10 Solid Ways to Read and Understand Shakespeare
Shakespeare is the greatest of all English poets. Not only does he enjoy the reputation of being the national poet of England, he also enjoys being one of the most difficult poets to read and understand.
Because understanding Shakespeare is difficult and tricky, students are afraid to write about him or analyze his work. To do the work, they prefer handing over the work to legit essay writing service and get their work done by a professional essay writer.
Still, you will need to study and understand the bard for your exams and class presentations. But don't be afraid, understanding Shakespeare is difficult but not impossible. Following are some solid ways of understanding his writing.
- Don't Stress Yourself: Relax and stay positive; stressing yourself will only make the process difficult and lengthy. We know it will take you some time to understand Shakespeare’s language but if the people of his time could understand it, you could too.
- Do not read it in Silence: Shakespeare’s plays are written to be acted out, not to be read in silence. It is studied in college course now but back in the days, it was written for entertainment and to be acted out on a stage.
Reading out loud will help you focus and understand the rhythm and intonation of the verses.
- Find the Meanings of Unfamiliar Words: Shakespeare was literally having fun with the language. Instead of just using the language of the time, he invented the words and phrases to fit into his narratives.
The cheap essay writing service must mark and note down all the unfamiliar words and search their meanings. Knowing the meanings will help you understand what the characters are talking about.
- Pay Attention to Punctuation: Punctuations are really important to read and understand the Shakeapearean plays. Commas, colon, periods, semicolons and question marks are essential to understand the complete meaning of the lines and phrases.
- Restructure the Sentences: Poetic narrative is different than how we normally speak. Therefore, the best way of understanding it is to restructure it in the way we speak. For example,
“Never was seen so black a day as this:” (Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene v)
This verse could be rearranged as, ‘No other day was as black as this day’. This way, it is much more understandable than in the verse form.
- Look up the Contracted Words: Shakespearean dramas and poetry have a number of words that have been shortened to match and fit meter and rhyme scheme of the verse. If a word has an apostrophe in it, it means that a research paper topics has been left out.
Most of the time, you would understand the word but if not then you can look for it online.
- Learn the Difference between Thou, Thy, Thine and Thee: These words were used in old language. Shakespeare used these words a lot and you need to know about them if you want to understand his writings better. Thou and thee means ‘you’ and thy and thine means ‘your’ and ‘yours’.
- Understand the Ellipsis: Ellipsis is a technique in which a word is left out to match the complete structure and length of the verse. This missing words confuse many readers as they could not understand what the characters are referring to.
- Track the Course of Action: Since a drama is a long form of verse, at times it becomes difficult to keep track of the course of action. Before moving forward, make sure that you understand who the subject, object and verb are.
- Understand his Rhetorical Devices: Shakespeare used rhetorical devices and he give importance to words counter for essays. Some common devices that are found in his works are allusions, metaphors and puns. Before you go on, step back and take some time to identify and understand these devices and their meanings.
Bonus Tip: Get a reading guide to understand Shakespeare. An annotated text will help you learn and understand better.
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