What is the best Shakespeare story or play?
I actually don't know much about Shakespeare, I only know the Romeo and Juliette story. If I were to read or see a play, which one would you suggest?
Yes the movie with Emma Thompson etc is lovely. Probably the best of his comedies. Macbeth is brilliant but bloody. Whatever you choose, I strongly recommend reading it with one of those thin study guides, as because of the language it's easy to miss a lot of metaphors and puns in his work that people of his time would have understood.
Where to start? First thing is- the Bard of Avon wrote comedies, tragedies and histories. Out of these 3 categories I recommend:
1. Comedy - close call between A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing (or as we say in Yorkshire Much Fuss Over Nowt!)
2. Tragedy - MacBeth (The Scottish Play) or Hamlet.
3. History - Henry IV or Richard III.
It is best to read a little before seeing a Shakespeare play for the first time - there are many modern books that summarise the plays and books that have created stories out of the plays. Start simple and build up. Or watch a t.v version or dvd then go see the play live because that's where true magic lies.
May your appetite be whetted. Then come over to Stratford and see the RSC at work.
Well, there are too many good ones to choose. Right now, I think Othello and Merchant of Venice are my favorites. That changes over time though. I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the plays by reading summaries or children's versions first. Those give you the general story line, then you can decide to see a real production. If you know the story going in, you will likely get more out of a film or live performance.
People studying literature used to give more importance to Shakespeare that one drama from him has been compulsory in graduation classes earlier. Not only for literature but Shakespeare dealt with all emotions of human beings also. Extreme cases of all types of villainy, jealousy, cruelty, pity, piety and purity could be observed in his characters. All his dramas are worth reading. It is a great privilege one gets during his life time to read these great contributions. So select any. All are equally good.
Of the tragedies, I like Coriolanus. It's the tragic story of a Roman hero who values tradition, honesty, and national service over self-serving democracy. His stance costs him his career in politics and he becomes a traitor who eventually leads another nation against his homeland of Rome. Of the histories, I like Richard III. The brother of the king schemes to succeed, eventually overthrowing his nephews after they ascend to nominal power. I don't like many of the comedies as much as an adult. I used to like A Midsummer Night's Dream.
by Melanie Palen Shebel 13 years ago
What are some tips for reading and understanding Shakespeare?
by Old Empresario 14 years ago
If you don't have a favorite, which is your least favorite? I'm interested to know.
by brenda12lynette 10 years ago
What is the best travel advice you would give to someone going to Europe for the first time?
by Thomas Mitchell 24 months ago
What MMORPG games would you recommend?Preferably looking for non play to win types. Meaning that you don't pay real money to get items that affect actual gameplay. Pay to play games are fine such as WOW that have a monthly subscription.
by Corinne Finetti 8 years ago
Who are in your opinion the best poets, contemporary and classic?Hi guys!Lately I have become more and more interested in poetry, not a specific genre, just poetry in general, and I'm looking for some poems and poets to read. So, who would you recommend?Thanks and bye!
by Andrea Picarelli 8 years ago
Hello Everyone, I made it to my 10th Hub and just got approved for Amazon and Google AdSense. I am disabled and cannot work a regular job. I do not make enough on Disability to pay rent, bills, and groceries. I tried working again and that did not last. So I tried to find a part-time job that I...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |