from; so perhaps I do need to learn more about Shakespeare.  I liked the description below; free spirit sharp intelligence, value loyalty and defender of weak.

What did others get and do they like?

I looked up Portia and found she is the heroine in Merchant of Venice. From the sound of what I googled, her hand is offered for marriage by her Father, but she  fought against it by  finding legal loopholes in that agreement of that marriage so I like the idea she did not just go along with what her Father wanted. This seem forward thinking from Shakespeare’s time so I’m impressed. Indeed I know how Shakespeare plots have been adapted into modern films. Any examples of this?

My experience of Shakespeare.

My first contact with Shakespeare although I do not, think I realized it at the time was The Tempest. I went with school to see a performance of the Tempest when I was 11; I think it was called Tempest Storm in a Teacup. It was a longtime ago, so I can not remember whether it was in Shakespearean language. It only featured 2 or 3 actors; so I can remember it being quite frantic and not great at getting story across. The story itself I can not remember or the production did not put story across well, so I can not blame Shakespeare for that.

When I was 13 /14years we studied Romeo and Juliet. I had heard of Romeo and Juliet by that time; therefore it was good to find out more. I can remember rewriting in couplets one scene I think a scene when there is a fight in the square. During the time we were studying the Romeo and Juliet film came out therefore we watched it with school.

During GCSE years at school (15 and 16 years) we read some Macbeth. It was good for learning about Elizabethan times, therefore I guess that is one pont for learning Shakespeare at school. The coursework I did was we had to detail who we would direct a particular scene from Macbeth, write a historian analysis of Macbeth and write a psychiatrist interview with Lady Macbeth.

A few years ago in my 30s a friend and myself went to see Midsummer Night’s dream at the theatre. The first half was pleasant enough; although did not really know what was going on. But second half got very slapstick like, which we do not like. We both wanted to leave but was stuck in the middle of a row. We said we would not attempt to see more Shakespeare untill we were in our 40s.

Clearly I’m not Shakespeare’s biggest fan but, surely for so many people to still be studying his works 400 years later then there must be something? Then there is there is all those phrases that have become common usage, surely we should learn the context of how the phrases originated. In the picture above I noticed a couple that feature in modern songs; Fight fire with fire which is a Tom Jones song and Good Riddance; Good Riddance (Time of my life) is a song from American band Greenday. From reading the comments on Davy D’s post Davy D is Shakespeare overrated?it seems I’m not the only one with doubts about Shakespeare. Davy D’s is Shakespeare overrated post starts with the great quote The British actress, Dame Judy Dench, once said “a bad experience of Shakespeare is like a bad oyster – it puts you off for life.” Is that true or can after initial being put off, you grow to like Shakespeare?; read Davy D’s article for some opinions regarding this.  I also love the post further up Davy D’s page Shakespeare and seagulls where he states

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/102491283/posts/1083

“Seagulls are aggressive blighter’s

they spend their time attacking people

dogs

themselves

This one of the key things

I learned in school

Not from any text

or enlightened teaching practice

but ….

visit this link to see the rest …!

Click here to read rest!

Read comments for posts about Shakespeare home and whatever fantastic posts are contributed!