Should We Stop Teaching Shakespeare - Essay Example

Shakespeare is already outdated and irrelevant and therefore should no longer be taught be in school.

I sympathize with those who disapproved of Shakespeare's bias and prejudices.  Indeed, despite Shakespeare's towering use of the English language, it is not devoid of political incorrectness that puts man below another.  In fact, at one point especially in his work Othello, he even passed judgment upon a black man that no woman could love unless he will use some sort of magic.  To be specific the passage was in act 1 sc. 1 line 123-127 which read

“because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews neigh to you, you'll have coursers for cousins and jennets for germans”. 

In this passage, Othello was compared to an animal like a horse from Barbary by the villain Iago.  And the playwright Shakespeare passed judgment on Othello based on the color of his skin in a conversation with Brabantio in a manner that is far from flattering that his daughter married a Moor whereupon Brabantio was in disbelief.  He then actuated that his daughter must be under some kind of spell and not on her usual self because Othello must have used some sort of magic to enchant or charm his daughter.  In his opinion, Moors are such lowly and despicable people that are not worthy of love nor can be loved especially by his daughter.  This rendition of Shakespeare of Othello through the character of Brabantino is not only racist but also downright classist.

Racism was not only limited to Brabantino in Othello.  There are other passages that specifically discriminated against black people such as in lines 1-2 of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 127 where it read “In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were it bore not beauty's name".  Here, Shakespeare categorized the black people as insignificant as not being counted and people who are not considered beautiful.

In the novel Merchant of Venice, people who do not fit the stereotype were also marginalized and discriminated against.  This was present in terms of references of the characters such as the stereotyping of the Jews as greedy and heartless in this novel in the character of Shylock.  That is very demeaning and invites violence against a specific race that was not only marginalized during WWII but also became almost extinct because of Hitler’s genocide.  Talking or discussing it in school may not only prove to be insensitive but also invites atrocities towards specific people.  Or, it may fan ethnocentric sentiment with the Jews which is not also healthy altogether.

            It cannot be denied that some of William Shakespeare’s works reflect a certain degree of political incorrectness that can be construed as racist or bigot by today’s standard of political propriety.  But to call that his work should not be studied is just an overreaction to his political inappropriateness which Shakespeare himself is not aware of.  During his time, his pronouncements and the political basis of his works were considered appropriate.  It would be unfair and equally prejudiced to judge and measure him with a different ruler and social standard just because many find the themes of his works to be politically incorrect or disagreeable. 

True, some of Shakespeare’s lines may be prejudiced to the point of being bigoted and are sometimes glaring such as in the work Othello and Merchant of Venice.    But that would not be a sufficient justification to deprive this generation of the beauty of the language of the best playwright of all time by not studying him.  Just because we did not like some of the themes of his work, we would already shun Shakespeare and his work.  By doing that, we became what we have judged Shakespeare to be -  a bigot.

We have to take Shakespeare in proper context.  Shakespeare is being studied because of his mastery and genius of the language which is only limited in form.  He is not a philosopher where his works would be considered as a beacon on how we should go about in our daily lives but rather a playwright; one who entertains by the beauty of the gab and letters.  In addition, we also have to evaluate Shakespeare according to the social and political milieu of his time.  He existed between April 26, 1564, to April 24, 1616, where political correctness was not yet a fact.  During his time, to downgrade a black person was not yet considered racist.  Reverend Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were not yet born during that time nor the idea of feminism was not yet conceived.  In fact, Shakespeare during his time was even considered to be ahead of his time.

We cannot enforce ignorance just because our sensibilities were slighted or we are offended by his unflattering description of the man of color.  It was unintentional.  Instead of focusing on his unintended biases and embarking on fault finding, we should focus on the things that we could learn from studying Shakespeare's works.   And hopefully, the elegance of his work might influence our way of writing that we would become better communicators.  That instead of finding discord and cultivating prejudices, we should instead find joy in the beauty of his compositions.