Introduction to Shakespeare

Gettin' cozy with Big Willy Shakes.

  • Course Length: 18 weeks
  • Course Type: Elective
  • Category:
    • English
    • Humanities
    • High School

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Shmoop's Introduction to Shakespeare course has been granted a-g certification, which means it has met the rigorous iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses and will now be honored as part of the requirements for admission into the University of California system.


Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to see a Shakespeare play when it was originally written? What sights and smells you would  have experienced? Okay, on second thought, maybe you're not interested in smelling people who only showered four times a year. But who would be watching a play with you? And were those plays like the latest indie films that everyone is raving about, or were they more like the reality TV shows you're embarrassed to admit you watch?

This course will try to answer just those burning questions about Shakespeare's world and plays. We will look at how he wrote them, who he wrote them for, and how they were performed. Oh, and of course we will be reading selections from his plays, too.

By the end of the course, Shakespeare will be your new best friend.


Unit Breakdown

1 Introduction to Shakespeare - All the World's a Stage

This unit will introduce you to the Shakespeare's world, giving you a feel for the historical and social context surrounding the Bard, and providing some deets on what it was actually like to attend the theater back in the day.

2 Introduction to Shakespeare - Histories: Fact or Fiction?

In this unit, we'll discuss the difference between drama and history by looking at sections of Richard III and Henry V. We'll consider the speeches and personalities Shakespeare gives these historical heavyweights while we ponder the dramatic impact of historical fiction.

3 Introduction to Shakespeare - Family Feud

In this unit, we'll be reading excerpts from different plays that focus on family relationships—The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and The Winter's Tale—and we'll think about the way Shakespeare's audience would have understood family ties.

4 Introduction to Shakespeare - What's Love Got to Do with It?

Love is in the air in all of Shakespeare's plays, but we've picked just a few examples to tackle in this unit: Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

5 Introduction to Shakespeare - All's Fair in Love and War

This unit will look at the types of wars waged, from the personal to the political, in Shakespeare's plays, focusing on how the characters deal with the wars going on around them. We'll be looking at Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and Titus Andronicus.

6 Introduction to Shakespeare - The Master of Disguise

Shakespeare's plays have more plot twists and disguises than a Plot Twist and Disguises festival. And that's just what we'll be thinking about in this unit, by reading selections from As You Like It, King Lear, The Tempest, and Measure for Measure.

7 Introduction to Shakespeare - Words, Words, Words

This unit will focus on Shakespeare's words, zooming in on his poetry and taking a closer look at all the wordy legacies he's left us today. (Spoiler alert: there are a ton.)


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.04: Give Me an Audience

Drawing of characters on an Elizabethan stage
"Dude, stop photo bombing me, I'm trying to win over the audience." (Source)

Sometimes, the audience is almost as important as the show itself. We know this from attending performances of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And from making jokes that don't land even when we're sure they're hilarious.

So, who do you think was watching Shakespeare's plays when they were first performed, and how did they feel about it? Were they blockbuster hits or total flops? And, did it matter?

In this lesson, audiences play the leading role. We'll talk about how they responded to plays, what they did while watching (get your mind out of the gutter!), and whether or not they made any difference.

We recommend getting a helmet in case any heavy utensils are thrown at the stage.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.04: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Not the Only Show in Town

We've all been there. You go to a movie that looks ah-maz-ing in the previews only to be sorely disappointed and to find that the best jokes were in the previews or that acting isn't what it used to be. We're looking at you, Suicide Squad.

What if you had the power to make sure bad movies never played again and were run right out of town?

Well, back in Shakespeare's day, that's exactly what the audience could do. They could stop a play from being performed if they didn't like it. Just think: we wouldn't have had to suffer through The Matrix Reloaded or Batman and Robin. We can only imagine how successful Romeo and Juliet 2: Zombies in Verona would have been... or not. In any case, audiences decided what would be performed and how long it would last. If a play didn't sell, an acting company wouldn't perform it. Simple as that.

Keep in mind, too, that companies were actively competing with one another for business: performances at the playhouses took place at the same time, so audiences could decide to go to the Globe, Swan, Rose, or another theater to see a play. There's no way to stream a play on your own time, so if Survivor: Imperial Colonization and Elizabethan Family were playing at the same time, you had to choose between the two.

If audiences hadn't loved Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet so much, you might not have had to read them in school. We also wouldn't have West Side Story, The Lion King, Shakespeare in Love, and tons of other musicals, movies, and books inspired by the Bard's tales. Good thing those audiences had good taste.

