This week in AP Lit. we talked, researched, and read about Shakespeare extensively. I always find it extremely interesting to discuss Shakespeare and analyze his plays. In the interview we watched of Sir Ian McKellan (below), he spoke very highly about Shakespeare and his incredible ability to write plays. I find it amazing as well that Shakespeare can incorporate the feelings and emotions he wants each character to portray just in the way he writes their lines.
Also, while reading the article specified for King Lear, I realized that one of my favorite popular movies is completely based off a Shakespeare play, Twelth Night. The characters' names are even identical, and the plot mirrors that of the play almost perfectly. That got me thinking that it is truly incredible how many popular stories and movies are based off of Shakespearean plays. Shakespeare's influence is really strong on modern society still; I think this is because though he used his own form of language, he brought to light tragic and comedic issues that many probably didn't want to acknowledge. He made his plays extremely dramatic but not simply for entertainment, but for some sort of identification and relief for his audiences.
Another experience this week with Shakespearean writing was reading "Poor soul, centre of my sinful earth" from Sonnet 146. I really enjoyed the message it got across about our spirituality being much more important and a better point of focus than our earthly bodies. The argument between materialism and spirituality is very prevalent in today's society, and I think it's important for us to realize that this struggle is not anything new. I really liked how in the poem, the speaker emphasized what seemed to be somewhat of a battle between his soul and body. He compared his body to materialistic or financially powerful things like mansions and riches, and explained how it held his soul captive and essentially questioned his soul as to why it allowed his body to hold it captive like that. It was almost as if he wants to escape the sinfulness of materialism, but is too afraid of judgement for not reaching societal standards to break out of his materialistic ways. However, at the end of the poem he personifies death and shows how the soul truly does outlive the body, and so what is done to the soul is much more important than what is done to the body because once you're gone, it is who you were as a human being that is remembered, not what you looked like or the materialistic things you've done.
Another experience this week with Shakespearean writing was reading "Poor soul, centre of my sinful earth" from Sonnet 146. I really enjoyed the message it got across about our spirituality being much more important and a better point of focus than our earthly bodies. The argument between materialism and spirituality is very prevalent in today's society, and I think it's important for us to realize that this struggle is not anything new. I really liked how in the poem, the speaker emphasized what seemed to be somewhat of a battle between his soul and body. He compared his body to materialistic or financially powerful things like mansions and riches, and explained how it held his soul captive and essentially questioned his soul as to why it allowed his body to hold it captive like that. It was almost as if he wants to escape the sinfulness of materialism, but is too afraid of judgement for not reaching societal standards to break out of his materialistic ways. However, at the end of the poem he personifies death and shows how the soul truly does outlive the body, and so what is done to the soul is much more important than what is done to the body because once you're gone, it is who you were as a human being that is remembered, not what you looked like or the materialistic things you've done.