Shakespeare is the first word that comes to mind when I think of books or movies that are based on his plays. I can personally tell you from experience, the movies are much easier to comprehend than reading the plays. I cannot express how many things bugged me about Shakespeare, from the odd diction choices, to random characters, to the slowed down pace that I am forced to read Shakespeare with. There are many people that indulge themselves into learning all the nuances of Shakespeare to help others begin to understand Shakespeare, and his plays, easier. I applaud you people. THANK YOU. I couldn’t have done it without you. I survived.
Just like anything else, the more you work at it the better you get. I found that as we got deeper into Othello, the play began to get easier and easier to comprehend. His technique in writing became easier to understand so I was eventually able to read through Othello without having to Google every single word. Practice really does make perfect.
Survival Tips
Just like anything else, the more you work at it the better you get. I found that as we got deeper into Othello, the play began to get easier and easier to comprehend. His technique in writing became easier to understand so I was eventually able to read through Othello without having to Google every single word. Practice really does make perfect.
Survival Tips
- Reread! I cannot stress this enough. This was the most helpful thing I can recommend because it was the best way to get acclimated to the way Shakespeare writes his plays. You will find that many times while reading Shakespeare you will get lost or confused -- this is normal. Shakespeare can be hard to understand, and that is why when you need to reread each page just to make sure that you have full comprehension of what is happening in the play. For example, when I was reading act 1 I was totally lost when Iago says, “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe” (1.1.19) because I’ve never heard of a black man and a white women being referred to as a “black ram” and “white ewe” respectively. After I reread the passage my understanding of the passage increased because the context around the sentence was able to help me identify that Iago had been talking about Othello and Desdemona.
- Pay attention to the first and last lines! There are multiple monologues and soliloquies that occur throughout Othello and sometimes they can be hard to follow. Shakespeare likes to use unnecessary lines or “fillers” within his character’s monologues just so the character can hear themselves talk. Notice I used the word “unnecessary” for a reason, this is because a tip I learned was if you read the first couple lines and the last line of the monologue you still get all the information you need that you otherwise would have had to read. This saves you the stress of getting lost in a passage.
- Reenacting the scenes really help! I know most kids don’t like getting up in front of the class and performing, but believe me when I tell you it helps. People learn things in different ways such as auditory learners, hands on learners, or visual learners. We are brought up in a modern society so most people learn from seeing things preformed whether it’s on TV, social media, or movies. In class we performed scenes and reenactments that helped everyone better understand what went on during the play. It’s something about how you imagine the scene while you read it and actually seeing a visual of the scene when it is preformed allows most people to understand the plays better.