How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Structure and themes together
How to teach shakespeare

Teaching a whole text, for me, is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job. It can be daunting at first but, after you’ve cut your teeth on a novel or play once, it gets easier. Each time I study a text with a class, I get something new from it.

One of the main characteristics of Shakespeare’s plays is their complexity. The stories are rich and often appear convoluted to the uninitiated. That’s the reason I tend to be explicit and upfront about what is happening in the story. For years, I liked to protect the mystery, but it can be quite hard for some students to grasp the plot, especially with the comedies. No matter how much teaching you have about the language, structure and themes, you will struggle to comprehend the text sufficiently to perform a telling analysis on it if you don’t have the plot secure in your mind. Consequently, I tell students exactly what happens in a scene before we read it. Take the following example for the opening of Romeo and Juliet:

Act 1, Scene 1: Structure

Sampson and Gregory joke.

Fight with Montagues.

Parents arrive.

Prince breaks up fight.

Montague and Benvolio talk about Romeo.

Romeo and Benvolio talk.

This is kept on the board during our reading. Students know what is happening in the scene and it solidifies their understanding so they have a starting point when I ask a question. I will usually use these points as the basis of a quick revision quiz at the start of the next lesson. But it serves a different function too. Take that summary and look at the following questions:

✵ How does the ending link to the start?

✵ What pattern is repeated in the scene?

✵ What changes across the scene?

The interesting thing is that the scene starts and ends with friends talking. But we go from one side of the conflict to the other — the Capulets start, the Montagues finish. The two are clearly defined as opposing sides by the very structure. Shakespeare also takes us from minor to major characters. I love Shakespeare’s introduction of characters; it’s so very revealing. Shylock is talked about by others before we see him, which suggests his alienation and distance from society; he is a complete outsider. He is talked about and not to. The same happens with Macbeth. Reputation precedes the man in the narrative. Romeo is introduced after we see a series of young men paraded before us. They present a typical view of how men behaved in society at the time: they are impulsive, proud, smutty and occasionally aggressive. Enter Romeo: the complete opposite. When summarised as a list, I find students are able to see structural choices better.

At the same time, I give students a list of themes so that they can link this to the structure:

✵ love

✵ hate

✵ conflict

✵ death

✵ destiny

✵ forgiveness

✵ family

So students might make the following points:

✵ The scene starts with hate and ends with love.

✵ The scene involves several conflicts: physical, emotional, familial, civil.

✵ Romeo is a symbol of love; the rest of the characters are symbols of hate.

✵ Family is linked to several aspects: fighting between families, a parent’s concern for their child’s wellbeing.

Putting the structural summary as a list alongside a list of themes really helps to lift the level of discussion. Students are forced to think about the themes during every scene; they become a constant reference point. By the end of the play, they know the themes extremely well, and they can see how each scene feeds into their overall presentation.