Analysis on Shakespeare’s Enduring Impact in the Development of English Literature Based on Readers’ Retort to His Style of Writing

Abstract

Shakespeare occupies a position unique in the world of literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers; but no writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare’s. Although his plays were made public in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre but are still performed and read more often and in many countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist ben Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time,” It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity, perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare, the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeare’s merits can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of Elizabethan England. Unquestionably, the structural sequence of the plots in his literary works or the use of strong literary element gave his writings the prowess to have a lasting impact on English literature. Shakespeare’s impact doesn’t halt there, the evolution of middle English to early modern was shaped by writers such as Shakespeare, who greatly added to the English vocabulary by not only inventing completely original words, but by changing verbs to nouns (orvice-versa), connecting words together in new ways, or adding suffixes and prefixes to existing words (Mabillard, 2000). Estimates as to exactly how many words Shakespeare personally added to the English language vary, but there is general agreement that in the English speaking community commonly uses 1,700 words that he created (McQuain and Malless, 1998). In this thesis, the researcher investigates Shakespeare’s long-lasting influence on literature and his peculiar writing style by looking through preliminary literary works on Shakespeare’s sonnets, poems and plays. The study also gives an insight to reader’s response basing the readers’ response literary theory approach.