Gaiman vs. Shakespeare

Gaiman's text and Shakespeare's text are very different. For one, Gaiman's text is in the form of a comic. If this were a few months ago my views may be different, but after reading a few comics so far this semester I have gained more of a liking for them, so in this case I found Gaiman's text a lot more interesting than just reading Shakespeare's play script. Another thing that was different about Gaiman's text was the language that was used. Gaiman used more modern English, so obviously it was easier for me to understand. Though the concepts of Shakespeare's play were interesting and a lot of times just insane, it was often times hard for me to grasp those concepts and understand what exactly was going on, due to the Old English Language that he used. Both plays were comedic, which is why I was able to enjoy both, but once again the language in Shakespeare's version was much more difficult to interpret which made it a little less enjoyable because I was having to think about what exactly every line meant. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the Gainan's interpretation and I'm sure many people out there think it is destruction of Shakespeare's original version. I, on the other hand enjoyed it quite thoroughly and I do think, it gave me somewhat of a better understanding of Shakespeare's original. For example, I found the whole love triangle with Lysander, Hermia and Demetrius to be quite difficult to keep up with at times. But, in Gaiman's version it was straightforward. This quote in particular, tells pretty much exactly what is going on with out all the confusion,

 

                        That one up there, Lysander, 

                        he loves her, Hermia, but her dad, 

                        wants her to marry the other

                        one, Demetrius, see?

 

Instead of having in interpret every line of Shakespeare's play in order to know what exactly is going on, in Gaiman's version it is a little more straight forward, and for people like me that dont understand Old English, it is much easier to grasp. 

 

I enjoyed both versions, but I found Shakespeare's version much more complex and difficult to interpret, where as Gaiman's version I was given pictures and it was written in words I could better understand.