Shakespeare's Plays Into Movies example essay topic

Throughout time Shakespeare has influenced society in many ways. He has been a great inspiration to literature, plays, painters, movies and language. Many of his plays and poems have been required as a part of liberal education. His idea's on such subjects as heroism, romantic love, and the nature of tragedy have shaped the attitudes of millions of people and influenced their thinking. Shakespeare contributed greatly to the English speaking language. Many phrases and words from Shakespeare's poems and plays have become apart of our everyday speech.

Millions of people that use his words or phrases are unaware they are created by him. Some common words he has invented are assassination, bump, eventful, and disgraceful conduct. Shakespeare introduced almost 3,000 words into the Oxford English Dictionary. There are over 1700 common words of Shakespeare origin in our everyday vocabulary. The most rapid growth of vocabulary in the recorded history of language was the period of Shakespeare. Due to his inventiveness and creative word play he has had the greatest impact on our daily vocabulary.

Many people quote Shakespeare almost everyday without knowing it. If a person doesn't understand my argument and the one party state's "It's Greek to me", or if someone has ever "Refused to budge an inch", they are quoting excerpts of Shakespeare. Many people re-sight lines from Shakespeare's plays without even reading them. One of the most famous lines is "To be or not to be". He experimented with all sorts of words and phrases to create vivid pictures in the mind. Shakespeare helped shape many English speaking countries.

He often invented and changed words around. Some of Shakespeare's words may be confusing or unfamiliar to many of the modern readers. However, many of the words he had employed are no longer being used. Since Shakespeare's death he has influenced every generation of writers, painters and still has some impact on contemporary plays. Many rhetoric devices were used in his work, that writers are often using now.

Some familiar ones are alliteration, which is the same sound being repeated in a line or group of lines and repetition, which is when something repeats itself. He often used a lot of imagery, which many writers found useful. With imagery writers were able to create excitement. Shakespeare's Macbeth was one of the famous and brilliant examples of imagery.

There are many paintings from Macbeth that have been done by some of the best artist. Many artists became famous just by painting pictures from Shakespeare's plays. "These history paintings, as they were called, demonstrate how profoundly painters, actors, directors and critics influenced one another and how interdependent they were in their critical interpretations, depictions and productions of Shakespeare's plays". Mostly every painting had a Greek or Roman background to them. Many of these paintings are still hanging on walls of private owners or on exhibit in museums all over the world. Frank Dick see painted a famous painting from the play "Romeo and Juliet" in 1884, which is in England.

Shakespeare also influenced many various movies that are still widely appreciated today. Personality was one of the things Shakespeare had created, which was very useful when it came to making movies or plays. A lot of movies today use tragedy, which Shakespeare was famous for using. Many actors re created Shakespeare's plays into movies.

"Romeo and Juliet" was a famous movie that was recreated in the movie theaters in the 1900's. Also many movies had a rose from just the ideas of Shakespeare. "10 Things I Hate About You" is just one example this. Some of the dialogue used in "Star Wars" is just like a Shakespearean play. Religious topics are encountered throughout all of Shakespeare's work. Topics such as prayer, judgment, justice, Satan, Hell, Heaven, faith, repentance, sin, man's responsibility, mercy, atonement, redemption, Jesus Christ as Savior, and providence are found numerous times in his writing (Ackermann 82).

One Shakespeare scholar believed that Shakespeare's works were so full of religious topics because he 'studied the Bible until its thought and teachings, its story and personalities, had fairly burned themselves into his memory and became a part of his being' (Ackermann 27). All of these religious ideas are rather generic to Christianity whether Catholic or Protestant. Several themes that are only Catholic also can be incurred throughout his works. For example, Shakespeare, at times, used the word holy in the sacramental sense that Catholics used it. Characters in his plays showed devotion to various saints.

They also blessed themselves with the sign of the cross. Friars and nuns are important characters in several of his plays due to their cunning in their attempts to bring things to an ultimate good (Maura 84). Three plays in particular, Measure for Measure, Othello, and The Winter's Tale, give a general overview of the Christian emphasis of his work. All of his plays end with some hope that life will go on and things will get better, just as Christianity hopes for a perfect world to come.