William Shakespeare:
An Outline of his Life
More
is known about Shakespeare than any other professional dramatist of his
time. Some of the established facts are detailed below and further information
may be found in the standard biographies and bibliographies. A useful summary
is included in the General Introduction to the Complete Works, edited by
Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988). A timeline
is available at Terry Gray’s website Mr William Shakespeare and the Internet.
If you are coming to Stratford with a group, the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust’s Education Department can arrange a lecture for you on Shakespeare’s
life and times.
William
Shakespeare was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. Located
in
the centre of England, the town was (and still is) an important
river-crossing
settlement and market centre. The register of Stratford’s
Holy
Trinity Church records Shakespeare’s baptism on 26 April. He is
traditionally
said to have been born on 23 April.
PARENTS/FAMILY
His
father, John, trained as a glove-maker and married Mary Arden, thedaughter
of Robert Arden, a farmer from the nearby village of Wilmcote. John and
Mary set up home in Henley Street, Stratford, in the house now known as
Shakespeare’s Birthplace .
John Shakespeare was
a prominent citizen, serving on the town council for many years and becoming
Bailiff, or Mayor, in 1568. Besides his craft as a glover, he traded as
a wool dealer and was also involved in money-lending.
John and Mary lost
two children before William was born. They had five more children, another
of whom died young.
EDUCATION
As
the son of a leading townsman, William almost certainly attended Stratford’s
‘petty’ or junior school before progressing, perhaps at the age of seven,
to the Grammar School, which still stands. The grammar school’s curriculum
was geared to teaching pupils Latin, both spoken and written. The classical
writers studied in the classroom influenced Shakespeare’s plays and poetry;
for example, some of his ideas for plots and characters came from Ovid’s
tales, the plays of Terence and Plautus, and Roman history.
It is not known what
Shakespeare did when he left school, probably at the age of fourteen, as
was usual. In November 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of Richard
Hathaway, a local farmer. Her home, now known as Anne Hathaway’s Cottage,
still stands in the village of Shottery, a mile from Stratford. At the
time of their marriage William was eighteen and Anne was twenty-six. Their
first-born child, Susanna, was baptised on 26 May 1583. Two years later
twins followed, Hamnet and Judith.
We do not know when
or why Shakespeare left Stratford for London, or what he was doing before
becoming a professional actor and dramatist in the capital. There are various
traditions and stories about the so-called ‘lost years’ between 1585 and
1592, a period for which there is virtually no evidence concerning his
life. One tale tells how he was caught poaching deer in Charlecote Park,
near Stratford, and went off to London to avoid prosecution. A plausible
early tradition claims Shakespeare was a schoolmaster for some years. When
he was growing up, drama was a significant part of Stratford’s social life.
Not only did local people put on amateur shows, but the town was visited
regularly by London-based companies of actors and Shakespeare may have
joined one of them. He probably arrived in London around 1586/7.
Shakespeare’s reputation
was established in London by 1592; in that year another dramatist, Robert
Greene, was envious of his success and called him ‘an upstart crow’. Shakespeare’s
earliest plays included the three parts of Henry VI, The Two Gentlemen
of Verona, and Titus Andronicus.
Shakespeare’s first
printed works were two long poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape
of Lucrece(1594). These were both
dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, a young courtier and favourite of
Queen Elizabeth I, who had become Shakespeare’s patron. Most of the Sonnets
were probably written about this time, too, although they were not published
until 1609.
1n 1594, Shakespeare
joined others in forming a new theatre company, under the patronage of
the Lord Chamberlain, with Richard Burbage as its leading actor. For almost
twenty years Shakespeare was its regular dramatist, producing on average
two plays a year. Burbage played roles such as Richard III, Hamlet, Othello
and
Lear.
In 1596 Shakespeare’s
father was granted a coat-of-arms, and it is likely that in this matter
the dramatist took the initiative with the College of Arms in London. On
his father’s death in 1601, he inherited the arms and the right to style
himself a gentleman, even though, at the time, actors were generally regarded
as rogues and vagabonds.
Shakespeare’s success
in the London theatres made him wealthy and in 1597 he bought New Place,
one of the largest houses in Stratford. Although his professional career
was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town. Further
property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107
acres of land in 1602.
In 1598, the author
of a book on the arts, Francis Meres, described Shakespeare as the best
contemporary dramatist and mentioned twelve of his plays, including
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II and Henry IV, all of which date
from the mid- to late-1590s.
Drama was a nation-wide
activity in Shakespeare’s time but only in London were there buildings
designed specifically for performing plays. Most public theatres were tall,
roughly circular structures, open to the sky, with a cover over part of
the stage and a roof running round the edge to protect the galleries. Performances
took place in the afternoons, with the actors playing on a raised stage
which projected halfway into the theatre. All the women’s roles were performed
by boys. The audience, which either stood in the yard around the stage
or sat in the galleries, represented a wide social mix of people.
In 1599 the acting
company with which Shakespeare was involved, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men,
built a new theatre, the Globe. Situated on the south bank of theThames,
in the suburb of Southwark, it is the theatre most closely associated with
Shakespeare’s plays, and he was one of the shareholders in the enterprise.
