For many Tahoma students, Spring is the dreaded time of the year when we have to crack open a script and try to understand something that has been present in English culture for centuries. Whether it be Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth, we are all familiar with Shakespeare and the torment of reading it. But as much as students may despise and teachers may love the words of Willam Shakespeare; why are the words of a century old poet relevant for all students to learn? Is it the sophistication of a different time that teaches us how to understand language? Or do we need to move on from something coming to pass, insignificant to us? Let’s find out. 

Many argue that teaching literature, Shakespeare specifically, can become too opinionated, and students aren’t allowed to interpret it the way they want. It was made for the stage, to be emotional and up for free interpretation. Attempting to understand every word and intention is deprecating to the play itself, because analysis on paper takes away the personal opinion aspect of an art. Everyone is going to take in the play experience in their own unique way, upon going to watch a Shakespearn play. Students reading it with one generic opinion, elevated to the “right one” (Why was Macbeth a bad king” kind of questions) in mind are simply going to care less. So maybe, putting Shakespeare in a classroom doesn’t enhance the effect that it had back in the day. Some of the things in the plays are simply too outdated to be relevant to teens today, and aren’t as important as the things we learn about society from Animal Farm or Things Fall Apart. The class time spent on Shakespeare could easily be spent learning about modern issues on racism and politics, not fairy tales of Kings and witches hundreds of years ago. 

Aside from the grueling task of trying to decipher the confusing old language, Shakespeare may be teaching us things about humanity to this day. Shakespeare was known as a writer, not a philosopher. But some themes stick to us today, such as the repetitive messages of love and power that can be seen in a lot of modern works. The Lion King (1994) is a cinematic masterpiece and a lot of its story was based on Hamlet. It showed the struggle of a young prince, love, and greed, depicted from the similar story in Hamlet. Interestingly, a lot of modern entertainment was based on old messages and storylines from Shakespeare, like West Side Story which is prized by a lot of the theater and film industry. Though the language used to convey these important messages is difficult to understand to us, Shakespeare was able to put some of humanity’s biggest traits into words. And perhaps the wording isn’t so bad. Kylie Miller, a senior and alumni of We The People said that Shakespeare helped her understand historical documents of major importance, like the U.S Constitution. So, the works of Shakespeare may be teaching us more than we think. 

Well, if one thing is certain, it’s that writing and reading is for free thinkers. Everyone is free to have different opinions on Shakespeare. He was a free thinker, and we can thank him for the developed language of today. But in the end, whether it’s time to stop learning Shakespeare isn’t up to students! The future may have different plans for Shakespeare…we’ll see where it takes us.