Is Shakespeare hard to read? I'm ESL and I've read books in English before , like novels, greek plays and even philosophy, and got plenty out of them, But I feel like I'm missing lot when reading Shakespeare's plays, I feel lost at times. I went to see analysis of Macbeth and Hamlet after reading them twice and they talk about stuff I didn't even notice. I did get the message out of these books but I'm missing a lot of details and symbolism that most scholars seem to get. Is it normal? I'm planning to read them once again but I genuinely feel dumb
just use chatgpt to simplify it
>>25044665I’m a native English speaker and had the same experience reading him. I think it just takes some time getting used to his prose.
>>25044665Is Shakespeare hard to read?Yes. But why not simply get an annotated copy? If you want to gain better understanding of his works you can always just read up on the sources as you go along, Shakespeare has been studied to death, annotated works are widley available
If you can handle novels and philosophy then you can handle Shakespeare, just get a Folger's or Cambridge or Oxford publication for a play because they have all the notes you need. Even English native speakers still need annotations sometimes because Shakespeare frequently uses Elizabethan slang or puns on it. Probably you can even read Chaucer so long as you read a preliminary guide to pronunciation of Middle English and have an annotated copy, Penguin has a solid one for that, and the Norton Critical edition is the best although it doesn't include the entire Canterbury Tales
Yes. His metaphors are really dense, and the way he uses English unusual even for his times. Read Marlowe and you'll see just how different Shakespeare is. TakeMACBETH.Whence is that knocking?How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes!Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No, this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red.The last line here takes a while to parse, to realise he means to make the green: one red, as in turn the entire green sea into a uniform red colour. Or takeWhether ’tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Is it "'tis nobler; in the mind to suffer" or "'tis nobler in the mind; to suffer"? Both interpretations were taken to be correct by different scholars.
>>25044665If you come back to him later you'll find a highly unique richness of language. As an EFL I first read Shakespeare as a young teenager, and while I had an appreciation at the time it was later when I went back and reread him that I really enjoyed his works.
