Is Shakespeare Relevant to the Modern World?

Maybe more than you think.

Photo by Jessica Pamp on Unsplash

Most of us remember having to read Shakespeare in high school English class. The language looks half foreign and the relevance of things like the tragic heroic pattern is difficult for most teenage students to see.

So they snore their way through English class and wait until it’s time to read something interesting.

But what if Shakespeare’s insights into his own society (sixteenth-century England) are relevant to twenty-first century North American society?

What if there were a way to teach Shakespeare’s plays and poems that would engage young adults the way that current events do? What if there were a way to meaningfully connect them?

What if even knowledgeable, highly educated news readers can find further insights about society and human nature from a renaissance poet and playwright?

Shouldn’t we look at his insights and see patterns still relevant today?

I’ve been reading a lot of Umair Haque in Medium lately. His insights into the violence and oppression rampant in contemporary American society are so frightening and eye-opening that I have begun to worry about the future of human civilization in a way I never have before.