How to Read and Understand Shakespeare

by Marc C. Conner

Shakespeare's works are among the greatest of humanity's cultural expressions and, as such, demand to be experienced and understood.

But, simply put, Shakespeare is difficult. His language and culture - those of Elizabethan England - are greatly different from our own, and his poetry, thick with metaphorical imagery and double meanings, can be hard to penetrate.

Yet the keys to understanding Shakespeare are written into the plays themselves. If you can learn to recognize the playwright's own clues, you'll become able to engage meaningfully with his language, to follow the plot structures and themes that drive his plays, and to track the development of his characters.

Over the course of 24 lectures, this innovative and penetrating exploration of Shakespeare's plays reveals how to enter Shakespeare's dramatic world, how to grasp what's happening in any of his plays, and how to enjoy them fully both on the page and the stage.

Under Professor Conner's expert guidance, shaped by decades of studying and performing Shakespeare, you learn more than 40 interpretive tools, drawn from the texts themselves, that give you direct insight into the plays. These guiding principles allow you to follow the narratives of the plays as they unfold, with a clear understanding of how the plays function and fit together.

The professor also reveals fascinating details of Shakespeare's era, which shed further light on the plays and the way his contemporary audiences perceived them.

This course builds the skills that allow you to reach your own understanding of the plays - to deeply comprehend Shakespeare's transcendent poetic language, the spellbinding world of his great characters and stories, and his revelatory reflections on human experience.

Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.

©2013 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2013 The Great Courses

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare, Audiobook, Literature, Plays, Classics, History

529 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Dr. Marc C. Conner is the Jo M. and James M. Ballengee Professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Professor Conner earned his bachelor's degrees in English and philosophy at the University of Washington and his master's and doctoral degrees in English literature at Princeton University.

Reviews

[H (no longer expecting notifications) Balikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been fascinated by Shakespeare ever since Mrs. Whitehouse, my teacher when I was 11, showed us the Shakespeare movies made by Orson Welles. “Understanding” is different than fascination. Some of the genius of William Shakespeare is the depth of his writing that can refer to many things and can affect the reader or member of the audience in different ways depending on their life experiences or what age they are.

Connor takes us on a 24-lecture deep dive into many of Shakespeare’s plays: Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories. In doing so, he provides both context and themes while examining the way in which Shakespeare chooses to present his material.

Though this may sound technical (and boring), it is anything but that. His lectures are well-organized and full of insights. Best of all, he shares with us his “toolbox” for un-packing the plays and his approach is both logical and entertaining. I have no reluctance to go through the material more than once because there will be occasions when his specifics about the “comedies” or “histories” or “tragedies” will aid in making attending a performance that much better!

My GR friend Marta has taken a different approach to reviewing this series and it’s worth reading https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great course I found on Hoopla and highly recommend to all who want to read more Shakespeare. It consists of 24 half an hour long lectures.

Marc Conner speaks clearly and engagingly about Shakespeare and his theater, and about his plays. In each lecture, he introduces a “tool” (or three) to help us understand dimensions of the play. For example, the type of play: a comedy is about young love that has an obstacle standing in the way, which is overcome, and the play ends in marriage(s). A tragedy would end with death. The best comedies snatch a happy ending from an almost tragedy. Another tool is to examine the first lines of what a character speaks. In case of history plays, follow the history (rather obvious). In tragedies, the tragic woman gives insight... etc, etc.

After an intro, Conner delves into twelve plays of the Bard, each illustrating a best example of the period of Shakespeare’s life and the type of play. These include Romeo and Juliet, The Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (his favorite), Macbeth, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest (there are more). I have really enjoyed it, especially about the ones I read, but also ones I have not, or read too long ago.

Recommend for Shakespeare readers. Free on Hoopla.

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great lecture series. It went over several I've already read and a few I haven't, and covered his comedies, tragedies, histories and romances. The lecturer gave relevant historical information for the plays, which was helpful for putting you in the mind of the people who lived when Shakespeare would have been writing his plays.

