William Shakespeare

There’s a saying that there are only seven original plots in the world and all have been told before. The only unique part of a story is how you choose to tell it. If this is true, William Shakespeare may not have told a new story but he certainly put a fresh spin on them. Today, one can argue that Shakespeare’s influence is still prevalent. From movies and books, to common words and birth names, there is little that Shakespeare hasn’t influenced.

Romeo & Juliet has been made for the screen 35 times and that’s just the straightforward retellings.

Take a look at “Romeo & Juliet”, which along with “Hamlet” is among the most imitated of Shakespeare’s plays. Love stories are nothing new by the time of Shakespeare, although they are certainly more rare. Even some of the elements of the story (most really) have been used before. Disapproving familes? Heloise & Abelard dealt with that and they were a real life couple. Class and circumstance driving you apart? Meet Tristan and Isolde. The idea of star crossed lovers wasn’t a new idea. But Shakespeare created a compelling story and a specific formula that plays out in so many romance movies today. His formula is simple. Put two people together who don’t initially seem to be a perfect fit but who find a rare connection. Add in a seemingly superficial obstacle and family or friends on both sides who turn that obstacle into a mountain. Throw in various problems throughout the story to keep our young lovers apart. (Note that this trick also enables the audience to believe more in the chemistry of the couple simply from the anticipation of that reunion). For Shakespeare, of course, you end by killing your lovers so that a lesson is learned by the other parties and they can truly be happy together forever since life can no longer get in the way. The ending tends to be the part that changes in modern stories. Look at most Jane Austen stories (who is incredibly original in her own right and will be a future subject) but she made class differences and unlikely pairings a substantial part of her stories. “West Side Story” is also a direct retelling of the story of “Romeo and Juliet”.

The Lion King owes a great deal to the story of Hamlet.

“Hamlet” is the other tale that has the most influence although nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays have affected future writers in some way. Disney’s “The Lion King” is so close it’s really just “Hamlet” retold in animation and a jungle. Think back on the play for a minute. Hamlet returns to Denmark after his father dies, finds his uncle has taken over (seemingly naturally), his father’s ghost appears to him and tells him the truth of his murderer and Hamlet spends the rest of the time trying to avenge his father’s death. (He gets everyone killed in the process so it makes sense Disney would ease up on that, the icky mom & uncle relationship, and the suicidal lover). But otherwise, the basic issue of a son struggling with his father’s expectations and the idea of an evil uncle are dead on with Hamlet. Even Timon & Pumbaa have been considered stand-ins for Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. That idea of a son struggling to meet up to his father’s expectations is one that Shakespeare definitely made famous and has continued throughout all forms of media. If you question that statement, review the male characters on “Lost” and find me one, just one, who doesn’t have an issue with his father. (No, Aaron doesn’t count). Shakespeare’s influence has made daddy issues a thing of popular culture.

Julia Stiles starred in both “10 Things I hate About You” and “O” both interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays.

Other movies include “My Own Private Idaho” (Henry IV), “Ran” (King Lear), “10 Things I Hate About You” (The Taming of the Shrew), “O” (Othello), “She’s the Man” (Twelfth Night), and “A Thousand Acres” (King Lear). It isn’t just movies that Shakespeare influenced, though. Many authors have named books after lines in plays by William Shakespeare. There’s “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley named after a line in “The Tempest” while “The Dogs of War” by Robert Stone was named from “Julius Caesar”. “Richard III” provided the title of John Steinbeck’s novel “The Winter of our Discontent” as “Macbeth” gave Ray Bradbury the title for his book “Something Wicked this Way Comes”. You might also recognize that line from Harry Potter.

Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, and Jessica Stroup all owe their names to Shakespeare

But the area we see the most Shakespearean influence isn’t in film or television or books. It’s in the English language, in personal names or everyday speech. If your name is Ariel, Audrey, Bianca, Cordelia, Jessica, Marianne, Miranda, Portia, Regan, Sylvia, Byron, Duncan, Edgar, or Sebastian, you can thank Shakespeare for that. If you’ve ever used the words; accused, addiction, advertising, bandit, bedroom, blanket, bloodstained, blushing, bet, bump, cater, champion, circumstantial, courtship, critic, dauntless, dawn, discontent, drugged, epileptic, elbow, excitement, eyeball, exposure, fashionable, flawed, frugal, generous, gloomy, gossip, hint, hurried, impartial, jaded, label, lackluster, lonely, lower, luggage, lustrous, majestic, mimic, monumental, negotiate, obscene, ode, Olympian, panders, puking, radiance, rant, savagery, scuffle, secure, skim milk, submerge, summit, swagger, torture, undress, unreal, worthless or zany…you’re using a word Shakespeare created.

Or maybe this will help. If you don’t understand what I’m saying and say “it’s all Greek to me” that’s a Shakespeare quote. Perhaps this quote from “The Story of English” a study on Shakespeare says it best. “If you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, insisted on fair play, slept not a wink, stood on ceremony, laughed yourself into stitches, had too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise – why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days or high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that the truth will come out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge without rhyme or reason, then – to give the devil his due – if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then – by Jove! Tut, Tut! For goodness’ sake! – it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare”. Now that’s what I call influential.