Two of his plays, Henry V and Julius Caesar, were almost certainly written
during the year in which the Globe opened. In 1613, during a performance
of Henry VIII, a fire broke out and destroyed the Globe, but it was rebuilt
the following year.
When James I (James
VI of Scotland) came to the English throne in 1603 he granted royal patronage
to Shakespeare’s acting company, which thus became the ‘King’s Men.’ As
had happened in the 1590s in Elizabeth I’s last years, Shakespeare’s plays
were presented before the court in the royal palaces, as well as to audiences
in the public theatres. In 1609 the King’s Men acquired an indoor theatre,
the Blackfriars, to use in addition to the Globe.
Some of Shakespeare’s
most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s, including Hamlet
and, after James I’s accession, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. His late
plays, often known as the Romances, date from c. 1608 to 1612 and include
Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.
In 1623, seven years
after his death, the First Folio, the first collected edition of his plays
was published. It contains thirty-six plays, about half of which had been
published individually in his lifetime. Pericles, not included in the First
Folio, has been accepted as his, and he is known to have collaborated with
John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsmen and a lost work, Cardenio, as well
as on Henry VIII which was included in the Folio.
LAST YEARS IN STRATFORD
Shakespeare’s elder
daughter, Susanna, married John Hall a Stratford physician, in 1607, and
gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, the following year. Shakespeare’s
other daughter, Judith, married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner, in
1616. (Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, twin brother to Judith, had died in 1596,
aged eleven.)
From around 1611 Shakespeare
seems largely to have disengaged himself from the London theatre world
and to have spent his time at his Stratford house, New Place. In March
1616 he signed his will, in which he left substantial property and other
bequests to his family and friends, including theatre colleagues in the
King’s Men.
Shakespeare died in
Stratford, aged fifty-two, on 23 April 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity
Church two days later. Within a short time a monument to him was put up,
probably by his family, on the wall close to his grave.
His widow, Anne, died
in 1623 and was buried beside him. Shakespeare’s family line came to an
end with the death of his grand-daughter Elizabeth in 1670.
Shakespeare Photo Gallery
http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/students/album/
lesson plans:
1. example from http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/teachers/lessons/
Introduction to As
You Like It
Submitted by:Amy
Ulen
(adapted
from a lesson by Holly Singleton and Katie McKnight)
Date:February
15, 1999
Objective:To
introduce the four central characters from As You Like It. To explore the
relationships between these four characters as seen throughout the play.
By the end of the class, the students should know the names of the characters
and know a few of the lines that each character says. They will also use
the changing relationships to predict the plot of the play.
Materials:Index
cards with lines, scarves, hats, etc.
Activities:
1.On index cards, write
the following lines (place character name on the front of the card):
Group
1
Orlando
-- "Come, come, elder brother, your are too young in this."
Oliver
-- "Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?"
Celia
-- "I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry."
Rosalind
-- "From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. Let me
see,
what think you of falling in love?"
Group
2
Orlando
-- "Can I not say, 'I thank you'?"
Oliver
(to Charles) -- "Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke's daughter,
be
banished with her father?"
Celia
-- "Gentle cousin, let us go thank him and encourage him."
Rosalind
-- "Gentleman, wear this for me, one out of suits with
fortune,
that could give more, but that her hand lacks means."
Group
3
Orlando
-- "I am he that is so love-shaked."
Oliver
(to Ganymede) -- "Be of good cheer, youth. You a man? You
lack
a man's heart."
Celia
-- "You have simply misused our sex in your love prate."
Rosalind
(as Ganymede) -- "There is a man haunts the forest that
abuses
our young plants with carving 'Rosalind' on their barks."
Group
4
Orlando
(to Rosalind) -- "If there be truth in sight, you are my
Rosalind."
Oliver
(to Celia) -- "That will I."
Celia
(to Oliver) -- "Good sir, go with us."
Rosalind
(to Orlando) -- "To you I give myself, for I am yours."
2.Choose four groups
of five (4 actors and 1 sculptor), and give each actor a card and costume
piece (i.e. baseball caps for all the Orlandos, scarves for all the Rosalinds,
etc.). Give the sculptors about 10 minutes to create a tableau vivant while
the actors read the text on the cards. The sculptors should determine the
order in which the cards will be read.
3.Each group will show
their tableau one at a time. After they have finished reading their cards,
the rest of the class will record their responses in journals. Complete
the activity by having all four tableaux performed at one time (without
the text). Ask the remainder of the class what they see. Do the relationships
seem to change?
4.Ask the class to
discuss the relationships between the four characters and predict what
they think the play is going to be about. Have them record their predictions
in their journals.
5.Use the remainder
of the class to begin reading the play (1.2.141-251). After reading the
scene once, ask students questions to clarify plot. Who are these people?
What are they doing? How well do they know each other? Continue to read
the scene using the Tolaydo acting circle method.
6.By the end of the
class, all the students should know the names of four of the major characters
from the play. They should also have some predictions about the plot of
the play. If every student was able to participate as an actor/sculptor
in the tableaux vivants and/or in the reading of 1.2.141-251, then the
introduction was a success.
7.Homework ~ Ask the
students to read 1.1 and determine how Oliver fits into the picture.
