Monday, September 30, 2013

from Jacqueline


Above is the Link to an Article I found in theguardian.com. I wanted to address the everlasting debate about Shakespeare’s real identity; The world spends so much time studying his work, so I wanted to explore why is his “true identity” so important for people.
Although the article is about the movie “Anonymous”, that addresses this issue, that’s not why I picked it. I want to focus on the paragraph that’s about halfway through the article: “Does it matter? The world of "Shakespeare […] the playwright's "fire-new words".”
On one hand, I say: why should it matter? All that really matters is the fact that, regardless of who wrote them, these plays speak to audiences all around the world, from all kinds of social and cultural backgrounds. It’s like a painting. No one should love a painting more, just because it’s a famous author. And yet, many people get sucked into the stereotype of disliking an art piece, until they hear that it comes from a famous artist, therefore receiving the message that they “should like it”. In the end, what truly matters is the content and whether it is relevant to you or not, regardless of who wrote it. That would probably reveal more honesty in people when it comes to getting a truthful opinion from them about a Shakespeare play.
On the other hand, from a more academic standpoint, it can be extremely relevant to know the true identity of Shakespeare. Since his texts are very open to each person’s interpretation, knowing the origins of the author could help get a clearer idea of what the intentions of the author were.

I would be interested in knowing other people’s opinions on this matter. Is it necessary or important to know the true identity of Shakespeare?

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