Shakespeare 101: A Mind Maze
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” A sentence engraved in our memories… Grab your quill and parchment, we're off on a journey! 📖
The legendary playwright we all know and love has a knack for touching on life's great questions through his plays and poems. Think about death, the one thing we all ponder at some point in our lives. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gives us a character wrestling with life's big questions, like "To be, or not to be?" It's a deep dive into the human psyche.
Then there's love, that emotional rollercoaster we've all been on: Romeo and Juliet. The balcony scene? Pure romantic gold. And the tragic ending? A stark reminder of the power of love and its sometimes devastating consequences 💔
In As You Like It, Shakespeare looks at life's stages through the eyes of Jaques, who says, "All the world's a stage." This famous monologue compares human life to a play, where people take on different roles as they get older. This metaphor is a good reminder of how life is temporary and how our identities change over time. It shows how Shakespeare understood the human condition.
Shakespeare the Bard
One of the nicknames attributed to Shakespeare was the Bard, more specifically the Bard of Avon. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in April 1564. Although the exact date of his birth remains a mystery, it is widely celebrated on 23 April, coinciding with St. George's Day. His baptismal record is dated Wednesday, 26 April 1564. But why was he called “The Bard”? ✍🏼
The term "bard" has a rich history that predates Shakespeare's time. It refers to a Celtic composer who was skilled at writing eulogies and satires. Over time, the term evolved to include tribal poet-singers who composed verses celebrating heroes and their deeds. Shakespeare's reputation as a great poet and his role as England's unofficial national poet earned him the title "The Bard".
A Mind Maze
The English language was never enough for Shakespeare. He added nearly 2,000 words to English. When the language didn't give him the right words, he just made some up. In Macbeth, he writes, "He childed as I fathered." Here, Shakespeare uses "childed" and "fathered" as verbs, capturing the cyclical nature of life and the roles we play as parents and children. It seems quite simple but Shakespeare used this technique a lot! And it has a name: functional shift.
The functional shift does something to our minds that we may not realise. There has been a study on this. 20 participants were monitored with an electroencephalogram while reading selected lines from Shakespeare's plays. When the participants read sentences using the functional shift technique used by Shakespeare, a positive 'P600 effect' was detected. P600 is the peak moment when our brains start thinking again.
Did You Know?🤔“Honorificabilitudinitatibus” is the longest word found in any of Shakespeare's works, specifically appearing in Love's Labour's Lost. This tongue-twisting word is a Latin-based term that roughly translates to "with honorableness."
The Movie(s) of the Week 🎬
Shakespeare has also had a huge influence on the film industry. Movies have been made directly inspired by his works or characters and plots. Anyone but You (2023), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Romeo + Juliet (1996) or the famous Disney movie The Lion King (1994)… And one of the most interesting adaptations is Forbidden Planet (1956). It's the sci-fi version of Shakespeare's last work, his farewell to the stage, The Tempest.
A Timeless Stage: London
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire during a performance of King Henry VIII. But a new Globe has been built by modelling itself on the original. Piri Guide's London audio tour starts at Shakespeare's Globe and explores the city of art. Now you can walk in the Bard's footsteps in London! 🇬🇧 🎭