Shakespeare plays...

...what Inter/Leaving Cert combo did you get and how did it improve your life?

The Merchant of Venice was Inter Cert 89 and Hamlet Leaving Cert 92. Merchant was nice and short, Hamlet went on forever and was overanalysed to death.

Rb

I did Macbeth for the leaving, can't remember which play for the junior(though it could have been The Merchant of Venice). How were either meant to "improve" my life?
I hated Macbeth btw.

Tar.Aldarion

I did "Macbeth" and "Romeo and Juliet". They were ok.
They certainly did not improve my life, as it were.
He uses nice language but the plots are only average, at best.

Attol

Junior Cert 2003 with Romeo and Juliet and Othello for A Levels (A2 Level) 2006. Didn't particularly enjoy either but doing Romeo and Juliet at my old school and having teachers capable of teaching compared to the incompetent fools the UK school boards hire helped me learn to study Shakespeare which will help me get to uni.

Nightwish

I did Romeo and Juliet for Junior Cert '99 and King Lear for Leaving Cert '01. I hated R&J, but liked King Lear, its a great story. Studying it and overanalysing it would destroy your like or love for it though.

Wertz

Conor74 wrote:

...what Inter/Leaving Cert combo did you get and how did it improve your life?

The Merchant of Venice was Inter Cert 89 and Hamlet Leaving Cert 92. Merchant was nice and short, Hamlet went on forever and was overanalysed to death.

Ditto. I love the english language but I HATE shakespeare. One of the most overrated writers in history IMO....I don't care how influential his writing was, or how beautifully he combined words and ideas.
I could tell you the basic plot of MoV...and maybe of Hamlet, and some central characters, but both just bored the f*ck out of me...

Tar.Aldarion

I have always thought he was very overrated too. However, he has some good sonnets and some good language. I'm still not that impressed but that is personal preference.
I would also prefer if his plots were his own or if he would use a good plot if he is going to take them from somebody else.

Fast_Mover

Conor74 wrote:

...what Inter/Leaving Cert combo did you get and how did it improve your life?

The Merchant of Venice was Inter Cert 89 and Hamlet Leaving Cert 92. Merchant was nice and short, Hamlet went on forever and was overanalysed to death.

Did same as OP. I loved Merchant of Venice, thought it such a nice play. Hamlet oh my good god..what a pile of crap..hated it so much!!

cruiserweight

Merchant of Venice for JC (1997) and Macbeth for LC (1999) and neither had any particular impact!

Piste

I'm doing R&J for the JC and I must say I do quite like it, even though Paper 2 isn't my best.

[Jackass]

I did Hamlet for my leaving...good story and interesting read, but as someone said, over analysed to death and as far as I know, the most long winded of all shakespears plays...on and on and on and on....JUST BURST INTO HIS ROOM AND STAB HIM YOU TOOL!

Blisterman

Merchant of Venice for Junior McBeth for Leaving Cert.
Wouldn't read either of them again.

BlitzKrieg

not sure if i did romeo and juliet or merchant of venice for JC (so long ago) I think merchant of venice is alright, Shylock is a great character, the 'twist' is nice but most of the other characters dont impress much. Understanding how to create such a sympathetic 'villian' has had a great affect on how i write characters.

Romeo And Juliet very much sat uncomfortably with me. I didnt like it. And while when I was 15 i condemned it for having romeo being such a annoying character (shockingly has nothing to Leonardo decapio's performance in the baz leurman film) At the moment i am more nonplus about it. It does'nt influence me in any way. Has'nt really improved my life.

Did Macbeth for Leaving Cert, and has to be one of my all time favourite stories. Influenced little but reinforced alot of my views on storytelling and is very much the sort of stories that catch my interest.

Wertz

DubGuy wrote:

I did Hamlet for my leaving...good story and interesting read, but as someone said, over analysed to death and as far as I know, the most long winded of all shakespears plays...on and on and on and on....JUST BURST INTO HIS ROOM AND STAB HIM YOU TOOL!

Spoiler tags godamnit!

Looks like the 30-somethings are out in force for this thread.
I should ad that it was Macbeth and not Hamlet for my LC (91)...I'm sure Hamlet would have bored me more,; at least there's murder and ghosts in Macbeth

Tar.Aldarion

Do you know anything about hamlet?

nlgbbbblth

rb_ie wrote:

I did Macbeth for the leaving, can't remember which play for the junior(though it could have been The Merchant of Venice). How were either meant to "improve" my life?
I hated Macbeth btw.

You really 'can't remember' ??

Or are you just trying to be cool?

Maaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

for me

Julius Caesar - Inter 1987
King Lear - Leaving 1989

Both excellent.

My favourite characters were The Ghost of Caesar and The Herald.