He also broke down Shakespeare's common tropes and how he structured his plays depending on what genre they were, and how that could help inform you what the play's conflict was going to be before you even started. Some plays got more lectures than others, but each play got a comprehensive breakdown of not just the tropes, but their themes and characters. He also explained the importance of when an individual play was written. For instance, the two "problem plays" as he calls them, "The Merchant of Venice" and "Measure for Measure" which are considered comedies but are quite dark and were written around the same time he was writing all his great tragedies. Conner really did provide a lot of context you wouldn't get from just reading the plays themselves.

The supplementary PDF didn't offer up any additional information or resources, but it a good summary of each lecture if you don't want to listen to them again.

[Mary-Therese P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have a problem, I think I like reading about Shakespeare play more then actually reading them😬

I highly recommend this book. Easy to read, very insightful, and flawlessly covers approximately two thirds of all the Shakespeare cannon. I would recommend listening to the audiobook version on Audible.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read my first Shakespeare play as a freshman in high school. And I hated it. Successive English classes each brought more plays, and I disliked every experience. The language was impenetrable, the plots (every one a tragedy) disagreeable. I was sure Shakespeare would never be for me.

Then I went to college, where they had a program that showed artistic (mostly foreign language) films once a week for free. One week that movie was Shakespeare's Henry V by Kenneth Branagh. I was blown away. Not only did I actually understand what was going on, I loved it. Drama, comic interludes, great speeches, insights into the human condition. It was all there. And I thought, "maybe I don't hate Shakespeare after all." To this day it is my favorite movie, partly because it got me to reconsider Shakespeare.

I've seen more Shakespeare in the years since, and I do enjoy it. But the language can still be a challenge and some of the material still goes over my head. So when I saw this course at my library I was interested.

One of the great things about the Great Courses series is that the presenters are not only very knowledgeable about the subject and well organized with the presentation, but it's always quite apparent how much they love the material. Conner is no exception and his enthusiasm really helps bring the material across.

In each lecture, he presents what he calls "tools" for understanding Shakespeare. These are common themes or devices used by Shakespeare in his plays. For example, Shakespeare often employs a "play within the play" device in his plays. A common theme is "appearance versus reality." These "tools" are things to look for that help to understand the plays. Conner reuses these tools in successive lectures as he describes each play.

The best thing about this course for me was that it introduced me to more Shakespeare plays. Conner discusses 12 different plays in depth during the course, and I watched all of them (except Hamlet, of which I had already seen four versions) after he had covered it. I doubt I would have ever gotten into A Midsummer Night's Dream without that prompting. And I don't know how long it would have taken me to see The Merchant of Venice, which I really liked, without this incentive.

Watching or rewatching Shakespeare also drove home how much of successive English literature and English idiom have been influenced by Shakespeare. Everything from Sherlock Holmes' "the game's afoot" to Willy Wonka's "so shines a good deed in a weary world" to Huxley's "brave new world" and more have their origins in Shakespeare. Seeing that was like a reverse Easter egg.

I really enjoyed this course and enjoyed immersing myself in more Shakespeare. I think it will help me to more fully understand and enjoy Shakespeare in the future.

[Geoff Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insights for those of us who wish to understand more thoroughly the bard's works.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction. Of course, the ‘tools’ are just some (not all) of the things we might (or might not) consider when reading a play.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

2021 goal – read Shakespeare – at least two plays and at least 2 more biographies/memoirs.

Initially, I was disappointed that these lectures weren’t as intensively investigative (I must be a glutton for punishment but me thinks just overly ambitious) as I really know very little about Shakespeare influences other than watching movies and 1-2 biographies about what little is surmised about the man himself. However, I realized by the 4th lecture how these starter discussions were a good fit for more insight into the writings.

Highly recommend it to all- especially ages 18yrs – I wish I had this at that age as this would have shown me how much of all my reading, movies, just nearly every creative (western) idea has some base in Shakespeare. Glad I purchased this from Audible.com – worth every penny.

The author provides recommended reading (one I have already tackled, more that I have not). And its as if the universe heard my thoughts and I found 2 books in the “free” pile
101 Things You Didn't Know About Shakespeare: His Secret Loves! His Artistic Feuds! His Biggest Flops!

and Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare's country yesterday.

[Daniel Frederickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great listen for utilizing the tools needed to understand Shakespeare on stage and on paper. It gives one a real thirst to go back to those famous plays to see what new depths of insight they reveal.

Connor explains the common methods of interpretation needed to accurately understand where Shakespeare was coming from and where he was going with his ideas. I wish he had explored a few more motifs such as the love triangle and the Elizabethan views of suicide, but you can't have everything.

Shakespeare was also a man who knew the Bible 100 times better than the modern reader and employed hundreds of references to Scripture, yet Conner consistently downplays or even omits the Bible's impact while showing modern reinterpretations in a positive light. Modern interpretations have their place, but some meaning is lost without an explanation of who God was to Shakespeare. Perhaps the best example is the omission of an allusion to "Leah for Rachel" in Measure for Measure which he credited to "folk tales".

Overall a great listen that can revive a love for Shakespeare in anyone wanting to learn and enjoy these plays for the rest of their life.

[Uli Vogel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having majored in Elizabethan drama decades ago, I was rather impressed by the knowledge my lecturers provided me with rather than learning anything new from this reading. Maybe I'm also too much of a purist, but hearing an American quoting Shakespeare's words still makes me whince. I also disagree with some of his interpretations, especially of my favourites (Tempest, Midsummernight's Dream), and OH I got increasingly annoyed with him mentioning that Romeo and Juliet was his best play - which I, you may have guessed, also strongly disagree on. The one thing we seem to have in common is insisting on having Shakespeare's verses , like all poetry, read aloud, as rhythm and rhyme must be heard and felt.

[Kelly]

Because I had the sudden urge to do a Shakespeare reread binge, but also wanted to relive Dr. Richardson's class from ::mumble:: years ago. This lecture series approaches the material just as I was taught to, both as poetry and the theatrical performance. Great to listen to in the car to get every last drop of goodness out of my rereading.

[Lorri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marc Conner explains and applies a variety of meaningful approaches, strategies, and other tools for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating all of Shakespeare’s plays.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done, and a good introduction for those who knew nothing beyond Romeo and Juliet hehe



my notes:

Julieta, medidations on language. And the meaning of names, and how we cannot escape them

Written language doesn't tell us how to read it, or express it in play

The work of imaginary forces

The Norton Shakespeare

Riverside Shakespeare edition

Signet penguin

Ardin/ardent Shakespeare

Hamlet, where Shakespeare tells how he want his plays to be played

Tools of statecraft: play within the play, play as mirror up to nature, reading aloud natural unadopted mind, awareness of bread society, bared stage, elaborate costumes.pp

Altar ot tomb, comedy or tragedy.

Act 3 always important for plot/action, decisive, dramatic crux


Mature comedies, underlying dark, mirror lower plots that diverge in their resolution, a sacrifice character whose is necessary for the happy ending but sees not of that happiness at the end

Figure, agent of grace and redemption

Transforming love

Elisabethan England section of the Shakespeare resource centre


Historical plays: Does worth or birth make the king

The fair and foul in tragedy, constantly reversing itself, what is foul is fair, and what is fair is foul, and then it changes up again. External appearance vs internal truth

Dynamic of ignorance and knowledge in character arc

Incarnadine - the ocean will not wash Macbeth's hands away, but his hands will turn the ocean red with blood, turn it Incarnadine

"Words without thought never goes to heaven"

