Study Help
Practice Projects
1. Shakespeare's plays are meant to be heard; thus, the plays are more easily understood if studied in performance. Selecting a seemingly difficult scene to present to an audience will add depth to your understanding of the text and make complex characters easier to grasp. For instance, Caliban's role is The Tempest is often misunderstood. Recruit two friends and together present Act III, Scene 2 to your classmates.
2. During Shakespeare's time, many people were opposed to the theater, arguing that
a. Acting corrupts youth, by focusing on the unsavory elements of society: lascivious behavior and ungodly practices.
b. Vagrants and thieves are drawn to the theatre, and as a result, crime increases.
c. Servants and other working people neglect their work to go to the theatre, and this induces laziness.
d. Crowds of people at the theatre lead to more illness, especially plague which spreads more easily in crowded public areas.
e. Acting is lying, and so actors are dishonest people.
Construct a chart that compares Elizabethan attitudes toward theatre with modern attitudes. On one side list the Elizabethan attitudes toward actors and the theatre, while on the other side, list the modern attitudes toward theatre or film. Be sure to include modern attitudes toward actors.