BEST SITES?
http://www.ulen.com/shakespeare/teachers/lessons/
---tools for studying
Shakespeare
http://parallel.park.uga.edu/shaxper/
sample:
Tools for Studying
Shakespeare and Contemporaries --http://parallel.park.uga.edu/shaxper/
These materials will
help you use an electronic text of Shakespeare to teach particular plays
(for college students at all levels).
Christy Desmet has
a splendid set of course materials generated in her Shakespeare and Renaissance
Drama classes(university-level).Frank
Hildy maintains the Shakespeare Globe Center--Southeast home page for information
about the original Globe Playhouse (for all levels).This
page will help you find books and articles on Shakespeare and his contemporaries
(for advanced students, or for students who want to become advanced).This
page will explain matters of form in writing a formal scholarly essay about
Renaissance dramatists (for advanced students).Readers
in Georgia might be interested in the handsome Georgia Shakespeare Festival
site.At Emory University, one finds
the handsome site that Harry Rusche maintains: Shakespeare Illustrated.Away
from the University of Georgia campus, the finest page for information
about matters Shakespearean is Terry Gray's Mr. William Shakespeare on
the Internet. As the credits at the bottom of this page suggest, one particularly
handsome site is Anniina Jokinen's Luminarium. (Whenever you see this icon,
HOME it will return you to this page.)
Shakespeare Exercises
for an Electronic Text—LOOKS LIKE GOOD IDEAS FOR THESE VARIOUS PLAYS. http://parallel.park.uga.edu/shaxper/
Section One:A
Summer Shakespeare Project
Section Two:Using
Word Cruncher
Section Three:The
Plays
A
Midsummer Night's Dream
The
Taming of the Shrew
Twelfth
Night
Henry
IV, past one
Henry
V
The
Tempest
Hamlet
As
You Like It
Macbeth
Section Four: Possible
Student Projects
This guide begins with
a short essay about the problems and rewards of one such course on Shakespeare;
that narrative will give you a quick overview of what combining literature
and computers can offer. Next a section explains what Word Cruncher is
and how to use its special features. The third section offers teaching
materials and exercises for several Shakespeare plays. Finally, a fourth
section offers suggestions about possible research projects for undergraduate
and graduate students to carry out using the electronic texts of Shakespeare.
Some of these exercises
can be used with any electronic text that has a search engine; other exercises
are designed specifically for the Word Cruncher software that is keyed
to the Riverside Shakespeare text. If you are not using the Word Cruncher
program, (Terry Gray says that the best Shakespeare search engine currently
available is this one by Matty Farrow.) Using a search engine with an electronic
text allows students to find particular words and phrases quickly and easily;
they can see a list of every place those words are used in a canon or read
through a particular text in which words are highlighted. It can also be
useful to seek absence; if some element isn't present when students think
it should be, they can try to figure out why it's not there. The Word Cruncher
program provides frequency information and allows students to copy passages
quickly and easily.
EXCELLENT SITE: http://www.jetlink.net/~massij/shakes/
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
PLAYS
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's As You Like It
1. Characterize the
separate worlds of the court and the forest of Arden. What types of events
occur in each? How do they compare to each other?
2. Watch the four sets
of lovers. How does the relationship of Touchstone and Audrey compare to
those of the other three sets of lovers?
3. Why does Rosalind
stay in costume as a boy after she meets Orlando in the forest? What is
she trying to achieve?
4. Compare Celia to
Rosalind. What are they like and why do they marry the men they do? Are
the two couples--Celia and Oliver and Rosalind and Orlando--well matched?
5. Do you believe in
Oliver's reformation? Why or why not? What does it mean when Orlando finds
Oliver asleep with the snake and the lioness nearby?
6. What purpose does
Jaques serve in the play? How are we to take him? Is he a fool like Touchstone?
7. Why does the god
of marriage Hymen appear at the end of the play?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Hamlet
Urquhart Castle and
Loch Ness, Scotland
1. There are a million
questions relevant to this play. I have selected my favorites. Don't be
fooled into thinking that these represent the only important issues in
this play. "If we had world enough and time..." Images to watch: poison,
infection, revenge, secrecy, the arras, madness.
2. Consider the ghost.
Should Hamlet believe him? Is he really Hamlet's dad? How does your belief
in him affect your reading of the play?
3. Is there really
a ghost at all? Even if an actor portrays him (as is usually done), how
do you know that he is really there for Hamlet? Does the ghost ask Hamlet
to do anything that has not already occurred to Hamlet? Is Hamlet sane?
Are we watching/reading real, historical events or simply a play within
Hamlet's mind?
4. What exactly does
the ghost order Hamlet to do? How well does Hamlet follow orders?
5. Compare the 3 men
of action--Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras--of this play. How successful is
action versus contemplation in this play?
6. Consider Hamlet's
"friends"--Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
7. Consider the Claudius-Gertrude
relationship. Did Gertrude know of Claudius' murder of her first husband?
What (if anything) is Gertrude guilty of in the play?
8. Watch out for the
enormous amount of play-acting within the play. Many characters are forced
to put on an act. How does all of this relate to the play-within-a-play
in Act III? Why is this mini-play at the center (literally) of Hamlet?
