Critics often use the word ‘Shakespearean’ to describe a dramatic story

Shakespeare’s storytelling uses intricate, intertwining narratives

According to one professor, readers return to Shakespeare’s plays, not for his storylines, but to learn how things unfold. In the process, they often use his plays to understand why humans act the way they do.

Shakespeare’s use of verse and prose signifies important characteristics

Structured verse signals formality, often used by high-ranking characters; in contrast, unstructured prose is typically used in informal, more witty situations by lower-status characters.

Shakespeare’s American productions have often reflected the state of the country

Shakespeare’s works have been used to interpret moments in US history, from the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and Lincoln’s frequent quotations of “Macbeth,” to the use of Shakespeare in nationwide classrooms today.

The best Shakespeare plays, ranked

The Guardian worked through the Bard's plays, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to "The Winter's Tale," evaluating what distinguishes the mediocre from the truly excellent.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw believed Shakespeare was overrated

Shaw was one of the titans of 20th-century British drama—responsible for "Pygmalion," "Arms and the Man," and more—and a persistent critic of the Bard, whom he believed had been unnecessarily praised to the point of "Bardolatry." Over time, his opinion softened; at one point, Shaw even reworked Shakespeare's "Cymbeline."

Critic Harold Bloom believed Shakespeare invented the modern human

Yale critic Harold Bloom believed the Bard transformed the way humanity understood itself, a thesis laid out in his book "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human."

Dozens of common phrases are attributed to Shakespeare

His clever wordsmithery infiltrated English, from “Neither rhyme nor reason” to “In my heart of hearts.” This article lists nearly two dozen of his best-known phrases.

Linguists proved Shakespeare wrote his plays

In the 1800s, linguist Wincenty Lutoslawski invented a method of linguistics analysis called stylometry to help certify literary authorship. Stylometrists concluded that Shakespeare wrote his plays, and likely collaborated with Christopher Marlowe for some.

‘Blank verse’ is an unrhymed poetic form with a consistent meter common in epics

Shakespeare’s plays are primarily written in blank verse, a consistent meter without any rhyme scheme. The mode is common in epic poems like Homer’s Iliad or John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” though the specific meters vary.

Bear-baiting was another form of entertainment during Shakespeare’s time

We tend to think of Shakespeare’s audiences as prim and proper, but the Bard’s shows were just another form of amusement, viewed by commoners as entertainment not unlike the animal blood sports that were similarly popular during the time period.

Superstitious actors believe ‘Macbeth’ is cursed

Actors playing in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”—a story filled with ghosts, witches, and magic—call it the “Scottish play” out of superstition, a tradition since the play’s first production.

Shakespeare's father was a professional ale taster

The Bard's dad was Stratford-upon-Avon's official "conner," the title reserved for those who tested the strength and quality of locally brewed ale. The job was not as easy as it might sound: He was expected to see if the ale had spoiled, meaning he sometimes had to drink bad beer.

Nine Shakespeare paintings by pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais

In the 19th century, pre-Raphaelites like Millais sought to showcase life and nature honestly, using common references like the Bible, ordinary people and Shakespeare. Explore some of Millais' better known paintings inspired by the Bard here, including his world-renowned "Ophelia."

No, Shakespeare didn't write the Bible

Some believe Shakespeare helped write the King James Bible—and left his name hidden in Psalm 46. The evidence seems uncanny… but the truth is much less dramatic.

'Romeo and Juliet' was based on a preexisting narrative poem

Arthur Brooke's "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" was first published in 1562 and shares many details with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare wasn't alone in his borrowing; Brooke's poem was based on other earlier Italian stories. None of this writing was considered fan fiction—copyright law didn't exist, and stories were regularly cribbed from preexisting sources.

HBO is credited for the rise of ‘prestige television’

“Prestige television,” sometimes referred to as “the golden age of TV,” is a critical term for serious, darker, auteur-driven television from the late 1990s through the 2020s. HBO shows are often cited as examples of this style, with “The Sopranos” evolving the style and developing a model for the form.

Many satires use parody, though not all parodies are satires

A parody is an impression of another artist's or work's style that intentionally exaggerates its aesthetics. Many satires employ parody to convey their message, although some parodies are simply humorous embodiments of a style without offering any deeper, satirical point. That's often the case with music parodies.

'The grotesque' describes a feature of Gothic literature

The term harkens back to decorative aspects of Gothic architecture, including mythical creatures like gargoyles. In literature, the grotesque describes similarly monstrous characters and situations.

Romanticism challenged neoclassicalism

Neoclassical artists believed in the promise of the Enlightenment—that logic was a cure-all for society’s problems—and sought to apply a similar rationality to their artwork. That meant straightforward, realistic work that portrayed historical scenes as close to real life as possible without any visible evidence of the artist’s handiwork.

JRR Tolkien believed fairy tales needed dramatic reversals of fortune

Tolkien coined the term "eucatastrophe" to define what he believed as an essential key to good storytelling: “The consolation of fairy-stories [is] the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn.'"

‘Shoah’ director criticized ‘Schindler’s List’ for its portrayal of the Holocaust

“I was watching the Spielberg film, and I thought he’ll never go so far,” Claude Lanzmann said. “And he did. But he even created suspense … And these people, all of them are actors. All of them. They’re actors. They do not look like people who have had these experiences. It is an adventure film.”

What it means to call something 'Orwellian'

The adjective often refers to anything that resembles the dystopian governments of George Orwell, usually a state like the one in "1984" that monitors its citizens to ensure compliance. But as this video essay from Noah Tavlin makes clear, the more precise definition is a society that redefines language to control thought.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Writer DH Lawrence argued that the novel is the height of literature

DH Lawrence was a 20th-century writer, known for his novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” In his essay “Why the Novel Matters,” written in 1925, Lawrence argues that the novel, more than any other literary form, allows readers to experience the whole of human experience, writing that “only in the novel are all things given full play.”

Joyce Carol Oates praised King's working-class characters

Joyce Carol Oates is a writer who, like Stephen King, has a massive body of work that moves between styles and genres. Unlike King, she was never derided by critics as being overly commercial. Introducing King at Princeton University in 1997 and 2016, she made the case for King as a serious American writer in the Gothic tradition of Edgar Allan Poe.

Using rhetoric to analyze a speech

A rhetorical situation is a framework for analyzing speeches and their reception as a form of persuasion that seeks to influence audience action. According to this framework, understanding a speech's impact requires a deep understanding of its setting. This virtual "untextbook" by Atilla Hallsby, an assistant communications professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, provides examples of rhetorical situations and analysis using current and historical events.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.