Romeo and Juliet question

A Midsummer Night's Dream; As You Like It; and Hamlet are my favorites.

I really love Romeo and Juliet, as well, but for very different reasons than most will say.

The romance is negligible in my mind, but if you put yourself in the audience (mostly made up of second class, working class, and poor) and you see a play in which the rich bourgeois reap a bit of what they sow, you gain a bit of hope and equal footing in the world, at least for that time at the theater.

Everyone loves seeing the snobs get their due, don't they? That's how I end up viewing Romeo & Juliet. Not as a couple of foolish children and their secret love, but how pride and excess can lead to a fall.

Just my two cents. Otherwise, I'm a fan of the comedies.

King Lear would have to be my favorite.

Taming of the Shrew

Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing. His comedies are gold.

A Midsummer nights dream because it is the most whimsical out of the play and I enjoyed it the most.
The characters are fun and are entertaining to read about.
Personally I am a big fan of the fantasy genre and this lighthearted play was more enjoyable for me to read then some of his other plays.

Hamlet, Othello, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (in that order)

Among all his works I loved Twelfth Night. Will's humor is so strong, I actually found myself laughing by myself while reading even before I saw the movies inspired by his play.

Much ado' about nothing is my ultimate favorite shakespeare play! and then midsummer nights dream comes in second!

Macbeth and Othello.

By far Julius Caesar is my favorite Shakespearean play. Marcus Antonius's speeches are beautiful and passionate and full of love and loyalty for Caesar. Caesar has been struck down by the hands of friends and countrymen that he thought favored him.

And I mean talk about being stabbed in the back. It was complete overkill. This play just has so much action, passion, issues of friendship, betrayal, and love. Ever since I read the play in high school I absolutely have wanted to see this play over and over.

Coriolanus!! The story of a admirable military man pushed into a political position he should not have been in then victimised and brought down to the point where he begs his enemy for aid that would only lead to his own demise. ...closely followed by Richard III.

Coriolanus has the most convincing villain and it was the plot I sympathised with the most. I have to admit, I feel sorry for most of the politicians on the news painted in 'scandal'. This play lets the victim of the mob speak for himself in a sense, and his fate sticks with you. I'd argue that as my favourite, though Romeo and Juliet and Richard II are other major contenders.

midsummer or hamlet

Henry V

Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado About Nothing is the best.

There's a wonderful range of favorites in this discussion. I am very partial to Twelfth Night, though when I was young, I hated it. I played Sebastian when I was an actor in my 20's, but I didn't really appreciate the maturity of the play until I got to be a middle-aged person. I saw a perfect production, directed by Sam Mendes, with Emily Watson as Viola, from the Donmar Warehouse in London. (They brought it to Brooklyn, thank goodness.) My favorites are the "romances"- Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. So many of the themes running through all the plays come together in these, and the playwright is so clearly a more mature person by this time, and the poetry is, well, beyond. I agree with those who advocate seeing them, but I'm very fussy, and am often disappointed by the productions I see. Read them outloud to yourself, and let yourself go. The words are meant for speaking.

Much Ado About Nothing; Midsummer Night's Dream; and Macbeth. :)

Romeo and Juliet. :D

I liked "as you like it" a lot. It has been more than 10 years since I read it, but I still remember "All the world's a stage".

Macbeth, Othello and Julius Caesar

Marc Anthony,s speech Friends, Romans, Countrymen is so wonderful I named a former spaniel Brutus.

Preferred Macbeth and Othello to Hamlet as they are men of decisive action. Hamlet s dithering annoys me.

Midsummer Night's Dream

My favorite by far must be The Taming of the Shrew, it is funny and have a timeless quality to it. You will have to think -- if these plays were not done by Shakespeare and did not have the power of his name behind it, which would be classics, and which will persist.

I believe that this one has a timeless quality to it and touches on many themes.

I don't understand how people got so into Julius Caesar. He dies in the 2nd Act, right!?

Twelfth Night and Hamlet are my favorites. The movie She's the Man is adapted from Twelfth Night, so if you liked that movie you will love the play. Hamlet is on the other end of the spectrum. Everybody is crazy and its hilarious, if you get his dark humour.

Taming of the Shrew, it never ages, just like most of Shakespeare's plays, but I love the dynamics of the man and the woman and the ultimate surrender to LOVE!!!

I have to choose two. For comedy it has to be "As You Like It" and for tragedy, as much as I like "King Lear" I beleive that "Hamlet" edges it out.

Othello. I love that dirty dog, Iago.

Definitely Hamlet. I saw a fabulous performance at Ashland in 2010 & fell in love with it in whole new ways. (And since I read it at least once a year, that's saying something. :))

I also love Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing--though neither are even a close second to Hamlet. *sigh*

Macbeth, because I fell in love with the famous solioquy the first time I read it. It's what drew me into Shakespear as a teenager, and led me to read his other works.

Macbeth, King Lear, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew... a really tough question.

Twelfth Night! (:

Midsummer Night's Dream! You can't read/see that play and not come out feeling happy!

I would strongly suggest Hamlet. It's a great story, stuffed to the brim with dynamic characters and a plot that just keeps twisting. Its great for deep conversation and I had a really great seminar discussing the book. It brings up alot of tough moral decisions like honor, revenge, and suicide. If you're not in the mood for tragedy though,I would go for A Midsummer Night's Dream. I mean you can't beat watching faeries mess with four unsuspecting Athenians' lives. The mistakes and follies of the Fae make the play. :)

Macbeth ,since school its been my favourite . The BBC updated it with James McAvoy as a celebrity chef , it was brilliant.

I was forced into reading Shakespeare at school and I honestly hated it. I think that in this century they should scrap the reading of these books by the schools, unless they re-write them in today's English. The story lines may be fine but seriously we don't need to have the old lingo - sorry if this offends anyone - this is my personal opinion and those of my teenage daughters that had to suffer through these readings at school as well, and having to get me to decipher the words, and before you ask, we are English speaking.

Midsummer Nights Dream is my favourite.

The Tempest

I love Twelfth Night. Read it aloud with some friends last year and laughed for ages. Such a good one! Hamlet is also a favourite. Much Ado About Nothing is quite amusing. I used to like the Merchant of Venice a lot...but I recently decided the racism is a bit too much to ignore. :P

The Tempest is my favorite. I love the magic and intrigue. There is family confilct, romance, treachery, and all the wonderful story componets to make it a fascinating read. I have seen many of Shakespear's plays on stage but never The Tempest.

Actually, there are not many of his plays I don't like!

Hamlet...:)

Midsummer Night's Dream - I love the themes!

macbeth or hamlet

Why choose one, oh, why.

But then Othello and Hamlet are my favourite ones. And I cannot choose just one comedy. Maybe Much Ado Nothing. Maybe.

Much Ado About Nothing

Macbeth<3 I just love how it made me soooo mad!! I also love the dream part!

Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck is one of the best characters ever! And The Merchant of Venice if you demand a pound of flesh....

Hamlet!

Hamlet, I love Horatio.

And it has one of my all time favourite responses to a drowning...

"too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia..."

Awesome!

Taming of the Shrew, King Lear and Twelfth Night couldn't pick one out of those 3.