9. In the performance
of the play-within-the-play, Hamlet assumes that a guilty man, seeing his
guilt enacted before him in a drama, will be forced to somehow display
his guilt. Is this reasonable? This happens to be a belief of many of the
Puritan drama critics of Shakespeare's age; they fear that the sight of
evil on a stage will force the audience to go out and commit evil. The
playwrights responded by saying that the sight of goodness would cause
goodness and the sight of evil would shame a person into confessing his
crime. What does Shakespeare seem to think?
10. $1,000,000. Question--What,
exactly, is rotten in the state of Denmark?
11. How does Ophelia
relate to Hamlet? What is her purpose in the play? Does he really ever
love her?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One
1. Consider Hal's speech
at I, ii, 199ff. How are we to interpret these words? Is Hal a hypocrite?
2. How does the subplot
of the robbery at Gad's Hill fit into the major themes of the story?
3. Compare each scene
in the tavern with the scenes at court which immediately follows. How do
the two worlds compare?
4. How much and what
kind of influences do the following people have on Hal: Hotspur, Falstaff,
Henry IV. How does Hal compare to Hotspur?
5. Both Hotspur and
Falstaff often talk about honor. What is the value of honor in this play?
6. Consider the play-acting
scene at II, 4. Why do Hal and Falstaff play this game? What is the value
of play-acting in this story?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part Two
1. Why is this sequel
necessary? How does it change our perceptions of Hal and Falstaff?
2. Why are the three
justices included? Compare them. What do they represent? How do they relate
to Falstaff?
3. Why is Rumour cast
as the Presenter of this play? Why is he replaced by Dancer as the Epilogue?
4. Does Shakespeare
use the female characters the same ways in this play as he used them in
I Henry IV?
5. Has England itself
changed in this play?
6. Watch for scenes
which parallel scenes from I Henry IV. How do these scenes function? What
do they tell us about the setting of this play?
7. Why are these plays
named after King Henry IV when they deal so meticulously with the history
of his son Prince Hal?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Henry V
1. Most of the criticism
of this play centers on whether Hal has become a good person or a bad person.
Consider his unjust war on France along with his ability to save the English
from a destructive civil war. Is Hal good or bad? Does he have the right
to perpetrate the actions of this play?
2. Consider the French
in this play. Are they good or bad? Weak or strong? Do they deserve what
they get?
3. Consider Kate's
English language lesson at III, iv. Why does she not just hire an interpretor?
4. Why does Shakespeare
include the representatives of all the British Commonwealth countries--Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, and England--in this play?
5. Why does Falstaff
die offstage? Why are the tavern gang still roaming around in this play?
6. What is the function
of the Chorus in this play? Is the Chorus honest?
7. Shakespeare's audience
would know that Hal died a few years after Agincourt and his son lost most
of the French holdings. How does this knowledge affect one's perceptions
of the play?
8. Why does Hal engage
in so much playacting in this play? What is the purpose of the trick with
the gloves (gages)?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Macbeth
1. Why does this play
need Act 1, scene 1? Why does it begin with the 3 witches alone on stage?
What is the image of womanhood presented by them? Note Banquo's description
of them as looking rather masculine in 1, 3. Why this odd description?
2. In 1, 5, Lady Macbeth
sums up the conditions that would make her able to murder Duncan. What
does she need to be like to do this? How does this relate her to the witches?
3. Act One tells us
much about the kingdom under Duncan. What has his reign been like recently?
How does the plot of the Macbeths fit into the recent history of Scotland
under Duncan? Why is this important to consider? How does Shakespeare present
the history and behavior of the Scots with regard to their kings throughout
this play?
4. Consider the differences
throughout the first half of the play between how Macbeth and Banquo handle
the information given them by the witches. What does a sensible Scottish
thane do when confronted by witches at random?
5. Look at all the
references to "nature" and "unnatural" throughout this play. Why are they
vital to the plot? How does this theme reflect upon the actions of the
Macbeths? Upon the ultimate crisis of Birnam Wood relocating itself to
Dunsinane? Symbolically, what does it mean that the forest gets up and
moves once Macbeth has become king? To put it another way, what kind of
world is it when trees can just get up and walk around?
6. In 4,1, three apparitions
visit the witches and Macbeth. What does each represent? How do we as audience
respond to them? How are we as audience implicated in this plot? Do we
believe in the witches as much as Macbeth does? Are there any significant
differences here?
7. Look at the play's
geographical center in Act 3; this is often where the author summarizes
the major themes of his play through a series of "central" actions. What
are the major events of this act? What do they tell us about the themes
of the overall play?
8. So how does Macbeth
like being king? What kind of king is he? What is his reign like, other
than brief? How does he compare to Duncan as king? How do the rebellions
underhis reign compare to those
under Duncan?
9. What are the effects
of conspiring to murder upon Lady Macbeth? How does she compare to the
other women of the play, including the witches, Lady Macduff, and Macbeth's
mother? What is a good noblewoman like in this world?
10. In 1,7, Macbeth
suggests to his wife to "bring forth men-children only" because she is
so fierce. Is this a good world to bring forth children in? What happens
to kids in this world? Consider all the children in this play, including
the ones that seem to have reached adulthood with their fathers still alive.