TheVan

Julius Caesar for Junior Cert
Macbeth for Leaving

Both were amazing, bloody and had life lessons (ie swallowing hot coals is bad for your health!)

metrovelvet

All the plays here are amazing. But theres nothing like a secondary school teacher to suck all the joy out of it.

They all have majorlife lessons and some critics argue Shakespeare is the creater of modern characer and human nature, to the extent that his influence is so strong that even we are created by him.

Pure genius.

Rb

nlgbbbblth wrote:

You really 'can't remember' ??

Yes, I really can't remember.

Pythia

I did Romeo and Juliet for JC in 01 and Macbeth for LC in 04.
Wasn't particulary interested in either of them but then literature, plays, poetry etc in general doesn't interest me.
Still got an A in honours in both though.

Azureus

i did merchant of venice for jc-its nice and short, damn easy but quoting portias power of mercy speech every day would bore anyone to tears..
doing king lear for the lc now-not a fan even though i like shakespeare in general.

MonkeyTennis

Did Henry IV part 1 for Inter and Othello for the Leaving cert. Loved Othello hated Henry. While I still believe these these plays are relevant to today I can understand peoples disillusion with Shakespeare but I think those were times of action. In those days if your bird ran off with another bloke you killed them both. Nowadays all it would involve is a drunken 'I H8 U U SLAG' and its all done with.

Scraggs

Merchant of Venice for Junior Cert oh the memories ''Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, ...something something cant remember... If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?
And for Leaving Cert [last year] I did Hamlet and all I can remember is ''Something is rotten in the state of Denmark'' and Polonius speech to Laertes.
Its funny how I remember MoV better than H ...just goes to show what a difference a good english teacher can make!

Pigman II

I did Macbeth iirc. Didn't improve my life at all. But then the same could be said for my secondary school experience in general.

Dimitri

merchant of venice for the junior cert and thought it was absolute garbage. Reminded me of some terrible racism workshop play that was meant for travelling to schools and be followed by some "discussion" by people who spoke in soothing sounds and were so politically correct would refer to a teacher as a learning aid or some sh1t. As for the leaving, i did macbeth and while i'll agree with tar.aldarion that Shakespere is an overrated writer i have to say i loved that play. The dipiction of macbeths and lady macbeths plummet into madness is as accurate today as it was than, and the imagery is striking.
As for changing my life, i don't think its always obivious how anything we read or watch impacts on us however it has to on some level, whether its garbage or not.

mandz

I did The Merchant of Venice for the Junior Cert and Hamlet for the Leaving. I actually enjoyed them. Last summer I went to an outdoor production of A Midsummers Nights Dream when it came to town. Was lovely, they set up the stage in just the right spot and got the timing correct, as the play went on the sun went down behind them and it was dark when it was finished.

Did any of you watch the modernised remakes of some of shakespears' plays on bbc1 recently? I only got to see Macbeth and A Midsummer's Nights Dream and i thought they were good adaptations.

R0ot

Romeo & Juliet, helps when you need to be romantic

Cactus Col

Did Merchant of Venice for the junior cert, but have very little recollection of it ... didn't mind it too much.

Did MacBeth for the Leaving, and actually really enjoyed it once I got used to the language. I repeated the year after, and did Hamlet, so was good to contrast the two plays. Hamlet was very annoying because of the lack of action from hamlet and his procrastination.

Toasty

julius caesar for junior cert and king lear for leaving cert :rolleyes:

Hydroquinone

I did the Merchant of Venice for Inter Cert in 1983 (Yup, I'm ooooold ) and King Lear for the Leaving in 1985.
Not hugely impressed with reading either of them at the time, but seeing the plays made all the difference. Dunno if they affected my life. Apart from the fact that I know I don't like reading plays but prefer seeing them and that's not rocket science, now is it?

Aporia

Leaving Cert - As You Like It

For Junior Cert we did - Hamlet

I much prefered Hamlet maybe I'm just a fan of tragedies plus it's where i got my name ''Aporia'' Hamlet's question ''to be or not to be'' is an aporia. As You Like It fails as a comedy in a modern society and although it deals with the concept of love I think it lacks relevance in the world of today.

thelordofcheese

Done Merchant of venice for the junior, and Macbeth for the leaving.

I really enjoyed both of them, i had the same english teacher for both junior and leaving and the man was a legend. Made it really interesting, and instead of just making us learn it off by rote he made an effort to make us think about what was going on in the plays.

Kojak

I did 'The merchant of Venice' for the Junior Cert (2000) and 'Hamlet' for the Leaving Cert (2002)

I hated every minute of them - I could never seem to get my head around all those 'thy, thine' etc.

That talk annoyed me. :mad: