How To Understand a Shakespeare Play
Five Easy Steps to Success with Studying Shakespeare!
Nov 2, 2008
Before you even start to read the play, find out a little bit about it first.
Know The Genre
Make sure you know the genre of the play you are studying – in other words, the type of play you have in front of you. Most of Shakespeares's plays fall within three major categories – Tragedy, Comedy or History, and each follows a generally recognisable pattern. This will give you important clues as to what to expect.
- For example, a Tragedy such as Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear or Othello will centre around a male hero of high social status, who will contribute to his own downfall by some flaw in his own personality. By the end of the play, the hero will die – and usually many other characters as well – but ultimately social order will be restored.
- Comedy in Shakespeare’s time was rather different to modern expectations of the genre, with a light-hearted rather than laugh-out-loud tone, although puns are common. The action will often revolve around a young couple who must overcome obstacles on their path to the marriage that forms the happy ending of the play. Generally the love affair of the main couple is mirrored by another relationship which must also undergo hardships before happiness is granted, and cases of mistaken identity are common. Well known examples of this genre include Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
- The History plays are more difficult to generalise, but are often based on the lives of English kings. The plots can sometimes be confusing, and these plays are well worth watching in performance (see below).
Watch, Don't Read
Try to see the play in peformance, whether you are lucky enough to get to see it at a theatre, or have to make do with renting a DVD from the library. Shakespeare’s plays were written to be watched and heard, not read from the pages of a book, and by seeing the play in performance will give you a number of extras to help you in your quest to understand the words – actions, facial expressions, intonation, costume and so on. Most versions, particularly modern ones, are aimed at a general viewer rather than a Shakespeare scholar, and so most directors go out of their way to make the events of the play easy to understand.
Speak the Speech Trippingly On the Tongue
If you really cannot get to see a performance, read the play out loud to yourself. Yes, you might feel foolish, but there is no other way to really appreciate the beauty of the poetry.
Let the Words Flow
Following on from the point above, try to resist the temptation to stop and check the meaning of every other word when you are reading the play for yourself. This will interrupt the flow of the play, and make its overall meaning more obscure – remember that understanding a text does not require you to understand the meaning of every single word! This is particularly true of the comedies – some of the humour simply hasn’t stood the test of time, and you can save yourself hours of bafflement by skipping the joke and moving on to the next bit.
Ask for Assistance
Finally, if you are really struggling, there is no shame in seeking help. There are many editions of the play available that have been designed specifically to aid students in their understanding of the text, although try to avoid those that provide a modern full translation alongside the original play as you may be tempted to just read that and avoid Shakespeare’s words altogether! Excellent editions are produced by Heinemann, offering a brief summary of each section, translations of difficult words and a selection of questions at the end of each scene to help the reader identify the key elements.
Remember, studying Shakespeare may not always be easy, but it is rewarding. Many of the issues he covered are still relevant today – racism in Othello,the position of women in society in Taming of the Shrew – so a little effort in overcoming the initial language barrier will be richly repaid. Good luck!
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