To read or not to read?

Even those who've never read his plays, stories and poem, or seen his works in a performance, are almost certainly aware of William Shakespeare's stature as the greatest writer in the English language. Such has been the influence of the Bard's works that they continue to resonate 400 years after his death with his texts being adapted and re-adapted constantly for fiction, films, plays, operas, art and more. Yet, even as the joy of a Shakespearean drama remains long after the curtain call, his language continues to be an obdurate obstacle.

In an age when youngsters push the language boundaries, using emoticons as heiroglyphs to communicate, is it possible to find joy in such lines as: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool” (As You Like It) or “There 's daggers in men's smiles” (Macbeth) and this most commonly cited one, by Prince Hamlet: “To be, or not to be: that is the question”?

Language hurdles

“It is unfortunate that when Shakespeare is taught in school, it is mostly about the language. Not everything is about words and some of them can be left behind,” says Dr Shefali Balsari Shah, former head, department of English at Mumbai's St Xavier's College. Pointing to the age difference between students in ICSE schools, which prescribe Shakespeare, and those in college, she notes that collegians are ready to appreciate the thought and philosophy of his works whereas 14-year-olds are perhaps just old enough to “cope with Shakespeare” with assistance.

Fourteen-year-old Soumya Agarwal says she enjoys the shrouded subtext in Shakespeare's plots but feels the text is too muddling to make sense of. “If we didn't have a teacher or a guide book, we'd have been completely lost.”

Khanna isn't alone. Theatre veteran Alyque Padamsee has written about how “onerous” it was for him to study Shakespeare in school, and actor-director Rajat Kapoor admits that even at the age of 30, when he first started to read Shakespeare, he struggled and “couldn't go beyond four pages”.

“I translated Taming Of The Shrew in Hindi for a friend who was directing it. Even though I spent three-four months with the text, it was only when I watched the play that I got it... it was enlightenment,” says Kapoor, who has since adapted four of the Bard's plays — Hamlet, King Lear, As You Like It and, most recently, What Is Done Is Done. “I try to understand the text but I still have trouble with it. It is better to watch and better still, to do a Shakespearean play to fully enjoy it. Incidentally, my daughter studied Macbeth in class when she was 17, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps she was taught in a better manner.”

But for Jonathan Gil Harris, professor of English at Ashoka University in Sonepat, Haryana, a school teacher didn't quite turn out to be the bridge to the Bard. Harris, who had been mesmerised by a production of Romeo and Juliet even though he didn't grasp the language as an eight-year-old, says the academic atmosphere was an equal impediment. “A teacher directed a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We read the play, or rather, a heavily edited version of it,” recalls Harris of the time when he was 13. “I still struggled to make sense of the text, and it didn't help that the teacher's own understanding of the language seemed limited. We didn't discuss the plays. Instead, we were simply told that Shakespeare was brilliant and that we needed to respect that.”

Thus spake the teachers

British Council's Francis Gardener-Trejo, who has been involved in curating the Shakespeare on Film programme for India, says that reading Shakespeare in school is the first opportunity students get to experience his work. “This is a valuable chance to discuss and be taught the complex themes, wordplay, cultural references and influence of his works. In order to fully appreciate the power of Shakespeare’s plays, though, they also need to be seen on stage and screen,” says the 28-year-old, recommending the upcoming films All Night Long, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, The Tempest and Hamlet at Mumbai's NCPA from December 19 to 23. “We’ve also produced short cartoon video stories as part of Shakespeare Lives for our Learn English Kids website. These videos take some of the best known plays and characters and open them up to children.”

Shah concedes that plenty of first year students are terrified and choose to opt out of the English course to avoid Shakespeare. “The easy way to deal with Shakespeare is to read it out aloud. And within a couple of weeks, they overcome this fear,” she says. “The words may look strange and outlandish, but the sounds are familiar. Once this happens, there is no looking back.”

BD Somani International School principal Don Gardner looks upon introducing Shakespeare to students as a way of challenging them. “Shakespeare is difficult. I tell my students that we aren't going to make it easier, but more fun,” says Gardner. “Most things in life that we get a lot of value from, are things that are difficult and things for which we have to work really hard. It's like climbing Mt Everest. You know it's going to be challenging, but the feeling of exhilaration when you reach the top would be incomparable.”

Every summer, Gardner takes his students from grade 11 and higher to Startford Upon Avon where the students get to watch Royal Shakespeare Company's productions as well as engage with their actors, directors and teams. Gardner recalls a 2011 production of The Merchant of Venice. Coming against the backdrop of the global financial crash, the play was set in Las Vegas and delved into the superficial world of slick bankers for whom it was all about making quick money. “But it was Shakespeare's text all the way, all the same lines,” adds Gardner. “And then in 2015, we were in Stratford again, and this time the production of The Merchant of Venice was about same sex marriage because the subject had been much in the news. This production of The Merchant of Venice was legitimate in its interpretation of the text, only Bassanio and Antonio were gay lovers, and Bassanio married Portia not for love, but for money. So when the students see Shakespeare being applied to what's going on in the world today, they appreciate him. After all, Shakespeare wrote about what motivates human beings, and that hasn't changed for years.”

Music to the ear

Sharon Memis was 11 when she fell in love with Oberon of A Midsummer Night's Dream. “I still remember so much of what I had to learn by heart: ‘I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine’,” chimes the director of British Council for west India. She emphasises that much can be obtained from Shakespeare's words even though the language itself may seem to be a barrier. “My teacher always told us to read Shakespeare aloud and ‘imagine we were speaking (it) to someone’. I recommend you try that with the sonnets. It is transformative!”

Ashoka University's Harris stresses that more than anything, Shakespeare's plays need to be heard. “Most people studying Shakespeare — actors and teachers as much as students — have not been taught to listen to his language. So they aren't attentive to how much easier understanding Shakespeare becomes once you can hear the music in it,” says Harris, the author of The First Firangis. “For example, the eerie sound of the trochaic tetrameter that Puck often uses in A Midsummer Night's Dream — stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable (THROUGH the/ FORest/ HAVE i/ GONE) — adds significantly to our experience of him as a supernatural trickster. Because actors are often inattentive to Shakespeare's use of sound, they lose their way and lose their audiences. I try to attune my students' ears to the music in the plays' language, and I have found Shakespeare begins to speak to them when they can hear him sing.”

Bard and the board games

A variety of apps, interactive games, quizzes and animated videos have made studying and understanding Shakespeare a delightful activity. Sample these:

1. Heuristic Shakespeare - The Tempest app: The first in a collection of 37 separate apps for the plays by the Bard, this one by Sir Ian McKellen and Professor Sir Jonathan Bate, “puts you face to face with the characters” as they read their parts. It makes the language and references easily accessible as the text is accompanied by simplified meaning as well as essays and notes.

2. Shakespeare and Shakespeare Pro apps: This one supports multiple languages, including French, Mandarin and German. While both the apps offer the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and six poems, including doubtful works) with a convenient phrase search option, the Pro is a paid version for additional features such as a glossary, random quote generator, Shakespeare facts, auto-and scrolling, a gallery of Shakespeare portraits and so on.

3. The British Council's microsite on Shakespeare has adorable animated videos, games, activities and quizzes based on Shakespeare's plays, making this a compelling resource for teachers and young students.

4. The Internet offers an abundant number of wonderful tools and resources that allow users to have absolute joy while learning. We highly recommend the 'playground' page on Shakespeare's Globe and Shakespeare for Life on Macmillan Readers.