Lower School - Lili Angus (Bulls)

Why is Shakespeare considered to be such an important writer, and do you think he deserves his status?

To this day, Shakespeare remains one of the most influential writers globally. His many renowned works are studied worldwide by millions of people of different ages, backgrounds and cultures in various languages. Shakespeare is considered a significant writer, but does he deserve the credit he receives or is it exaggerated? In this essay, we shall explore this controversial topic.

On the one hand, many would agree that Shakespeare had a crucial influence on the literary world, and without him, language today would not be the same. For example, in the centuries after he passed away, he inspired many notable novelists, such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner. These authors have all produced excellent classical works, and without Shakespeare, these works of literature may not have been as impressive as they turned out to be. Moreover, his impact on the English language was very evident. In his plays, he used numerous words that he invented himself. To this day, we still use the words and phrases he created. For instance, the term "gossip" comes from Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the famous cliché "the world's mine oyster" can be found in The Merry Wives of Windsor. From these examples, it would appear that Shakespeare fully deserves his status, but would others argue differently?

On the other hand, some would argue that Shakespeare does not deserve his stature and that much of his work was not originally his. According to a 2011 paper by Ward EY Elliott and Robert J Valenza of America's Claremont McKenna College, many of the words he had supposedly "invented" have been over-counted by a factor of at least 2. The Oxford English Dictionary is coming to reflect this: in the 1950s, Shakespeare's tally of first-use citations stood at 3,200, whereas today, it's around 2,000. Furthermore, many critics, such as Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's contemporary and a literary critic in his own right, have stated that Shakespeare had a mediocre command of the Classical languages and ignored Classical rules. Jonson also believed that Shakespeare wrote too glibly, mixing kings and clowns, lofty verse with vulgarity, and mortals with fairies. Additionally, many are sceptical about how much of his work was his own. More than 80 authorship candidates have been proposed, the most popular being Sir Francis Bacon. The absence of documentary proof of Shakespeare's education arouses suspicion.

It is questionable how Shakespeare, with no record of any education, could have acquired the vast vocabulary found in his plays and poems. In his surviving signatures, he spelt his surname inconsistently. This can be taken as evidence that he was not the same person who wrote the works, and he used the name as a pseudonym for the real author. Having looked at both sides of the argument, let us now evaluate the evidence.

In conclusion, although some believe that he does not deserve his status, many consider Shakespeare to be one of the most influential writers of all time. I think that Shakespeare deserves his status but to a particular extent. Many of his works are exceptional, and we continue to use his words and phrases. However, it is controversial whether his plays were his, and it is questionable how he managed to obtain such a voluminous vocabulary without any proof of education. We may never know whether his work was genuinely his, but it is undeniable that Shakespeare remains an influential writer to this day.