How to Make Reading Shakespeare Easy

The most well-known Shakespeare play has got to be Romeo and Juliet. Then comes Hamlet and then Macbeth. I have had the privilege of being taught the last two and many more of Shakespeare’s plays in class. And no matter how much I like them now, they were a pain to learn when I first started reading them.

The first play I read by the playwright was The Merchant of Venice. It wasn’t the whole play because we didn’t have time to cover the entire thing. Instead, it was a couple of scenes. My favourite one was the scene where Portia tests her suitors with the three boxes. I found it interesting that such a complicated play could have such a simple moral to it.

And the more I read his work, the more I realized: it’s simple values wrapped in a string of words that most of us don’t understand/use anymore. His plays can be incredibly relatable if you boil everything down to a central theme/idea. For example, Julius Caesar looks like it’s about the downfall of a leader but on a smaller scale, it’s about being aware of backstabbing friends (quite literally). Macbeth has elements of magic and war but, on a more basic level, it’s about the consequences the greed for power can have.

So, when my English teacher gave us the assignment to record ourselves giving advice to 9th graders about reading Shakespeare, I decided I would share my tips and tricks with you. I’ve been reading his work for about 5 years now, and I’ve come up with a few ways to help myself get past the ‘language barrier’ to the simple ideas the not so simple man had.

1) Treat his plays like a normal story: I wish my 8th grade English teacher had let us do this. She made a pretty big deal about the play and, in my opinion, may have overcomplicated it for us. She had us analyze the 2 or 3 scenes for days and made the experience a lot harder than the ones I’ve had while reading other plays. If I could change anything about that, it would be to take a simpler approach and just enjoy the scenes first. I know we were short on time, but we could have underlined all the literary devices and taken notes the second time we read them. My advice would be to treat the plays like any other story you’ve read. Or maybe think of it as a friend recounting one of their stories in the most overbearing fashion. Have fun with it. Take your time to pick up on words that we still use, words that are just a little different and words we haven’t used in centuries. Try boiling down the story in front of you to something you could see happening in real life. 'Romeo and Juliet' is realistic once you take away all the murders; a lot of people can’t be with the ones they love because of family feuds. So, looking at his plays in a different light can help you a)understand the story better and b) come out the other side with morals and values you’ll find useful at some point in your life.

2) Paraphrase: When you find out which play, or sonnet, you’ll be reading, find a reliable source of paraphrasing online. My recommendation is SparkNotes because that’s what I’ve been using since day one. It’s so helpful to have the scene and the translation side by side. It shows you the difference between how we spoke in the 16th century and how we speak now. It also gives you the chance to analyze the story twice because you’re reading each dialogue twice.

3) Make your own analysis: SparkNotes has wonderful paraphrasing and it also has summaries, explanations and ideas that aren’t your own. While reading the scenes and acts, I strongly advise that you form your own opinions and ideas about the work before you go to look at what someone else has to say. This will allow you to have an idea that wasn’t influenced by anyone else and that makes your views authentic and genuine. I’m saying this because it’s inevitable that you’ll turn to the internet for help with a question about the play. I’ve done it too. But I made sure I had some idea of what I wanted to write so I wouldn’t follow someone else’s answer blindly. I should say this also includes watching film adaptations of the play you are reading because that is entirely someone else’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s work. In the end, just have your own understanding of what you’re reading before you read someone else’s.

That’s what I do to make reading Shakespeare’s work so much easier than it seems. I hope you’ll use these tips to make reading his plays an awesome experience for yourself. If you have any questions, you can comment down below or DM me on Instagram (@studywithaarushi). Till next time – Aarushi.