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Shakespeare and a Biblical Worldview
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Let me start by saying I never studied Shakespeare. I’ve watched a movie of the Taming of the Shrew and one of Henry VI (I think?) and that’s about it.
There are godly people in my life who tell me not to do Shakespeare with my kids and when I look at some of his plays, I think, That is NOT reflective of a Biblical worldview….things like witchcraft in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or all the boys dressing like girls and then boys falling in love with them in reviews I read.
So, why should I do Shakespeare? Someone convince me. And if I do Shakespeare, which plays are not in conflict with a Biblical Worldview? I don’t want witchcraft, immorality or cross-dressing. I’m looking for things that are kid appropriate (my children are ages 5-10).
That said, a local group is doing “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” in a park in a couple of weeks and part of me thinks it would be fun, but I’m just not convinced because of the magic potion I hear is in the story.
Personally I don’t feel it is necessary. I never studied it growing up (being homeschooled) and neither did my siblings. So if you are not comfortable reading it, than don’t 🙂 There are plenty of other amazing works of literature that give interesting vocabulary and dialogue.
All that said we did listen to Midsummer Nights dream last year and the kids thought it was funny. The cross dressing did not bother us (the only thing I can think of is one guy had to play a women in the play the characters were performing and his voice was cacking and my kids thought funny). We had previously read how at the time there were no female actors so that men did all the rolls and often dressed and acted as women in plays and performances during this time period. In Midsummer Nights Dream there is magic, but it is more of what I call “fairy tail” magic. Not much different than other fairy tales that we have read or heard.
Will we read or listen to them all? Likely no, but it was a positive experience for us. We talked about it after we listened and as things came up. Talked about the attitudes of the characters, the positive and negitive…
So I won’ convince you they are necessary 🙂 Do what is right for your family 🙂 If you do give it a shot the audio recording was amazing! The kids followed along reading the script and they never got “lost” and understood the story, my oldest was 11.
I tend to agree with you in many ways Missus Leata. A lot of things in our culture are contrary to a Biblical worldview. My kids are 9, 11 and 14 and we have done some Shakespeare. We have read a little book called Shakespeares stories for Young Readers by E. Nesbit. Its only 60 or so pages and had 12 of his plays. Very short summaries really. But well written leaving many of the more famous lines intact. It gave my kids an overview, without the inappropriate “adult” themes. They also recognized many of the sayings thhat have made it into popular culture, which is one of the main reasons I wanted them to be familiar with it. I was amazed at how many of our popular sayings come from Shakespeare, which is something I actually learned from a silly kids show on Netflix called The Who Was Show. In any case one reason to study Shakespeare is just that he contributed so much language to modern culture. When someone refers to Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet I want them to have some frame of reference. I will probably have them read some of the full plays in high school, when they can consider them from a Biblically grounded perspective. Just my two cents worth….
Perhaps this book would be of interest to you:
My daughter and I decided together that Shakespeare doesn’t pass the test for what’s acceptable in our home so we don’t study his works. We try to run such things through the Phillipians 4:8 test and the Bard didn’t pass for our family.
Our biggest problem with Shakespeare is the bawdiness. We don’t watch or read anything else that includes it to the level that Shakespeare does so why would we allow it in this instance.
So in the end, I would go over your family standards for literature and entertainment and see if Shakespeare passes the test. Some of his plays may pass and others may not. We have read a few and that helped us to make our decision.
I think there is value in reading Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare or Nesbitt’s Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare so that our children will know the basic plots of some of his plays for the sake of cultural knowledge. However, I certainly don’t think they are necessary.
Bawdiness? See, I don’t know enough about Shakespeare to know what is in his plays. Thank you for pointing that out. I know when I watched The Taming of the Shrew, it seemed that way, but I didn’t know if it was Elizabeth Taylor’s portrayal or the way Shakespeare wrote it.
I think the cultural knowledge could be good, but I don’t want to compromise what we feel is God’s standard for our family.
I am currently reading Apostate by Kevin Swanson (with Generations, used to be Generations with a Vision), he has a very strong opinion about many of the “great” authors of the past, and their influence on the present. What I recently read about Shakespeare to Mark Twain has been very interesting, things that I never knew about the authors themselves and their ideas. I am learning a lot, and learning how many “greats” are not all that great.
What I am learning is that there are a lot of truly great writers, no need to spend time with those that you are not comfortable with for your family because there is plenty of time. There is also no rush, wait until your student is ready to tackle the truth behind some of the great, but not so great, authors.
I also feel like there can be a “Christian spin” put on many books and movies, I hear it all the time it seems, but if in your spirit you are not comfortable with it, don’t get talked into it 🙂
ETA: I realized I might have sounded a little grouchy at the end there. I didn’t mean it that way at all. Why we have to each follow our own family convictions, because we are all unique, yay!!
It is wise to go with how the Lord leads. Your kids are so little there is plenty of time to revisit this should the Lord give you peace about it. The SCM Shakespeare guides are very nice and they indicate which are appropriate for the younger crowds should you ever decide to go that direction. We will choose the “younger crowd” plays for my high schooler just to keep it more appropriate.
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