Quotes from the great literary works litter contemporary English, and few conversational mishaps can be more embarrassing than to misinterpret one such age-old reference
Country singers compare Ronnie and Jenny to Romeo and Juliet, athletes breaking a slump are said to have overcome their white whale, and have you ever wondered why the I.T. guy keeps warning you about the dangers of Trojan Horses?
Commonplace, but not common knowledge
It’s a frequent thing to hear lines like ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ dropped during contemporary discourse – the sort of reference that’s essentially so famous you no longer even need to know the piece it’s from in order to be familiar with it.
And aye, there’s the rub; in that such lyrical gems pop up constantly throughout modern English, yet so often do people use them outside their proper context (i.e. swapping out Shakespeare’s Denmark musing for reasons other than to imply that something seems fishy).
Constantly, we will rely on lines from various literary hallmarks when looking to illustrate a point with flare and style, and it’s a red-faced moment indeed when one drops an honored passage casually and completely out of context.
Reading the odd classic-fiction will not only prove entertaining, it’ll open your eyes to the origins and actual meanings of some of those odd little sayings you’ve often heard, but maybe never quite understood.
So on that note, before someone comments on ‘rotten Denmark’ and you’re left wondering why people are still talking about those racy cartoons, maybe think about taking a look at Grandpa’s old clothbound collection, and perhaps a few numbers by that spear-shaker guy . . .
