William Shakespeare's Influence

The expansive influence William Shakespeare has had on media and the world of literature is undeniable. His poems number into the hundreds and he wrote over three dozen plays which have been performed almost constantly since their debut. Reading Shakespeare is even mandatory in high schools across the United States. Just like Shakespeare’s influence can be seen in other plays throughout history (and even across languages), such as Friedrich Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell1, it can be found in tons of other more recent visual media as well. For example, Disney’s The Lion King draws on the story of Hamlet. In the Looney Tunes episode “A Witch’s Tangled Hare”, Shakespeare writes Macbeth on location at Macbeth Castle and witnesses a witch, Witch Hazel, stirring her cauldron. He takes inspiration from her for his play when she recites the incantation “Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble” (IV.I.10-11) just before she attempts to add Bugs Bunny to her steaming cauldron of brew. These are just three of the innumerable …show more content…
So many of our day-to-day idioms and even literary devices and character traits that we now dismiss as cliché only became cliché because Shakespeare used them first and they had four centuries to become commonplace or overused. Thus, many more references to Shakespeare might be found in this single episode of Criminal Minds and more are certainly to be found in other episodes (an obvious one is that different quotes of his are used at the opening or close of the episodes at least nine times throughout the seasons). Nonetheless, because literature around the world is swathed in The Bard’s influence, it can be enjoyable to peel back the layers of a text or other piece of art and try to discern where Shakespeare ends and the other artist begins. In Criminal Minds, Shakespeare is a mainstay of inspiration, both for the hero’s and the