How to Read and Understand Shakespeare

Overview

Course No. 2711
Learn to fully appreciate Shakespeare with this utterly unique course outlining over 40 interpretive tools that reveal his unsurpassed genius.

Shakespeare’s works demand to be experienced and understood, yet his Elizabethan language and complex poetry can be challenging. This 24-lecture course provides innovative tools to enter Shakespeare’s dramatic world, grasp his plays’ deeper meanings, and enjoy them fully both on page and stage. Professor Conner, drawing on decades of Shakespearean study and performance, reveals more than 40 interpretive techniques found within the texts themselves that illuminate:

• Shakespeare’s rich metaphorical language
• Thematic plot structures
• Character development
• Cultural context of Elizabethan England

Video Lectures

1. Approaching Shakespeare-The Scene Begins (32 min)
   Four entry points for understanding Shakespeare’s language and stagecraft.
2. Shakespeare’s Theater and Stagecraft (30 min)
   Elizabethan theatrical conventions and creating “reality” through language.
3. A Midsummer Night’s Dream-Comic Tools (34 min)
   Shakespeare’s expansion of classical Roman comedy models.
4. A Midsummer Night’s Dream-Comic Structure (30 min)
   Three-part comedic structure leading to reconciliation.
5. Romeo and Juliet-Words, Words, Words (32 min)
   Shakespeare’s use of language to distinguish class and personality.
6. Romeo and Juliet-The Tools of Tragedy (31 min)
   Character-driven tragedy and fate vs. free will.
7. Appearance versus Reality in Twelfth Night (32 min)
   Crises of identity and power role reversals.
8. Twelfth Night-More Comic Tools (31 min)
   Self-knowledge versus isolation in mature comedy.
9. Richard II-History and Kingship (33 min)
   Divine right of kings and historical meaning.
10. Politics as Theater in Henry IV, Part I (30 min)
    Theatrical role-playing in Hal’s journey to kingship.
11. Henry IV, Part 2-Contrast and Complexity (30 min)
    Shifting depictions of courage and honor.
12. The Drama of Ideas in Henry V (30 min)
    Henry’s manipulation of faith and political theater.
13. Macbeth-“Foul and Fair” (32 min)
    Reversals of reality and meaning in tragedy.
14. The Tragic Woman in Macbeth (29 min)
    Lady Macbeth’s inverse character arc.
15. Staging Hamlet (30 min)
    Theater devices determining fate.
16. The Religious Drama of Hamlet (31 min)
    Theological issues and afterlife foreboding.
17. The Women of Hamlet (31 min)
    Gertrude and Ophelia’s thematic roles.
18. The Merchant of Venice-Comedy or Tragedy? (29 min)
    Dark undercurrents in comic structure.
19. The Arc of Character in The Merchant of Venice (31 min)
    Breaking stereotypes of comic villains.
20. Measure for Measure-Is This Comedy? (30 min)
    Hypocrisy and deception in problem plays.
21. Measure for Measure-Overcoming Tragedy (31 min)
    Tragic elements transformed.
22. Tools of Romance in The Tempest (32 min)
    Three-part structure of Late Romances.
23. The Tempest-Shakespeare’s Farewell to Art (30 min)
    Prospero as Shakespeare’s self-portrait.
24. The Tools for a Lifetime of Shakespeare (32 min)
    Applying techniques to additional plays.