How do get on the Shakespeare reading club, I’ve had problems reading Shakespeare, sentence structure and rhythm but there are always some great lines and quotes.Can anyone join in or do you have to be advanced?
I'm not myself an expert by any means, but I have a few pieces of advice, based on what I've gotten the most out of personally:
1.) If you can find a quiet place, I recommend reading it aloud, or at least parts of it. You don't always have to, but part of the enjoyment of Shakespeare, especially when in verse, is the physical sounds of the words and phrases. I'm not an actor, but putting the characters' words into my own voice helps them come alive to me.
2.) Don't stop every time you don't know what a particular word (or sometimes even sentence) means. Keep going until you don't know what's going on. I find that looking up words too often breaks up the flow. With practice, the breaks when you don't understand something become fewer and farther between.
3.) Remember that the language is actually the point. The plots are often fun, but what makes Shakespeare great is his use of language. Feel free to savor a scene, or read it twice over. You could probably read a Cliff's Notes (or ChatGPT) explanation of what's going on in a scene, then re-read the scene, knowing what happens, to appreciate *how* it happens, and in what words it happens. Knowing that the Ode to Joy ends on a D major chord doesn't make getting there any less enjoyable.
While Macbeth becomes numb and hardened to the violence, growing into a tyrant who "has almost forgot the taste of fears," Lady Macbeth internalizes all the horror. Her repressed guilt and humanity erupt when her conscious mind is asleep.
She is trapped in a nightmare loop of pure, unfiltered memory and guilt.
The very deeds she thought could be controlled and forgotten have consumed her entirely.
So the ultimate tragedy is that the line, “What’s done cannot be undone,” is the terrifying truth she learns too late. Her mind is shattered not by a lack of knowledge, but by the crushing, inescapable weight of it.
During our last meeting someone asked about The Merchant of Venice, and you said we could discuss that one too when we discuss Macbeth. Is that the plan?
How do get on the Shakespeare reading club, I’ve had problems reading Shakespeare, sentence structure and rhythm but there are always some great lines and quotes.Can anyone join in or do you have to be advanced?
Anyone can join
If you haven't, I recommend reading Henry's "How to read Shakespeare" post: https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/how-to-read-shakespeare
I'm not myself an expert by any means, but I have a few pieces of advice, based on what I've gotten the most out of personally:
1.) If you can find a quiet place, I recommend reading it aloud, or at least parts of it. You don't always have to, but part of the enjoyment of Shakespeare, especially when in verse, is the physical sounds of the words and phrases. I'm not an actor, but putting the characters' words into my own voice helps them come alive to me.
2.) Don't stop every time you don't know what a particular word (or sometimes even sentence) means. Keep going until you don't know what's going on. I find that looking up words too often breaks up the flow. With practice, the breaks when you don't understand something become fewer and farther between.
3.) Remember that the language is actually the point. The plots are often fun, but what makes Shakespeare great is his use of language. Feel free to savor a scene, or read it twice over. You could probably read a Cliff's Notes (or ChatGPT) explanation of what's going on in a scene, then re-read the scene, knowing what happens, to appreciate *how* it happens, and in what words it happens. Knowing that the Ode to Joy ends on a D major chord doesn't make getting there any less enjoyable.
While Macbeth becomes numb and hardened to the violence, growing into a tyrant who "has almost forgot the taste of fears," Lady Macbeth internalizes all the horror. Her repressed guilt and humanity erupt when her conscious mind is asleep.
She is trapped in a nightmare loop of pure, unfiltered memory and guilt.
The very deeds she thought could be controlled and forgotten have consumed her entirely.
So the ultimate tragedy is that the line, “What’s done cannot be undone,” is the terrifying truth she learns too late. Her mind is shattered not by a lack of knowledge, but by the crushing, inescapable weight of it.
During our last meeting someone asked about The Merchant of Venice, and you said we could discuss that one too when we discuss Macbeth. Is that the plan?