What are their fates? What happens to kids when Macbeth is king? When Duncan
is king? What do these situations tell us about the worlds these respective
kings create for their subjects?
11. Why does Banquo's
ghost appear at a banquet? What does a banquet symbolize in general? What
does a banquet thrown by a king suggest?
12. How do the Macbeths
die? What do their forms of death symbolize?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
1. How do you deal
with Shylock? Is he sufficiently motivated? Consider his values. (Watch
out for his reference to his deceased wife--it's a good clue.)
2. Characterize the
two worlds of Belmont and Venice. Who (or what group) is in charge of each?
Why do Jessica and her new husband quarrel in Belmont in the fifth act?
3. Why is this play
set in Italy? Why use a Jewish moneylender as a villain? Shakespeare probably
never met a Jew in his life--they had been banished from England centuries
earlier.
4. Consider Antonio's
character? Is he straightforward and virtuous, as he claims? How accurately
does his character reflect the general nature of the Christians in this
play?
5. How do you deal
with Jessica? The Christians applaud her running off with her father's
money to wed a man Shylock disapproves of. Are they correct to feel this
way?
6. Why a pound of flesh
from nearest the heart? Why not the heart itself? Why not something else?
Think about all the possible meanings of the phrase--ie. "pound" is the
English form of currency; also, what is nearest the heart spiritually?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing
1. The play's title
contains a pun: "Nothing" was pronounced like the modern "noting" and can
mean here 1) nothing or 2) noting, as in musical notation, or 3) noting,
as in to notice: "I note you are enjoying this play." Is this much ado
about nothing, in our sense of nothing? Is there anything serious happening
here or does the happy ending mean that everything is okay and no harm
or even any significant change has occurred?
2. How is the musical
pun on noting significant to the play? Where does this pun surface in other
ways? How important are the songs of the play? Are there other references
to music?
3. What about the third
sense of noting (i.e. noticing) in this play? Who notices what? When does
the ability to notice or to interpret what one sees become important and
to whom?
4. What can we gather
from Beatrice and Benedick from their first encounter in the play (I, i)?
What has their past relationship been like? Why did Benedick leave for
the wars in an army that probably was an all-volunteer army? What is Benedick
like around women?
5. Is Beatrice like
Kate of Shrew? Why or why not? What is her major characteristic? How does
her family handle it? How do available men, like Don Pedro and Claudio
and Benedick, respond to her?
6. What has Hero's
past relationship (that is, before the wars) been like with Claudio? Why
is she named Hero? (For that matter, where does Beatrice get her own name?)
7. What is the point
of the low-class characters? Why do they commit such drastic malapropisms?
What does it mean that they are able to understand each other despite egregious
verbal mistakes? How do we compare them to the upper-class characters?
8. This is a play about
both the strength of family bonds and the desperate importance of reputation
in forming new family alliances. Note the prince's (Don Pedro's) embarrassment
at thinking he may have matched Claudio with a slut and Leonato's desire
to die when his daughter is publicly humiliated. What codes does this set
of social values place upon women in this society? How do Beatrice's exuberant
speech and Hero's alleged infidelity relate to each other in this code?
9. Are Beatrice and
Benedick a good match for each other? Are Hero and Claudio?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's Othello
1. Why is the "romance"
of Othello's elopement with Desdemona bracketed by the Iago Roderigo plotting?
2. Notice the following
themes and their uses within the play: witchcraft, knowledge of self and
others, rhetorical power, loquaciousness. How do they relate to Othello,
Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia?
3. At its heart, this
is a play about the relationships between 2 couples. How would you characterize
each pair's bond with each other and with the members of the other pair?
4. When Desdemona offers
to go along to Cyprus, Othello swears he will not become uxorious. Does
he? Is his relationship with Iago in any way comparable to uxoriousness?
5. How clever is Iago?
How motivated? Why is he after Othello? Why attack him through Desdemona?
6. Chattiness is generally
thought of in this era as a flaw in a woman. How does Emilia's volubility
measure up to this standard? Why does she give her husband the misplaced
handkerchief? What does that hanky represent--red spots and all?
7. How innocent is
Othello? Cassio?
8. Why does Bianca
appear in this play? Where does she appear?
Study Questions for
William Shakespeare's Richard III (ca. 1592-93)
The Story So Far According
to Shakespeare:
Two branches of the
Plantagenet Family have been struggling for control of the throne of England.
After a long battle with the House of Lancaster, headed by the King of
England, Henry VI, and his warrior-queen, Margaret of Anjou, the House
of York has finally taken control of the throne and placed its own leader,
now King Edward IV, in power. But the battle has not been without its casualties.
Edward IV's father, Richard, Duke of York, the original leader of the family,
was captured by Queen Margaret and executed after being sarcastically crowned
with a paper crown and shown the blood of his teenage son, Edmund, Earl
of Rutland ("Rutland" to Shakespeare in this play) on a cloth. Rutland
had earlier been captured and killed. To complicate things, Edward IV's
brother, George, Duke of Clarence, had switched sides in the wars for a
short time, fighting on the side of his wife's family under King Henry
VI and Queen Margaret. "Clarence", as Shakespeare usually calls him, then
switched back, but his family--the Yorks--are still a bit angry about his
temporary change. The losers, the Lancaster family, are gone but not forgotten.
