William Shakespeare's Impact On English Language

To be or not to be. This was a line from the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare. He was a brilliant author, poet, and playwright who revolutionized literature forever. He was born in 1564, and his literary works are still read over and over again today from each corner of the globe. That line, to be or not to be, is very similar to a line in the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, in which Yoda, a tiny alien man, tells the protagonist Luke, "do or do not, there is no try." Despite having an age gap of 426 years (1564-1980), the two stories have nothing in common. Hamlet is a tragedy play about a man who must wreak upon his uncle who killed his father, whereas Star Wars is a science fiction film about a man who must master a mystical …show more content…
In many of his works, William Shakespeare has been known to formulate his own words or phrases to utilize that can effectively deliver the plot of his tales. As shown through the BBC article, "Victorian word expert F Max Muller estimated that Shakespeare used 15,000 words in his plays, a portion of which he invented himself by merging existing words and anglicizing vocabulary from foreign languages..." (Doc A). Shakespeare mastered a skill that all songwriters and music artists must utilize: the manipulation of words. A 60 minutes segment on Eminem shows how he, and other musicians, manipulate the syllables and sounds of words, as well as using slang, in order to achieve specific rhyme schemes or syllable patters in their music. This is the exact same strategy that Shakespeare approached his writing with 450 years ago! Also, common phrases from this era, such as, "Gossip," "Heart of gold," or, "The world's mine oyster," were created by, you guessed it, William Shakespeare (Doc. A). These are just the tip of the iceberg; many other words of today's lingo were started all those years back by Shakespeare himself. "Gloomy," "Grovel," "Bedazzled," "Sanctimonious"; the list goes on and on (Doc. …show more content…
During the CNN video, the producer of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare production talked about how he was using today's innovative strategies to enhance the experience of the literature. The producer stated that while watching a YouTube video, he noticed that a company was able to create the effect that, "The whale emerged from a large screen and swam back and forth over an amazed audience..." (Doc. C). This is a prime example of how the culture of today has used the tools at hand in order to emphasize the work that Shakespeare did. Plus, the octaneseating.com article states that, "Shakespeare had an influence on an international level as well. Foreign stages often had to contend with special circumstances when performing the works of Shakespeare..." (Doc. B). This quote sheds light upon the fact that Shakespeare influenced people who had nothing in common with him; not even a common language. These facts show the extent upon how Shakespeare's writing were able to effect communities far off in the future and in the world, but also how his content is timeless and can still be adapted to