Modern Day Shakespeare

Dear Michiko Kakutani,

This article that you wrote was very interesting for me to read. It brought up some very valid points that I would have never thought about before, until now. There are some points that I agree with and some that I do not agree with though. I would like to discuss some of these things with you.

In the article, you state that "The usual reasons offered for his greatness--the richness of his language, the range and depth of his characterizations, the fecundity of his imagination--do not explain why he, rather than, say, Dante or Chaucer has become and remained a household name." I agree with this statement. In my opinion, other authors of dramatic literature and dramatic plays written in the 1500s-1600s should be household names also. I do enjoy Shakespeare' writing but I would enjoy reading other novels or plays from different authors from that time period also. "Nor do paeans to his storytelling gifts: after all, he lifted most of his plots from pre-existing works." I do not agree with this statement because you did not give any evidence to back up that he lifted most of his plots from pre-existing works.

I agree that Shakespeare has become our familiar in the English language. Americas use many phrases that were popularized by Shakespeare in every day life. I think it is fantastic that we can put parts of plays and parts of poems into our everyday conversations.

"The game-playing of Shakespeare's characters, their gender confusion, their romantic and familial disputes, their effort to grapple with the contingency of reason and love, al seem peculiarly modern." I agree, Shakespeare's writing does appear to have many modern situations in them, but I don't particularly agree that his writing is modern. I believe that there has always been these types of situations in the world. For example, romantic and familial disputes will always be an issue in the world because that is how humans were built; to have separate opinions and feelings.

Overall, you have some very good points in this article and it was very well written. Thank you for sharing your opinion with the world.

Sincerely,

Arianna Owens