Enjoying Shakespeare 1

Reading & Enjoying Shakespeare, the supreme center of the Western Canon

Compiled by bunpeiris

Of all the images of Shakespeare, I like this most: the image with a ring in the ear. Of course, Shakespeare had no pretensions. An interesting idea by some punk [eh!] painter. I love that ring, a glorious diamond in the ear like that of our cricketer Tilakarathne Dilshan could be even better. In spite of his profound insights into the humanity, as I see, Will was a bit of a punk: he played to the gallery now & then with ultimate kinky, sexy double entrende.
 You know why?  He had to keep the attention of his rowdy, noisy, restless audience. 

Why should we read stories?
1. Because they tell us how to live

   Street story teller to Scheherazade, the narrator of 1001 Arabian nights

2.“It is quite possible--overwhelmingly probable, one might guess--that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology” ― Noam Chomsky(Born in 1928), father of modern linguistics, a major figure in analytic philosophy.

Students say	My Comment
3. To get to know of people in other countries, their cultures, their lives	Brilliant
4. To enjoy, for fun	Absolutely
5. To learn English	Indeed
6. To learn the values of the people in other countries.	Lovely
7.
8.

Now write your own answers to above question in the space given in the boxes.
Then complete each of following sentences with the words given.

Why should we read Shakespeare? [We will be enjoying The Merchant of Venice”]

"In the literary works of Shakespeare, we see the whole spectrum of _____________, treated impersonally, but with  _______________ & understanding. We seldom meet in Shakespeare a weeping philosopher: he may criticize, but he criticizes both sides. After he has done so, he gives the impression of saying, Well, that’s the way life is; people will always be like that-don’t get ___________ about it.

Kindness, humanity, upset

What did Shakespeare do?
"Shakespeare not only invented the English ______________ , but also created human __________  as we know it today" Harold Bloom(born in 1930) 
What does this mean? For the explanation, see the next question. [*1]

Language, nature

What makes Shakespeare so popular? [*1]
Shakespeare's ability to ___________  the range of ______________ emotions in simple yet profoundly _______________  verse is the greatest reason for his enduring popularity.

If you cannot find words to _____________ how you feel about love or music or ________________  older, Shakespeare can speak for you. No author in the Western world has penned more beloved passages.

Eloquent, summarize, express, human, growing

What makes Shakespeare’s art so great?

His ability to say so much to so many people in such memorable language: he himself “the show and the gaze o’ the time.”

How do others see Shakespeare (1564-1616)?
1.  " ____________ in a man."
    Elizabethan Poet & playwright Michael Drayton (1563 – 1631)

2.  "The writing of Shakespeare was of such ______________that "neither Man nor
      Muse" could offer it sufficient praise”
3.  “He was not of an age, for ___________ "
     Ben Jonson (1572–1637) Shakespeare's friend  & rival.

4.  "Comprehensive ______________ " 
     Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (1900 – 1997),a British writer and critic

Soul, Perfection, all time, quality

____________________________________________________________________

How do you read Shakespeare?
Don’t become a cry baby rushing to a dictionary of Shakespearean (or rather, Elizabethan) English whenever you come across a new word. Make no stone unturned to arrive at the meaning of the new word by viewing it in the backdrop of the text [current, preceding & succeeding lines], context [general roll of the events] & perspective. Do not become a slave of the language of the Master writer.
Master the Master’s language: master the master.

Primary objective of Cambridge O/L LITERATURE IN ENGLISH [2010] YEAR 2016
QUOTE SYLLABUS
AO1 Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts
AO2 Understand the ways literary texts can be interpreted from surface level to deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes and their contexts.
UNQUOTE SYLLABUS

We learn Shakespeare basically for the literary purposes: to enjoy the story.
Get to the meaning of the literary work, in your case, “Merchant Of Venice”
What was the author’s idea behind the work?
Why did he write it?
What was he trying to say?
Identifying & explaining themes: what really, aside from questions of plot or story
is the work about?
What is the central, the major idea or ideas?
Under the guise of the story, what messages are we meant to receive?

Secondary objective
QUOTE SYLLABUS
AO4 Recognize and appreciate ways in which writers achieve their effects (e.g. structure, plot, characterization, dramatic tension, imagery, rhythm, setting and mood)

UNQUOTE SYLLABUS

Tertiary objective: Breaking the code of Shakespeare
QUOTE SYLLABUS
AO3 Recognize and appreciate ways in which writers use language
UNQUOTE SYLLABUS
[We don’t go deep into this matter, as it isn’t required at your level of learning: however to make you relaxed with the language of Shakespeare, now & then, as we come across in the drama, we will be discussing the matter with a light touch, though not all of them]

Like no other: Shakespeare was the one & only Master.

An Examination Question on The Merchant of Venice

Question:
How does Shakespeare set about delineating his chief characters as compared with other authors? Importance of his secondary personages in this particular?
Answer:
The distinguishing feature of Shakespeare's delineation of character is the utter absence of all formal and deliberate effort to assist us in gaining an insight into the minds of his creatures. Little by little the whole tissue of their minds is revealed to a carefully observant eye; but it is all done in the natural course of conversation and events, and without the slightest consciousness on the part of the reader of an intentional discussion of character by Shakespeare.
With most other authors the case is different.

Take George Eliot for an example.
Her character-portrayals are marvellously powerful, but her method is the exactopposite of Shakespeare's. After every trifling incident she dissects andanalyzes each sensation and emotion of her characters with a carefulness andminuteness of detail due to her very excess of mental grasp; and so far as the characters themselves are concerned, she requires little mental action on thepart of her readers save the following out of her own train of thought. 

It is easy to see, in pursuing his method, of what great value Shakespeare's secondary characters would be to him.By means of casual remarks or involuntary displays of emotion on the part ofchance-acquaintances or of more intimate friends, many of the finer touches are added, almost without our being conscious of it, to the images which shape themselves in our minds as we read, but which would have instantly jarred uponus had they come to us from the lips of the chief characters themselves.

Following is an extract from Silas Marner. Therein in George Eliot judges Godfrey.

Godfrey was too painfully preoccupied to feel a twinge of self-reproach at this undeserved praise. He walked up & down, unconscious that he was plunging ankle-deep in snow, , unconscious of everything but trembling suspense about what was going on in the cottage, and the effect of each alternative on his future lot. No, not quite unconscious of everything else. Deeper down, and half-smothered by passionate desire and dread, there was the sense that he ought  not to be waiting on these alternatives; that he ought to accept the consequences of his deeds, own the miserable wife, and fulfil the claims of the helpless child. But he had not moral courage enough to contemplate that active renunciation of Nancy as possible for him: he had only conscience and heart enough to make him forever uneasy under the weakness that forbade the renunciation. And at this moment his mind leaped away from all restraint toward the sudden prospect of deliverance from his long bondage.