What Are You Doing Now?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Best of luck with your studies, Poppy and Sunskriti!

[Chrissie777]

Best of luck with your studies, Poppy and Sunskriti!

From me as well!

[Rob Houghton]

Its a long time ago, but I do remember we did Hamlet, and later we did King Lear. I had never studied Shakespeare before that (our school didn't do it at GCSE level or 'O' Level) so it was all new to me, and I really enjoyed it. It really brought home to me how powerful his writing is.

We also did the war poets - which I believe is often studied in GCSE these days. Other books I remember studying were the Grapes of Wrath, the Great Gatsby, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Rainbow by DH Lawrence, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - though I'm sure there were more!

[Poppy]

Thank you Anita and Chrissie

Ah, how was Hamlet then? We haven't started that one yet and I'm not usually keen on Shakespeare so I'm not really looking forward to it either! And yeah, at GCSE English Literature there were was a section on War Poetry but my school did the Love and Relationships ones instead.

[Rob Houghton]

I'm quite a fan of Shakespeare, so I enjoyed Hamlet a lot. I think when it comes to Shakespeare, it all depends on the tutor, in my experience. We had a really inspirational tutor who had a natural love for Shakespeare and she inspired us a lot. let us know what you think when you begin studying it!

[Poppy]

Yeah, I think you're right actually. I am really lucky; I've got an excellent English teacher, she is just so enthusiastic about the texts, so I'm sure she'll make Hamlet interesting! It's just all the weird terms and phrases that Shakespeare uses - it's like a completely different language at times! We studied Macbeth for GCSE and I'm told that this is one of the easier Shakespeare texts to understand, yet I found that difficult enough to comprehend at times! But yes, I'll definitely let you know what I think of Hamlet when we begin studying it.

[Rob Houghton]

Hamlet is quite 'deep' of course - but because of that its interesting, with loads of stuff to discuss - like why the ghost appears ( in Shakespeare's day ghosts were a symbol of troubles ahead etc) and exploring Hamlet's strange almost incestuous relationship with his mother etc! Then there are all the murders, madness, poison, etc, lol! It's not known as a 'tragedy' for no reason!

There are some really lovely bits of blank verse in the script and of course, some of Shakespeare's most famous quotes, such as 'to be or not to be' - a piece that I once pretty much knew by heart!

I recommend looking at the old black and white film of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet - I can remember we watched it in a lesson - and suddenly Shakespeare's words took on new meaning and power - Olivier really makes the words make sense!

[Courtenay]

I recommend looking at the old black and white film of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet - I can remember we watched it in a lesson - and suddenly Shakespeare's words took on new meaning and power - Olivier really makes the words make sense!

I recall my mum saying she and a school friend saw it at the cinema (I'm not sure if they were actually studying the play), but they were mainly impressed with Laurence Olivier's tights! I didn't do Hamlet at school, but would have liked to.

All the best with your studies, Poppy and Sunskriti!

[sixret]

All the best with your studies, Poppy and Sunskriti!

[Darrell71]

Thank you sixret, Courtenay, Chrissie and Anita!
I've only ever read Julius Ceasar by Shakespeare, as we had a part of it for English last year. I absolutely loved it, but Shakespeare is rather hard to comprehend at times, so I've not started anything new. I might try Macbeth soon though. The man was a genius.

Anyway, my friend tells me that Language is largely focussed on different types of words (eg. nouns/adverbs/prepositions) which I didn't expect; Language at GCSE is mainly centred around creative writing, but I don't know, maybe that comes later in the course. I'm absolutely loving Psychology. We're doing all about Research Methods at the moment, which is apparently the most boring part of the course, but I'm quite enjoying it to be honest. It's a lot to remember, but I've got my revision resources well and truly sorted! It's Mind maps galore in my house right now! Anyway, good luck for it all!

I saw the paper pattern for English Language and it seemed more about creative writing, but either way I would love it. I would've liked to do Literature too but unfortunately it's hard to get good teachers for that kind of thing in India so I don't want to risk it. Language on the other hand I can do by myself and my dad helps me out.
I've never done Psychology before, but I've read a lot of Behavioral Economics books and I really love it, so I'm definitely excited for that one.
Good luck for everything that you're doing, Poppy!

[Moonraker]

As I am related to Shakespeare, I really ought to like his work. I did try - reading A Midsummer Night's Dream and watching a couple of old films. I have even seen a play or two. Trouble is, I don't.

[Chrissie777]

Me neither.
I didn't care for the movie "Hamlet" with Sir Laurence Olivier and was so bored by "Much Ado about Nothing" at the movie theater that I fell asleep.
The best thing about "Midsummer Night's Dream" in my opinion is the music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

[Courtenay]

and was so bored by "Much Ado about Nothing"...

Maybe the title says it all?

I loved Macbeth when we did it at school, but was somehow unimpressed with Twelfth Night at university. However, a few years ago back in Melbourne, I went to a local school's performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream Bollywood Style"... IT WAS HILARIOUS. Seriously — the already-pretty-bonkers plot somehow made more sense with a genuine Bollywood dance in every scene. I wasn't the only one in the audience who was just about screaming with laughter much of the way through!

[Eddie Muir]

My first encounter with Shakespeare was at the age of twelve when I was at grammar school. From then on I studied a different play each year right up to my GCE O Level and A level exams. Later, as an English student at the University of Sussex, I read most of the plays. Studying Shakespeare really requires a considerable amount of effort, but the effort is well worth it in my opinion for what you gain from close study is extremely rewarding.

For those interested, I studied the following plays:

GCE O Level: Julius Caesar

GCE A Level: King Lear and Measure for Measure

BA Hons Degree: Most of the plays and sonnets, but my finals Shakespeare paper was The Characterisation of Hal: A Discussion with reference to Henry IV, Parts I and II and Henry V. (5000 words).

[Rob Houghton]

My first encounter with Shakespeare was at the age of twelve when I was at grammar school. From then on I studied a different play each year right up to my GCE O Level and A level exams. Later, as an English student at the University of Sussex, I read most of the plays. Studying Shakespeare really requires a considerable amount of effort, but the effort is well worth it in my opinion for what you gain from close study is extremely rewarding.

I couldn't agree more, Eddie! I think before watching plays and films, you really need to study the texts and at least get a vague comprehension of what they are about. Hamlet was the first ever Shakespeare play I studied, at A Level, and it really did blow me away.

I find it hard to put into words, but each time I've studied Shakespeare - at A Level twice, then in an Access Course (when we did Othello) I have started out feeling apathetic, and within a few minutes, Shakespeare's magic floods over me and you realise just how clever and how deep and above all how relevant to life and how human, his writing is.

I think too many people try to figure out every word and every meaning - like its some sacred text that we should be able to understand, but feel bad if we can't. We tend to forget that Shakespeare wrote the 'TV soaps' of the day, and it was mass entertainment - not highbrow - it was entertainment for the common man in the street, filled with action and murder etc. It dealt with themes that everyone understood, and wasn't intellectual at all.