The defeated king, Henry VI, was captured and, at least in Shakespeare's
version, killed by Richard, now Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother to
Edward IV. Henry's son and heir, Prince Edward, was also killed and also,
according to Shakespeare, by the same Richard. Young Edward's devoted wife,
Anne, appears in this play, as the lone mourner in the funeral procession
of her father-in-law, Henry VI. Henry's murderer, Richard, talks her into
marrying him early in this play. Meanwhile, the ex-queen, Margaret of Anjou,
has been exiled to France, but she comes back throughout this play to remind
the victors that she is angry about the deaths of her son and husband and
her loss of her status as queen of England. Meanwhile, over in France,
there is still one contender for the throne left: Henry Tudor, Earl of
Richmond, descended from a former queen of England by a liaison after her
royal husband's death and also very distantly descended from the House
of Lancaster through his mother. Historically, Henry's claim is EXTREMELY
weak, being traced only through the female lines, whereas inheritance of
the English throne at this point was expected to be through the male line.
Henry's stepfather, the Earl of Derby (also called "Lord Stanley") appears
as an unwilling supporter of Richard of Gloucester in this drama.
As if these are not
sufficient problems for the newly-crowned Edward IV, his wife's family
are feuding with his own brothers, George, Duke of Clarence and Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, and their supporters, Lord Hastings and the Duke of
Buckingham. The problem is that the new Queen, the former Elizabeth Grey
Woodville, was of common birth and won the new King by her looks alone.
He elevated her brother and her two sons by her late husband Woodville
to the nobility, making them Earl Rivers, the Marquess of Dorset, and Lord
Grey, respectively. Now they want even more power and are trying to get
their enemies sent to the Tower of London on charges of treason. At the
start of the play, they have already succeeded in doing this to the faithful
Lord Hastings. What Queen Elizabeth has done well, however, is produce
heirs to the throne with King Edward--their two sons, Edward, Prince of
Wales, and his younger brother, Richard of York.
So at the start of
this play, England's future actually looks fairly secure in spite of these
problems: the long civil wars (the Wars of the Roses) between the Houses
of York and Lancaster seem over at last and Edward IV is securely on the
throne with two sons as heirs to ensure the continuation of his dynasty.
And then Richard, King Edward's youngest brother, decides that he'd really
like to be king himself....and thereby hangs this tale.
1. Act I, scene 1 does
a huge amount of work. Why is George, Duke of Clarence, going to prison?
Note also who is being released at the same time. Who do both believe to
be their enemies? Who is their real enemy?
2. 1.1.1-2 sets up
a summertime world of merrymaking and love in England under the reign of
Edward IV. How does Richard see himself in this world? Note all the language
of evil, sickness, carrion beasts, and poison being spoken in this world
as this play progresses. Why? What is really happening in this world? To
whom does most of this language attach itself? What does all this plus
the increasing sickness of the king tell you about the true condition of
this world?
3. Why does Anne fall
for Richard in 1,2? Why does she not kill him, given the chance? Note his
extraordinary charisma and energy in 1,1 and 1,2. How does this affect
us as audience? Who do you want to see triumph--Anne or Richard--in this
scene? Be painfully honest.
4. Notice how the play
never lets us forget Richard's headcount; all the women constantly list
his victims. Notice also how the three women mourn together in 4,4. Why
doesallow them to do this? What
function do women serve in this play? How much power and of what nature
do they possess?
5. Note the details
of George of Clarence's dream. What does this dream really mean? Why does
he see such beauty underwater? How do these images relate to the state
of the kingdom in Act One? How does George's dream relate to the behavior
of the murderers? Note that there are other assassins in this play. How
do they all compare to each other? Who are they all and whom do they kill?
6. Look at the scramble
of logic in 1,4 to "justify" the killing of Clarence. Why so much talk
and what does it tell you about the world of this play? Note that the next
scene (2,1) is about enemies swearing forgiveness to each other. How do
the events of 1,4 affect your reading of this following scene?
7. In 3,1, Richard
compares himself to the character of Iniquity from the morality plays.
How does he resemble this stock character of these medieval plays? How
do we react to him in Acts 1-3?
8. Why does the widowed
Queen place herself and her son Richard of York in sanctuary? How does
the boy end up leaving it? Whose idea is this? Who are Richard's henchmen
and primary supporters?
9. Note the parallels
between 1,2 and 4,4. What has changed? Why are we less eager to see Richard
win the woman in 4,4? Note Richard's confusion while giving orders in 4,4.
What has happened to him? Why does Richard's fortune shift in this act?
10. In Act Five, we
see alternating scenes with the two war leaders. How do they compare in
speech and behavior?
11. Note the dreadful
fates of the children in this play: Rutland, Edward (son of Henry VI and
Margaret), Edward V (son of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth), Richard of
York, the children of George, Duke of Clarence. What happens to this world
(or any world, for that matter) when its children are killed or mistreated?
How does the hostage situation of George Stanley relate to this? Why is
the protection of his life symbolic?
