Tips on how to approach the study of a Shakespeare play

Renaissance Drama
Tips on how to approach the study of a Shakespeare play on your own

  1. Look for the broad pattern of the play – what is it ‘about’?
  2. Think about the particular characteristics of the genre the play is written in (comedy, history, tragedy, romance, tragicomedy, ‘problem play’) and about how the genre impacts on the action and the language (verse vs. prose, imagery).
  3. Think about the distinctive qualities of the play you are studying. Look at the plot in more detail and think about why things are represented the way they are: what is the function of particular scenes?
  4. Now look at a few key scenes in greater detail, working on the assumption that those scenes are bound to tell you a lot about the play as a whole. Look for controlling ideas, for patterns, echoes, contradictions. Always ask yourself why things are represented the way they are and what it means within the play as a whole.
Six areas of interest:
  • plot (how is it built up? Are there echoes? Climaxes?)
  • character (are the protagonists caught between opposite impulses? What is the function of the minor characters? Are there contrasts between characters in similar situations?)
  • ‘diction’, i.e. the language of the play (are images of order set against images of disorder? What semantic fields dominate? Is the scene written in verse or prose? Does it contain rhetorical figures? Is the language stylised or realistic?)
  • themes (often: a tension between order and disorder, conflicts between men and women, tension between the government and the individual, the insiders and the outsiders)
March 14, 2017
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Flag
English
globe
United Kingdom
time
23
Speaks:
English
Native
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Hindi
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Thai
A1
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Korean
A1
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Khmer
A1
,
Burmese
A1
🔻 🇨🇳 🇰🇷 🇯🇵 🔻 ⭐ *Scroll down for 汉语/ 한국어/日本語* ⭐ I am a Native English speaker working as a Journalist and Editor. I am ESL-qualified and teach Conversational, Communicative, IELTS, and Business English. I have taught over 10,000 classes and have 100s of happy students. I work as a Journalist and Editor at a national newspaper, as well as a part-time English teacher. I teach Business English both online and in-person and focus on conversation/free talk, the digital economy, interview skills and more. I have taught English for over a decade to a wide variety of age groups. Having studied at British schools and universities, I have an excellent knowledge of the language. 🇨🇳 我的名字是 以实玛利。我是一名以英语为母语的新闻编辑、记者。目前在一家全国性的报社工作。同时,我也是一名可靠的兼职英语教师。我具备英语教学资格,已有超过10,000课时的授课经验且学生数量数以百计。无论是线上线下我都有授课,目前主要教授英语会话、雅思以及商务英语。 在我的课堂上,我会更关注英语会话、闲谈,数字经济以及面试技巧等内容。我曾受过英国的高等教育,对英语方面有着颇深的造诣。在我10年的教学经验中,我的教授对象包括从儿童到成年等广泛年龄群体。这些丰富的经验使我的课堂更加生动有趣。 🇰🇷 안녕하세요, 저는 이스마엘 입니다. 저는 영국 런던에서 왔으며 현재 태국 방콕에 거주하고 있습니다. 영어 원어...
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