RE: Shakespeare's plots are terrible by Anne Tyler

08:10 Unknown 1 Comments

Oh there are so many feelings right now towards this woman’s article. I came across it this morning on the wonderful Will Sutcliffe’s twitter and I just couldn’t not read it. And I have some things to say. And yes I’m going to go through and pick her article to pieces. Bit by bit. Because that’s how much it got to me. 

Anne Tyler - Author of Vinegar Girl 

The Taming of the Shrew is an outlandish story. So I filled in a few details and toned down the exaggerations. 

Okay, so for those of you who don’t know Shakespeare plays were often put on in playhouses where it was okay for the audience to be loud, eat and drink throughout, unlike in today’s theatres. Therefore the stories had to be outlandish and extravagant to capture the attention. Additionally, if they were plays about every day people then the audience would be less inclined to return to the playhouse to see another play. However what really makes me laugh is that, although she thinks that the plots are awful, she’s still used it as the basis for her new novel. 

“Well at least I wouldn’t have to come up with one of my own"

This is a direct quote from Anne Tyler herself about why she’d choose to use Shakespeare’s plot as a base. As an aspiring author myself this makes me so infuriated. I spend a lot of time, as do other authors, searching for inspiration and writing down ways that we can be different to others. The fact that she believes that she shouldn’t even attempt to find a new idea makes me despair. 

“I have to admit that I’ve been slow in coming to a true appreciation of Shakespeare. My first “Shakespeare moment” didn’t occur till I was in college… really it was someone else’s Shakespeare moment, but still, it made me realise that Shakespeare could still have relevance”

Okay so here Anne Tyler is talking about how a friend of hers read Shakespeare to feel less alone and comforted, and yet she hasn’t yet herself talked about how she’s developed an appreciation of Shakespeare’s works before beginning to unpick what he has created and create her new work. I feel that perhaps she’s just decided that she doesn’t like Shakespeare and thinks that perhaps she could do better.

It’s almost upsetting that she hasn’t actually realised that Shakespeare is relevant in all ways. We use his language every day. We quote him regularly without recognition. Yet all she can seem to do is say that his stories are “outlandish” although this was what they had to be for the time. Theatre has changed dramatically throughout the centuries to become what it is more commonly known to us. It used to be loud and full of life not just on stage but in the audience. Men used to play women’s roles. I think that to say that his plots are terrible is to forget what their context was and read them with a modern eye, which these plays were never meant for. 

And yes there are modern adaptations, some which are incredibly well done if I may say so, but yet they still remain true to their original story because that is what people expect from Shakespeare. We have always been trying to play around with Shakespeare’s work to make them more accessible but I’ve never felt that “another side” has been necessary. 

I just think that this article is too short for Anne Tyler to really give a balanced argument about her choice of wording. Additionally, I don’t think she’s opened up enough about her relationship with Shakespeare’s work and I definitely think that her writing style is filled with a self-appointed importance that is unnecessary but unfortunately unsurprising for an article in the guardian. 

If you want to, read the full article here

1 comment :

  1. Slightly confused as to why she feels the need to criticize, especially as Vinegar Girl wouldn't even have been possible without The Taming Of The Shrew! You were totally right to pick this apart!

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