12. Note the cyclic
nature of this play--the "glorious summer" following the "winter of...discontent"
mentioned by Richard in 1,1 sinks into a bloodbath in this story, only
to be replaced by the peace proclaimed by Richmond in the last words of
the play. What does the presence of this cycle tell us as audience about
history?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
1. This is a play about
acting. Watch for all the different levels of acting and the different
purposes for which acting is used.
2. In the Induction,
servants to a nobleman put on a show for Sly, pretending that he is noble.
At the same time, an acting troupe performs a show for Sly and his hosts.
How does this affect Sly? Why does Shakespeare want us to see this? Why
are these 2 types of acting--the real actors and the servants--both being
used to perform for Sly at the same time? What does WS want us to see here?
3. Sly and company
disappear from the play after the first act. Why? Do you think that Shakespeare
is up to something?
4. Look at the relationships
between masters and servants--Tranio & Lucentio in 1, 1; and Petruchio
and Grumio in 1, 2. How do they compare? How would you characterize the
2 masters? Why does Petruchio tolerate Grumio? Look at 4, 1. Why do P's
servants stay with him after he abuses them so badly?
5. Look at Kate's and
Bianca's first scenes together--I, 1, and 2, 1. Characterize their relationship.
Notice that the first scene is played out in public, the second in private.
How much of a shrew is Kate? Look at how Bianca handles her tutors in 3,1.
What is she really like in private?
6. Why does Petruchio
first address Kate as if she were sweet and loving? Does he stay with this
strategy? Does it work at all? Why does he come to his own wedding in rags?
Why does he postpone the wedding banquet? Why is he brutal to his servants?
Why does he insist that the sun is the moon in 4, 5? Does Kate give in?
7. Vicentio's arrival
makes for a merry confusion, but notice Petruchio's immediate reaction
when the Pedant claims that HE is Vicentio and the real one is a fake.
Why is it vital that Petruchio make this mistake? (5, 1, 35ff.)
8. How are we to take
Kate's speech on wifely obedience at 5, 2, 135ff.?
Study Questions for
Shakespeare's The Tempest
1. Is there a golden
or brazen world in this play? What does the island represent?
2. Consider the need
for forgiveness in this play. Does Prospero forgive? Why or why not?
3. Caliban claims that
he is the legal heir to the ownership of the island and that Prospero is
a usurper. Is this true? Keep track of both Caliban's and Ariel's origins
before the arrival of Prospero. Why is Caliban treated so badly by Prospero?
What does Caliban represent?
4. What does Ariel
represent? What is the nature of his relationship to Prospero? Is Prospero
kind to him? 5. Did Prospero deserve to be removed from office?
6. What is the purpose
of the masque in the play? What is the purpose of the storm, aside from
bringing the nobles to the island?
7. What do Prospero's
book and staff represent? Why does he break them at the end? Should he
have taken them back to Italy with him?
8. Caliban is a good
speaker in a world where good language means nobility of soul. Why is he
so eloquent? 9. What is the purpose of the lowlife subplot?
10. All of the characters
refer to art versus "real life" at various points in this play. What is
the role of art in this play's world?
FILM VERSIONSSITE:
http://jetlink.net/~massij/shakes/films/movilist.shtml
General Advice on How
to Watch a Shakespearean Film
1. As in any performance
of the plays, everything you see is a decision on the director's part.
But this is heightened in a film, due to editing. There are fewer incidental
mistakes or improvisations present, in that the director undoubtedly knows
of these when they happen, but she or he can choose to edit them out. In
a live performance, everyone lives with the inevitable mishaps that will
occur on-stage. All this means that in a film when you notice anything
that strikes you or stands out, you are probably noticing it because you
are meant to. Keep a list of the things that particularly impressed you
about the film. Do not overlook techniques unique to film--presentation
of credits and title, for example, or sustained musical effects. Why did
the director do these things? Are they united in some sense, pointing towards
a larger effect overall?
2. Watch how credits
are handled. Directors do some marvelous things to tell you what they think
of a play via their use of credit sequences. For example, compare the openings
of the Olivier and Brannagh versions of Henry V. What is going on behind
the credits? When do the credits come? Does anyone speak before them? Are
all the names of the cast given to us right away? What is the music like
during them? What typescript are they in? What is the sustained general
effect of the use of the credits?
3. On a second or third
viewing of a film, it is often highly productive to keep a cheap copy of
the play in your hands and loosely note which scenes the director has omitted
or re-ordered. Even in a first viewing, you might want to have a list of
scenes from the textual version of the play and a phrase as a title for
each to remind you of the sequence of events in the text. Why have these
scenes been dropped or re-ordered? What does this tell you about the differences
between a film and a performance of a play?
4. What's been cut
from the film? How does the director use the cuts to support her or his
idea of the major themes of this film? What other possible themes are omitted
or occluded by these specific cuts? To really see the difference the director's
omissions can make, watch two different versions of the same play on film.
5. Films can achieve
many things that a performed play cannot: special camera angles, special
effects, orchestral experimentation on a grand scale, more sets, realistic
settings, etc. Look for the striking elements of this film that are unique
to a film. What are they? How do they manipulate your feelings about the
production? About individual characters?
