Contribution of Shakespeare to Modern Literature - Essay Example

Contribution of Shakespeare to Modern Literature By Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan Apart from being a legend in his own lifetime, William Shakespeare remains one of the most influential writers for centuries to come. Even though he might have been writing four hundred years ago, there is still a lot of breakthroughs that Shakespeare made in terms of literary competence, which are a benchmark for modern writers as well. The thesis statement for this paper is one that revolves around the elements of Shakespeare's writing that have shaped the modern literary landscape. This paper seeks to etch the map along which Shakespeare affected the trends in the modern literary terrain. Apart from being comparative in its approach, this paper will also make use of facts and characters that remain extremely popular in today's world. To begin with, it would be imperative to talk about William Shakespeare's history. Born to a glove maker in the year 1564, Shakespeare grew up with a strong penchant for the unusual. This has characterised his writing in more ways than one. He married Anne Hathaway and went onto become one of the greatest playwrights and poets the world has ever seen. (Neilson et al, 1913) In fact, it is difficult for most scholars of his work to decide whether his sonnets have more punch or his plays have more of his sense of unparalleled imagination. As far as his Literature style of writing is concerned, his nuances and detailing have been a benchmark for many a writer. On a more personal note, William Shakespeare's life reflects the story of a boy from a provincial town who made it to the top without any money or connections to support his talent or dreams. Besides influencing the theaterical scene in more ways than one, Shakespeare has been creadited with the creation of the most splendid plays the world has ever seen. He had the power to revolutionalise theatre and he actually achieved that aim with the creation of the most admired plays in Western Literature. As a matter of fact, in various poarts of the world, his ideals revolving around romance have affected modern day writers in Asian countries as well - Rabindra Nath Tagore (a great Indian playwright), and Harivansh Rai Bachchan (a renowned Indian poet) - to name a few. (Harold, 2003) Shakespeare's main arena included one where he affected people through his intellectual, yet seemingly ordinary and therefore, easily accessible message. Shakespeare managed to imbibe a sense of physical action into the rather static state of affairs in the thearetical scene upon his arrival. Also, he was phenomenal as far as creating symbolic instead of purely realistic plots were concerned. In this context, writers of modern day literature have avidly followed his lead by experimenting with real life scenarios to twist and turn them to trasmit a meassge. The striking characteristic of Shakespeare's work lies in its ability to simply transport a person to unknown lands and their unusual elements. Even when writing of the violence Literature ridden times of England or the discriminatory attitude that prevailed among many at that time, he tells a story of dreams and hope. Invariably, writers today follow this basic format in modern literature where there is always a struggle with hope complementing it and finally - the hero takes the cake. Shakespeare actually introduced the world and thereby inducted the modern literary scene, into the traditional rough it out till the end mode of writing. (Harold, 2003) The best part about Shakespeare's plays is that the characters are studies in cultural and societal nuances. Try Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. This money lending Jew fit the typified framework which was associated with the cunning community at that time and Shylock with his dialogues and choice of words became a huge hit merely because he was just like them and yet different in the way he had been portrayed in lieu of the situations that surrounded him as a father. These kinds of characterisations have come to signify the blueprint for all kinds of characters in modern literature - heroes, villains, heroines and of course, the loving parents. In fact, Shakespeare did not even spare kings and royal scandals in his writing - they were all there; thirsty for each other's blood, adventurous and of course, very daring. This aspect of Shakespeare's writing has been a matter of much research and discussion. In his characterisations, Shakespeare invariably managed to bring out the extra ordinary Literature from the ordinary and thus he made heroes. Masters of this art in modern times have included T S Eliot and Thomas Hardy with their unforgettable characters. (Harold, 2003) The Taming of the Shrew in fact, has been a major work of critical acclaim where a woman who would technically be labelled as a psychological case, gets miraculously transformed by an adventurer of a husband. This story has modern day parallels with varying degrees of the shrew like qualities found in vamps and their ilk. Also, modern day writers have learnt to create characters with shades of grey instead of characters that are either strictly black or white. This kind of experimentation led to the conception of evil or ignorant turning good in modern literature. Here, I play with the word ignorant when speaking of evil, because Shakespeare was a man of elevated perceptions. This led him to pen various works of literary genius which were enlightening and heartening. The theories of compassion when applied to the nuances of one's ordinary daily life are what Shakespeare's stories and poems were all about. In this context, it can be found that modern day writers try and bring about perceptive powers in their writing to deliver a certain message or target a certain audience. In this Literature way, they draw heavily from Shakespeare's work. The contextual qualities of Shakespeare's writing are every modern writer's dream to achieve. While Shakespeare's poetic grandeur in presenting his scheme of things may be elements that a modern writer gives a miss to, there are underscores of his poetic nuances that have become common speak in the English language. "A rose is but a rose" being one of my personal favourites. The choice of words Shakespeare made in order to draw fitting parallels for situations and characters alike have been adopted by many a writer in describing various scenes in the same context. While these parallels may have been way ahead of his time and unusual, they were nevertheless hailed as pieces of quality work. In this, writers of modern literature go a step further and show how these parallels can be further expanded upon with the crispness of modern day language constraints. But the influence of his parallels and the poetic appeal of his words are elements that one cannot miss in the underscores of various modern literary works. (Honigmann, 1999) Owing to the fact that Shakespeare had managed to engineer a new secular form of theatre through an amalgamation of elements like old mortality drama and academic significance, he managed to come up genres that were like no other. Tragedies became Literature his forte with a strong emphasis on showcasing the satirical nature of a lovelorn hero's plight or the heroine doomed by her fate and a family feud to boot. In this way, Shakespeare cast a heavy spell of awe inspiring stories with elements like poetic grandeur and philosophical depth. He used these elements even in the old school academic plays where he played with traits of the personalities he was dealing with during the characterisations. This comes across in the works of modern day writers as they try to make use of new elements to inject a new lease of life into a tried and tested genre or 'formula'. In this regard, experimentation during writing has become a norm in modern literature - a hangover from Shakespeare's days. Shakespeare also ushered in the era of comedies that had every character from the hero to the villain and everyone in between making a fool of themselves - and not minding it at all. This brand of comic timing has become a rule of thumb for writing comedies in modern literature. Dry, witty and with a wonderful flow of repartee - Shakespeare actually taught the world how to write comedies. In his writing style, one will invariably come across instances where Shakespeare wrote by the critical antenna rather than the imagination. This helped him demonstrate the reality of the issue he was dealing with in his plays and poems with a hint of unusual Literature enlightenment which more often than not revolved around embracing the paranormal in one's normal life. On this account, Shakespeare used his sense of criticism to draw parallels and expose the attitudes and real meanings behind the common phrases and actions that dominated his time. This has been made use of by the modern day writers in generous helpings. Further, the modern literary landscape is dominated by Shakespeare's criticisms of the factors that govern societal attitudes and changes. Considering the fact that these have now become lifestyle statements, it is difficult to ignore the examples of these in modern day writings. Most modern writers have been found to draw inspiration from Shakespeare's work which promoted them to demonstrate deeper understanding of elements like art and music in one's everyday. With Shakespeare's entertaining yet informative and rather realistic style, most writers of modern literature have found to understand areas like art and music which they have imbibed in their work, to reflect the struggles and issues of the time and other general problem areas like cultural suppression, violence and political power. Through his style of showing such issues through the typical characters occupying those settings, Shakespeare carved a niche for understanding gifts like music and art with which one can forget problems for a while. Many writers in the modern day are found to use such concepts and theories as the basis for defining characteristics in their characters, Literature such as likes, dislikes and commonalities through issues and problems. This has been a driving force for most modern literature work. (Honigmann, 1999) Therefore, it has been asserted that the way Shakespeare handled human emotions and the complexity of reactions to one given emotion, is an inspiration and the benchmark upon which most modern day writers have to create real sounding situations. In his work, Shakespeare tried to pitch the case for every individual to have a right over enjoying every pleasure in life - through his thought provoking poems and love stories in particular - and this model has been followed by most modern day writers as the "divine formula". Also, as far as Shakespeare's work is concerned, he provides a relevant and universally applicable analysis of human emotions. It is also extremely original and this is a point that has been taken by most modern day writers. In conclusion, I would like to say that Shakespeare's many aspects of writing have positively affected the majority of modern literature in the contextual sense, more than anything else. References: Craig, Leon Harold (2003) Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "King Lear". University of Toronto Press. Honigmann E. A. J., (1999) Shakespeare: The Lost Years. Manchester University Press; 2nd edition. Neilson, W A; Thorndike, A (1913) The Facts About Shakespeare. The Macmillan Company Read More