Lab 6

Why should we study Shakespeare?

March 3, 2019

This week in Professor Waits English 1302 1st Period class, we were introduced to the works of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was “an English playwright, actor and poet and is often called England’s national poet. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward” (“William Shakespeare”).  Playwright and poet William Shakespeare wrote many plays and poems in the sixteenth and seventeenth century such as All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, Love’s Labours Lost, Measure for Measure, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Winter’s Tale, Henry V, Henry IV part 1-2, Henry VI part 1-3, Henry VIII, King John, Richard II, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, The Sonnets, A Lover’s Complaint, The R*pe of Lucrece, Venus and Adonis, Phoenix and The Turtle, and Passionate Pilgrim (“Shakespeare’s Plays”). In class, we spent a day practicing acting exercises for Macbeth and began to discuss the plot line of the play Macbeth. We should continue to study Shakespeare because he has made a huge impact to English literature and culture during the Renaissance and the present with his outstanding work. He also set the standard for all other plays such as Hamilton.

This week I noticed rhetoric and argument in ads persuading people to go to restaurants, movies, stores, and other related social settings. I have also noticed rhetoric and argument through conversations with other people as they can convince you to do certain actions, which is persuasion.

Constructing my own Rhetorical Piece: Question/Problem: How did William Shakespeare influence the present with his work? Answers/Solutions: William Shakespeare influenced the present by setting the standard for modern plays.

Work Cited:

“William Shakespeare.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 14 Feb. 2019, www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323. 

“Shakespeare’s Plays, Listed by Genre.” Complete List of Shakespeare’s Plays, by Genre :|: Open Source Shakespeare, George Mason University, 2003,  www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/plays.php.