Shakespeare's Influence On Theatre

Renowned for not only his famous plays, but also his poetic writing skills, Shakespeare, still to this day, impacts our everyday life. Whether it be inventing phrases or innovating the future of theatre, Shakespeare frequently motivates others to invent a new way of writing and acting. This effect is demonstrated in the two articles: “How Shakespeare Influences the Way We Speak Now” (written by Hephzibah Anderson) and “William Shakespeare’s Impact on Theatre” (written anonymously). In “How Shakespeare Influences the Way We Speak Now” Anderson details how Shakespeare invented commonly used phrases and merged words together to create new ones. In the second article, “William Shakespeare’s Impact on Theatre” the author describes the many ways …show more content…
According to “How Shakespeare influences the way we speak now,” Shakepeare has created phrases such as “in a pickle,” (referring to being trouble) “a wild goose chase,” (crazy adventure) and “the green eyed monster,” (refers to jealously). Although numerous writers have put their own spin on these catchy phrases, each new version relates back the original meaning of Shakespeare’s phrases. In other words, without the invention of these catchy phrases modern-day writers would have nothing to build upon when detailing their own work. For that reason, many considered Shakespeare as a building block when it comes to uniquely “express[ing] hope and despair, sorrow and rage, love and lust,” in vivid new ways (Anderson, paragraph 2). However, because many artists draw on him for inspiration in their own writings, some of his great works are now regarded as cliches. Despite the negative connotation associated with this word, it is treated as if it were a compliment due to the belief that all artists want their work renownedly known. In addition to Shakespeare’s widely known phrases, or rather his “cliches,” he has also invented words similar to the way he has created his catchy phrases. It is believed that “by merging existing words and anglicising vocabulary from foreign languages” Shakespeare managed to create over 15,000 words, most of which are used …show more content…
While he demonstrated his unique take on the specific words throughout his places, Shakespeare also introduced new elements that forever changed the performances of all theatres. His first remarkable innovation was engaging the audience. As a skillful tactic in his plays, Shakespeare imbued them with “universal truths of human existence” rather than having them “[act as] mirrors of the privileged life,” which most play writers had done before him. As a result of the realism integrated in Shakespeare’s writing, both the poor and the wealthy came to see his plays, causing Shakspeare to become popular. His second most accomplishing contribution to modern play-writing was the effect that his plays had on the audience. It was often during his plays that many audience members would “[become] vocal and often raucous,” which made it hard to tell who was actually performing the play and who was part of the attentive audience members. The third major modification of play-writing came regards to Shakespeare’s elaborate plots accompanied by complex characters. Through his multiplex characterization and invention of “genres that mixed both tragedy and comedy,” Shakespeare was able to create new experiences that utilized both storytelling and theatre. In consequence to Shakespeare’s never-ending drive to innovate the theatre, his work continuously