Context and Concepts
Icebreaker
- Reflect on the characters from Shakespeare’s plays and consider how they might be judged in terms of morality. List as many Shakespearean characters in a morality table (good, bad, ambiguous) and in each category based on your understand of their actions and motivations.
| Good | Bad | Ambiguous |
|---|---|---|
| Juliet | Tybalt | Romeo |
| Benvolio | Romeo | Mercutio |
| Kat | Petruchio | |
| Des | Iago | |
| Viola | Lady Macbeth | |
| Seb |
Why More Shakespeare?
- In Stage 5 English, we need to deeply analyse the themes and context and to critically think about meaning.
- This would mean identifying Shakespeare’s textual decisions and how it reflects his own society’s values and perspectives.
- Shakespeare is still studied today because it still applies today.
- His texts also have a lot of abstract themes and meaning.
- He also influenced modern writing today. Themes, plots, and characters are STILL relevant.
- The human experience is the sequence of events and situations that we all go through and makes us human. Themes and concepts such as love, death, and motivations.
Why We Learn Shakespeare
“We study Shakespeare to learn more about the human experience and how our understanding of it has changed over time.”
Challenging Context
- Shakespeare was written over 400 years ago. This means that social perspectives and values have changed over time.
- Let’s compare the values of society between Shakespeare’s time and now.
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| Supernaturalism and Witches | Realism and Naturalism |
| Fate | Destiny |
| Religion (mostly Christianity) | Religion |
| Slaves, Sexism, and Patriarchy (Gender Roles) | Establishment of Human Rights, Gender Equality |
| Natural Medicine or Pseudo-Medicine (e.g. bloodletting) | Medicine Backed By Chemistry and Research |
Applying Context to Macbeth
- The supernatural plays a heavy role in Macbeth.