C s lewis essay on hamlet

"The character of Hamlet's mother"

Love as knowledge, as the great risk, knowledge of self comes by knowing others

Hamlet -- troubled by action, makes many questions

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectures:
1. Approaching Shakespeare - The Scene Begins
2. Shakespeare's Theater and Stagecraft
3. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Comic Tools
4. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Comic Structure
5. Romeo and Juliet - Words, Words, Words
6. Romeo and Juliet - The Tools of Tragedy
7. Appearance versus Reality in Twelfth Night
8. Twelfth Night - More Comic Tools
9. Richard II - History and Kingship
10. Politics as Theater in Henry IV, Part I
11. Henry IV, Part 2 - Contrast and Complexity
12. The Drama of Ideas in Henry V
13. Macbeth - "Foul and Fair"
14. The Tragic Woman in Macbeth
15. Staging Hamlet
16. The Religious Drama of Hamlet
17. The Women of Hamlet
18. The Merchant of Venice - Comedy or Tragedy?
19. The Arc of Character in The Merchant of Venice
20. Measure for Measure - Is This Comedy?
21. Measure for Measure - Overcoming Tragedy
22. Tools of Romance in The Tempest
23. The Tempest - Shakespeare's Farewell to Art
24. The Tools for a Lifetime of Shakespeare

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wonderful. I really enjoyed some of the insights I was able to gather from Conner taking me through so many of the plays. I highly recommend this as a place to start if you're new to Shakespeare or like me returning after a long time.

Conner walks you through the different phases of Shakespeare's career and how those tie into the things going on in his life at the time he wrote the plays. He talks you through the similarities in the plays, the common themes that run through them, and points out some really subtle bits of wordplay that I for one have missed getting before.

All in all, well worth the time it took to go through this. Another great addition to the Great Courses.

[George Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never been a big Shakespeare person. I've always attributed that to an intellectual and/or cultural deficiency. So I took this (Great Courses) 24 lecture 12 hour course and I actually enjoyed it! Professor Conner's enthusiasm is infectious and motivating. The lectures are described as "innovative and penetrating" and I agree as I now have more understanding, insight and, most importantly, appreciation of Shakespeare's works. I highly recommend this course.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good. Dr. Conner goes over 12 plays in depth & talks about some of the others. Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelveth Night, Measure for Measure, The Henriad or the tetralogy consisting of Richard II, Henry IV parts I & II & Henry V, The Tempest, Macbeth & Julius Caesar.

[Brendan Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great guide to understanding the Bard! While this will be sure to reward even those uninitiated in Shakespeare, it helps to have at least a basic grasp of the plays covered in the course.

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apr 2019. This introduction to Shakespeare offers dozens of "tools" for interpreting the plays: abstractions such as "the play within the play" or "the block to young love" that recur throughout the canon. The lecturer is engaging and knowledgeable, but not especially insightful: as a teacher he is more artist (performer) than critic. His favorite critics, if we look to quotations, are Harold Bloom and Northrop Frye. He uses the four-part division of Shakespeare's plays: tragedy, comedy, history, and romance, unlike Peter Saccio's Great Courses lecture, which uses only the three categories from the seventeenth century. Conner does not treat the plays chronologically: it is an introduction to the plays themselves, not Shakespeare's career. I found myself wishing for a "toolbox" to organize the tools into a method; but it wouldn't be too hard to make one up, based on genre. It didn't help that the Course Guidebook's "lecture summaries" are organized by bullet-point paragraphs, rather than a formal outline.

[Teri-K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this dive into Shakespeare's plays, though the idea of having over 40 "tools" for understanding anything is ridiculously unwieldy. Thankfully he zeroes in on just a few worth remembering. In the process about half of the plays have been discussed, mostly separately so you can listen or read about just the play you're particularly interested in if you want. I expect I'll go back as I reread the plays to remind myself of some of the points he makes. I find the more I understand the plays the more I can enjoy them, and form my own ideas about what's happening.

