Discuss the importance of studying Shakespeare in the 21st century?

Shakespeare has a better understanding of the human psyche better than any other writer, and this alone makes his relevance timeless. Most of his works in the literature contain major themes that have been a major problem to the human race, both at the time of his living and even today, these themes still make headlines. For example, murder, love, betrayal, ambition, hatred, and revenge are some of the major themes that he has propagated in most of his literature, and upon reading his work, it is easy to denote that Shakespeare lived a few decades ago, but this isn’t true. In all his work, Shakespeare constantly challenges our beliefs, prejudices, and assumptions, and since they are the things that humans want all the time, he tends to relate to all of us, regardless of which generation a person is, as long they are humans. In the 21st century, crime, especially murder has been the major subject in most news both local and global, and this seems to have been a major problem as well during Shakespeare’s time. As a result, he created profoundly complex characters that are irredeemably villainous, and who anyone regardless of the level of education, socioeconomic status, or culture, people can relate to based on how they interact. For example, in his play, “Hamlet,” Shakespeare narrates how revenge can bring out the villainous character of a person as most part of the play is based on revenge – Hamlet wants to kill his uncle because he thinks he killed his father to take the throne and wants to avenge his death. While this piece of literature was written many years ago, it is still relevant in the 21st century as people still seek revenge for certain issues they perceive as wrong, and also, it relates to almost everyone including high school students as it is meant to be a play in which the audience can hear and see the actions of the characters. All this makes Shakespeare’s literature worth studying in the 21st century.

Discuss the influences of ancient Greek tragedy on modern-day theater

The ancient Greek tragedies had a great influence on modern theater, and this is a characteristic that is evident in many of the plots in many pieces of literature written in modern cultures. Euripides is one of the characters whose tragedies have been borrowed and applied in modern literature and thus, characterize modern theater. Euripides is credited for turning the prologue into a monologue, in which he informed the audience of the story’s background and also introduced the deus ex machina. The deus ex machina is a plot whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an expected and unlikely occurrence. This aspect is present in many pieces of literature including Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” where Hamlet is wounded by Laertes, but doesn’t die immediately: Hamlet stabs Claudius with a poisoned sword and forces him to drink the poisoned wine. Both of them die, but this is after Hamlet achieves his revenge.