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If your goal is simply to use the plays as a whip the students self-flagellate with until they can tolerate joyless reading, there are probably other texts bett
by delecti 8y ago
If your goal is simply to use the plays as a whip the students self-flagellate with until they can tolerate joyless reading, there are probably other texts better suited for the purpose. If your goal is to teach Shakespeare, the students will likely not develop an appreciation or an understanding of the significance of the plays by simply reading them.
- sandworm101 8y agoThe literal "old school" goal was to indoctrinate kids with a standard background in English literature, a common knowledge, to allow them to better communicate amongst peers of similar backgrounds. The start of this is a grounding in words like Shakespeare. In the past it would have also included the bible. Someone can read a play and not understand it. That happens. But to understand a work you first have to at least read it. Watching can be a poor substitute, but good luck finding any modern production that performs an entire Shakespeare piece. Most everything on modern stages is heavily edited for time.
- pmyteh 8y agoIt's pretty strongly believed that they were cut in Shakespeare's day too. Something to do with limited legal opening hours and other things that had to go in the programme meaning there simply wouldn't have been time. I have also been told that the reason Macbeth is so short is that it was probably transcribed from the working (cut) copy of the play rather than the original draft.