October has passed — November is upon us. With Thanksgiving approaching, we’ll all be thinking about what we’re thankful for: our family, friends, good health, accomplishments, etc. All that aside, I personally would like to give thanks to someone whom I like to refer to as “literary bae”: William Shakespeare. In fact, we should all be thanking good ol’ Willy, because he is essentially the founding father of the romantic comedy. Although much of his inspiration stems from Petrarchian sonnets, Shakespeare still managed to create a literary empire with defining works that are quoted and referenced in daily language even today. But I promise I’m not here to give a history lesson. This quarter I’m taking English 323: Shakespeare to 1603, and listening to my professor speak on the many sparks lit by Shakespeare’s plays has in turn encouraged me to be thankful for such a literary genius. Without his defining plays, much of what we know about the trials and tribulations of love and friendship would, in question, not exist. Scary, right?
So, why should we thank Shakespeare—or rather, what should we be thanking him for? Well, I can think of quite a few reasons that perhaps aren’t as sophisticated as ones you may find in some scholarly article, but are nevertheless pertinent to our generation.
1. Romantic Comedies
We all know the story: boy meets girl, girl meets boy, love entails, complications arise, chaos ensues, situations reverse, reconciliations are made, happy ending. Shakespeare *made* this a thing. So next time you watch your favorite rom-com, whether that ranges from classics like "Grease" to painfully cheesy movie-mash ups like "Valentine's Day," just tip your metaphorical hat off to Shakespeare for setting the stage (pardon the pun) for these movies and their plots (even though movies like “Valentine’s Day” probably have him turning in his grave).
2. Sonnets
Remember in "Clueless" when Cher and Dionne devised a plan to get their hopeless teachers Mr. Hall and Ms. Geist to fall in love? Same. But actually, the quote on Cher’s little love letter wasn’t from CliffsNotes, it was from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:
“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May . . .
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
Shakespeare wrote a myriad of sonnets that never fail to weave their way into our daily lives. Even today, people —the extreme-romantics— use sonnets to “woo” their significant others. Personally, I’d love to be read a sonnet, and I bet every other girl would too— poetry needs to become part of this whole “flirting” method!
3. Twelfth Night
Viola, Duke Orsino, Malvolio, Toby. . . You’re right, I’m listing main characters from the teen-cult movie "She's the Man," but I’m also listing the main characters of William Shakespeare’s play, "Twelfth Night." And which one came first? Shakespeare’s play, of course! With that said, let’s thank Willy again for writing such an excellent and inspiring piece of entertainment, because, without it, would we have ever realized our undying love for Channing Tatum? (Or that tampons can be great for nosebleeds?)
4. Taming of the Shrew
Bless you, Shakespeare, for writing the play off of which a beautiful movie such as "10 Things I Hate About You" was produced. Not only did Shakespeare indirectly give rise to the late and beloved Heath Ledger, but also he highlighted feminist ideals in Katherine’s refusal to marry and ultimately become slave to a man’s will. Although Katherine is “tamed” in the end, we will never forget Julia Stile’s heart-wrenching poem directed at Heath in the movie’s final scene, a mimic of Katherine’s confession of love to Petruchio.
And so, whether you’re sitting in your own Shakespeare class lecture, or watching a standard rom-com with friends, give a little thanks to Shakespeare himself. His writing style may seem—to some—outdated and hard to comprehend, but it is the aesthetic of his writings that remain well-known and loved amongst many still today. Without William, we probably wouldn’t know how to detangle ourselves from messy situations or win the heart of our crush. Seemingly simple endeavors compared to what Shakespeare actually stood for, but the mere fact of knowing how to work our way around friends and loved ones makes Shakespeare, in a way, deserving of a majority of our thanks. Thank you, William Shakespeare, for being one of the greatest writers of all time — and, as Shakespeare would probably say for the sake of turning a phrase in our day and age, “write” on.
