Surviving Shakespeare

Olivia Smith // Blog Director

Shakespeare is intimidating. His plays are over four hundred years old, use archaic words and definitions, and can be filled to the brim with obscure references. Reading his plays is no small feat. Regardless of your opinion of him, as the most adapted author of all time, he’s firmly cemented his place into the western literary canon. It can sometimes feel like the only way to be a self-respecting reader or student is to be able to engage in Shakespeare-driven conversations. 

But here’s the thing: we’re rarely taught how to read Shakespeare, let alone enjoy it. 

If you’re like me, your first introduction to Shakespeare was through a half-heartedly taught Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade English. In the first two years at Emerson, Shakespeare came up in five of my classes, four of those times being to read The Tempest. (Seriously, what is it with that play?) But it wasn’t until I signed up for Shakespearean Tragedy on a whim that I dove into the deep world of Shakespeare. At one play a week for a full semester, I quickly learned how not only read Shakespeare, but to (sometimes) like his work.

So if you’re thinking about taking Shakespearean Tragedy (offered every fall), its counterpart comedy class (likewise every spring), or are just tired of reading his dense iambic pentameter to no avail, here are some tips on how to survive Shakespeare. 

Use Your Resources 

Here’s the thing about reading centuries-old plays: spoilers don’t matter. I’ve found that by reading a summary or two before reading, I’ll be able to absorb much more of the material. Use SparkNotes, Wikipedia, or even trusted YouTube videos to help you. Because let’s be honest: sometimes Shakespeare’s details are quickly revealed and make little sense (looking at you, pirates in Hamlet). By using summaries or even more detailed scene synopses, it will be much easier to detect the nuance within the stories. Especially for his plays with over a dozen characters, this can help you cut through all of frivolous details. Of course, these resources are never a substitution for actually reading the plays. You also want to stick to objective resources, as you don’t want them to influence your own reading.

Get a Good Copy

With Shakespeare being firmly in the public domain, his name on the syllabus can sometimes be a sigh of relief for our college wallets. And while he’s extremely accessible and free to read on the internet, good footnotes are an absolute game changer. Good footnotes can give you some much needed context for the things that often keep readers from fully understanding it. I can personally vouch for the Norton edition, and its frequent footnotes often kept me from total obliviousness. Of course, even renting Shakespeare anthologies can be very pricey, so you maybe shouldn’t splurge if you only have a play or two to read. If you’re taking a class on Shakespeare or intend to read many, a good edition is crucial. 

Watch, Don’t Read

While printed copies of the plays have been on the scene since shortly after Shakespeare’s debut, they are no substitution for watching them. Hearing the dialogue, seeing the action, and feeling the emotion is crucial to fully understanding his work. While this approach can sometimes take longer than reading (full, unedited plays can go up to four hours), it will be time well spent when you come out of it better understanding it. Even just having faces to each of his characters can help keep the stories much straighter. I recommend reading along and annotating as you watch. At the very least, it will provide sometimes much needed caption. 

It doesn’t matter which productions you watch, though some will be much better value and more enjoyable than others. You can sometimes find professionally filmed productions in places like the Globe Theater, though it depends on the play. You can also pay to watch high quality productions, though that’s not a budget-friendly option (what I wouldn’t give to see Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus). Worst comes to worst, there are usually community theater performances on YouTube. Just keep in mind that you’re watching it to help you read, not the other way around. 

Also, don’t be afraid to watch productions that bend the rules. You can watch performances that are gender bent or modernly placed or have queer readings. These performances can be sometimes even more enriching than the original material. It’s just important to then acknowledge how not only these canonical changes affect the source material, but how they are reinforced by the source too. 

Interpret it Your Way

When it comes to academic gatekeeping, Shakespeare’s works is one of the greatest offenders. But here’s the secret: there’s no “right” way to read Shakespeare because there is no one interpretation. Sure, some interpretations have more weight than others, but that’s all they are—interpretations. There are hundreds of literary theories to apply to any of Shakespeare’s plays, and if you can find evidence to support your claim, then it’s a good one. Before Shakespeare’s death, he didn’t sit down and pen the only approved readings of his work, and even if he did, death of the author makes that irrelevant. My point is that when you talk about Shakespeare, for fun or academically, you are going to disagree with people. I think that the discourse surrounding Shakespeare is what makes him still relevant today. So use that to your advantage, and draw conclusions that make you want to continue reading.