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Shakespeare Writes About Issues That Are Still Relevant Today

Decent Essays

Shakespeare writes about issues that are still relevant today

Shakespeare writes about issues that are still relevant today because his themes are universal, his plays have been updated and remade and there are various schools of thought who argue about his plays. His universal themes of vaulting and corrupting ambition, a reliance on superstition and gender tell us that the play Macbeth explored themes that are still seen in today’s society. The updated and remade film versions of Macbeth (also known as The Tragedy of Macbeth) and Macbeth (BBC’s Shakespeare’s Retold Series) tell us that people still enjoy watching the issues in Macbeth. And the various schools of thought Psychoanalytical, Feminist, and Marxism tell us that people still …show more content…

In Macbeth the theme of superstition appears right at the beginning with the witches’ predictions and carries through the play with more witch predictions. In the play it is seen that Macbeth starts believing in the witches’ predictions and his destined fate. He soon forms a reliance on the witches’ predictions and seeks them out for more prophesies. In today’s society we see that now more than ever do people want to know about their future, with the businesses of taro reading, psychics and astrology booming. There are also many television programs and movies like Charmed and Harry Potter, whose main theme is superstition. In the play the line “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until/Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him” (Act 4, Scene 1), shows us that this theme was one that Shakespeare wished to communicate with his audience. Therefore through the theme of superstition it can be seen that Shakespeare is still significant to people in modern day times.

Shakespeare writes about themes that are still relevant because his theme of gender is still seen in modern societies. In Macbeth gender is explored when Lady Macbeth questions her husband’s manhood in order to persuade him to kill Duncan. She says that if he can kill in war, he can kill now. Lady Macbeth also wishes that she could be unsexed. In modern societies we see that many people question their own gender and wish that they too could be of

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