The main tools are:
Stage craft: The play-within-a-play, or a character acting to manipulate others.
Double plot: Often high/low social cast.
Importance of the "green world" in comedies.
Block to young love by a figure in authority or law.
Role of fate in tragedy.
Punishment of the opponent of mirth.
Arc of character development.
Appearance vs reality.

As far as the audio goes, the speaker was fine.

[Doug Trani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outstanding lecture series is truly a Rosetta Stone for unlocking the secrets of Shakespeare's plays. Rather than analyzing and interpreting one play at a time, professor Conner takes a more global approach by providing the listener with tools designed for understanding the structures and devices at work in all the plays. With these tools in hand, it becomes possible to dig beneath the surface events and grasp the more specific, deep, and complex meanings of any of Shakespeare's plays. I used to find Shakespeare about as comprehensible as a hieroglyph. A collection of words, words, words that left me confused, bored, and even fearful of reading the plays or going to the theater. If professor Conner's goal was to provide his listener with the skills and confidence needed to enjoy a lifetime of Shakespeare, it worked with me.

[Trevor Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conner's objective is to give the average person ability to enjoy and interpret Shakespeare, using a wide range of literary and dramatic tools.

I am bad at literature, don't enjoy plays, and have never read a full Shakespeare play. Target audience, I guess?

I don't know that this course achieved what I was hoping. I did acquire more interest in reading Shakespeare (picked up a copy of Hamlet) and I plan on revisiting these lectures in the process. But I think they work better if you read the plays while you listen to the courses. But Connor covers a couple dozen plays here, so I'm not sure how realistic that is.

[Mai Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I wish my lectures at university had been this engaging. Conner brings the words and themes of Shakespeare into sharp focus, exploring forms, patterns, and universal truths contained within the plays. I particularly enjoyed the parts about the recurring image of 'the green world' and also the repeating elements of tragedy and comedy.

This series should be an integral part of every GCSE syllabus. I'm sure it would really help teenagers connect with Shakespeare.

In general, anyone with even the mildest curiosity should definitely give it a listen.

[Joshua Dew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was optimistic when introduction to this series stated that Professor Conner is a trained Shakespearean actor having just listened to a couple very dry Great Courses lectures. My optimism was not misplaced as these entertaining and informative lectures provide listeners with a "toolbox" of interpretive methods which unlocked the mysteries of the Shakespearean play and opened up a new world for me beyond the stage. I couldn't recommend this series enough!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting thematic overview of Shakespeare's plays, focusing heavily on the comedies (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night) and tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth). Though primarily concerned with understanding commonalities of the different genres, Conner also discusses stagecraft and using details from Shakespeare's own time to interpret his plays.

[Charles Collard · Rating 5 out of 5]

this course gave an excellent set of tools for analyzing, understanding and enjoying the plays of shakespeare. although the title implies it primarily for reading the text i find it is just as applicable to watching a production. really help make the plays less intimidating and i wish i had access to this course in high school ;)

can't wait to attend some performances again

[Selene Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous course for anyone who wants to read or understand the genius of Shakespeare. He focuses on a small number of plays (covering all genres: history, tragedy, comedy), and he makes it incredibly relevant and understandable. Now I want to read more of Shakespeare, incorporating the tools Conner has taught, as I read.

[Julie Bouchonville · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cant stress enough how good that book was. I was worried it would be a bit dry or arduous, but the author really does an amazing job of presenting things in a clear manner, always keeping you interested.
I feel like I learned a lot and am now much more prepared to actually read and understand Shakespeare, and I had a lot of fun during the process.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Let your indulgence set me free.”

What a perfect start to my new year. I have always felt insecure because I have never read Shakespeare. This lecture has at least helped me take a peek into that world.

[Tom Baikin-O'hayon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for beginners, not so useful if one is more or less versed with the works of the bard.