6. Where did the director
find her or his cast? Are they popular actors? Do they specialize in one
form of acting or performance (i.e. music, as
pposed
to theater) or another? If you know that the guy playing Hamlet is a rap
musician, for example, how does this affect the way you see this character?
Are the majority of cast members known for their theatrical or Shakespearean
performances? Is the presence of any one actor jarring to you as audience
in some way? Are these actors well-known? Is the director relying on star
appeal? Shock appeal? What are the ages of the cast? Do they seem appropriate
to you? Can you explain any of the director's casting decisions?
7. Where is the film
set? In what era? How accurate is the costuming and landscaping for that
era? How do these decisions on the director's part add or detract from
your understanding of the play? Do you need a play to be set in its historically
"accurate" setting -i.e. ancient Rome for Julius Caesar or Renaissance
Italy for The Taming of the Shrew?
8. How has the costuming
been handled? Is it era specific or does it just imply the general feeling
of an era without total accuracy? In other words, is it being used to convey
a general impression or to set forth a historical era or both?
9. How intelligent
does this director take his audience to be? How knowledgeable are we expected
to be about the original text? How can you tell? Have any subplots or characters
been dropped for this film? Why?
10. Has the genre of
the film been changed? This certainly happens; consider the rendition of
Hamlet in Disney's The Lion King or the transformation of The Tempest that
is Forbidden Planet. What is the effect of this change on your perception
of the play? Why might the director see the new genre as more appropriate?
11. How is the music
being used in this film? Are there specific themes for specific characters?
How does the score affect your perceptions of the dialogue? Is the music
overdone or intrusive?
12. What did this film
teach you about this play that you had not gotten from reading it or seeing
it staged? What would you change?
13. Especially when
a new film comes out, watch the entertainment channels and shows for interviews
with actors, crew, and director. Their ideas about what was actually happening
in the film can be startling compared to what you may actually have seen.
Try to keep track of their comments as you watch the film. How accurate
do you find their observations to be? How successful were they in expressing
their intentions on film?
FOLGER LIBRARY SITE--http://www.folger.edu/has
some lesson plans… off beat types especially
ANSWERING “HOW DOES
THIS APPLY TO ME?”
Have students write
about a time in their own life when they had to face some conflict similar
to the one faced by the main character in the short story or poem.
Ex. You have just read
"The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by
Ernest Hemingway. Write
about when you, for whateverreason,
felt compelledto be "brave." Describe
any others who in any way pressured you.
Once stories have been
written and revised, have the finished product read to others, either in
small groups or for the whole class. Discuss the variousways
in which the theme, which was introduced in the short literary work,can
manifest itself.
As students get more
and more interested, they should be ready to encounter the play, which
also deals with that theme, but, almost certainly, in adifferent
way.
Summary: The beauty
of this unit is that students are shown, not told, howa
work or idea can be "universal." Something like "Macomber" would beinteresting
to use in that Francis is very different from Henry, and yetthey
both are in the spotlight, they both have to shine for others. To havethe
story differ in this way from the play would teach students not to comeup
with a standard interpretation for things.
What Don't You Like
About Shakespeare
This activity allows
students to identify and express their concerns beforestarting
to read a Shakespeare play.
Picture this!
You come home from
school one Friday afternoon, and your parents announcethat
they have tickets to a production of a Shakespearean play you havenever
heard of before.
And they're going to
take the whole family!
How would you feel?
You're going to have
to go, so think about the kinds of things you wouldbe
concerned about as you sit in the theater before the play starts.
Make a list of as many
feelings and concerns as you can.
Once students have
done this, let them share their feelings with one another. Look for common
ground. They should understand that everyone whofirst
goes to see Shakespeare feels this way, especially here in America,where
we don't "grow up" on Shakespeare. Let them know their concernsare
valid. Make them save their list, and see if they feel the same wayafter
they finish studying the play, and participating in activitieslike
the one on this web page.
Some thoughts on the
impact of Shakespeare on our language: If
you cannot understand my argument,and declare "It's Greek to me",you
are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against thansinning,
you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you arequoting
Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wishis
father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air,you
are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused tobudge
an inch orsuffered from green-eyed
jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if youhave
been tongue-tied, atower of strength,
hoodwinked or in a pickle, ifyou
have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted onfairplay,
slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lordand
master), laughed yourself intostitches,
had short shrift, cold comfortor
too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in afool's
paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is aforegone
conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quotingShakespeare;
if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage,if
you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it,if
you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if itinvolves
your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doombecause
you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at onefell
swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - ifthe
truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you arequoting
Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing,if
you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, alaughing
stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a
blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake!what
the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you arequoting
Shakespeare. -
Bernard Levin ANOTHER LIST OF GOOD
SITES (GOOD SITE) http://www.tnellen.com/school/shakes.html SITE OF BIOGRAPHY QUIZ
OF SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE …GREAT STARTER
PERHAPS? OR GUIDE FOR RESEARCH. http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/quiz/bioquiz.htm GOTTA TRY THIS SITE--- http://parallel.park.uga.edu/shaxper/ SUMMARIES OF VARIOUS
PLAYS: http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LAMBTALE.HTM