In the Theater

About 3,000 people could cram into the Globe Theater. People of all social classes went to the playhouse—but the upper class ladies and gentleman did significantly less cramming than the lower class.

While common folk stood in a pit as though they were livestock or, um, flying coach, lords and ladies usually sat in a gentleman's room or private box near the side of the stage on the second level. People went to the theater to be seen as much as to see a play, and everyone in society was there strutting their stuff as if the Globe were an Oscars party. Even ambassadors and noblemen from other countries would visit playhouses because they were some of the prime social hotspots of the time.

The commoners were known as the groundlings, or "penny stinkards" because, well…you get the idea. They only paid a penny for admission, and they were pretty rowdy. And stinky. Shakespeare would even make fun of them in his plays to impress the nobles in the audience.

But back to the theater itself. People snacked on nuts, fruit, and seeds while watching performances (life before Junior Mints was weird, we know). Noblemen and women also ate meals while seated in their boxes. Not the furthest thing in the world from what we know today, right?

There's one thing we're counting our lucky stars isn't still the same today: it wasn't all fruit and seed aroma coming from the playhouse. No, it smelled like people. Renaissance-era people who typically only bathed four times a year and rarely took off their undergarments. Yeah. And in case that wasn't enough, they were all crammed into a small space and sweating and moving right next to each other.

A Shakespearean theater by any other name would smell as rank.

Control Freak

The plays themselves offer a lot of clues as to how the audience was supposed to behave. That's right: the audience was supposed to behave in a certain way. While we wouldn't mind Shakespeare directing us, we're not sure how we'd feel about, say, M. Night Shyamalan telling us when to scream.

Shakespeare almost maintained a bit of control by breaking the fourth wall in his plays, which means he'd have actors talk directly to the audience—something TV peeps are still doing to this day. Why was it such a good strategy? Well, it made sure the audience felt welcome and that they were staying on their toes. Shakespeare certainly wanted to be on their side when they were the ones deciding if his plays would be successful.

Pretty clever, right?


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.04: It's Coming from the Audience

  1. Part One

    We've all seen those commercials at the movies warning people to turn off their cell phones—or else. In Shakespeare's theaters, a lot of noise did come from the audience. People were hustling and bustling together, eating, drinking, chatting. Sometimes they couldn't even see what was happening on stage.

    Before we reflect on what it might be like to watch a play in this environment, let's take a look at some quotes from 16th-century playgoers about watching a play in this environment. (All of these quotes are from Andrew Gurr's The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642.)

    Thus daily at two in the afternoon, London has two, sometimes three plays running in different places, competing with each other, and those which play best obtain most spectators. The playhouses are so constructed that they play on a raised platform, so that everyone has a good view. There are different galleries and places, however, where the seating is better and more comfortable and therefore more expensive. (Thomas Platter on a visit from Switzerland in 1599)

    For as we see at all the playhouse doors, when ended is the play, the dance and song, A thousand townsmen, gentlemen and whores, Porters and serving men together throng. (John Davies, a law student attending the theater in the 1590s)

    In public theaters, when any notable show passeth over the stage, the people arise up out of their seats and stand upright with delight and eagerness to view it well. (From a sermon delivered at Paul's Cross in 1598)

    Got it? Now answer the following questions. No need for complete sentences. Just make sure you answer completely.

    1. When did performances take place?

    2. Where did people sit when watching a performance?

    3. Did everyone sit in the same place in the theater?

    4. Who attended a play? (what sorts of people)

    5. How did people behave when a player was on stage?

  2. Part Two

    Shakespeare also offers us a bunch of clues about how he expects audiences to behave and react to his plays. Check out these prologues and epilogues for these clues.

    Romeo and Juliet Prologue

    Two households, both alike in dignity,
    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
    A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
    Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
    Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
    The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
    And the continuance of their parents' rage,
    Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
    Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
    The which if you with patient ears attend,
    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

    Confused? Our summary can help you out.

    Henry V Prologue

    But pardon, and gentles all,
    The flat unraised spirits that have dared
    On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
    So great an object: can this cockpit hold
    The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
    Within this wooden O the very casques
    That did affright the air at Agincourt?
    O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
    Attest in little place a million;
    And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
    On your imaginary forces work.

    Did that affright you? Don't worry, our summary is here for you.

    As You Like It Epilogue

    If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that
    pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied
    not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces,
    or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy,
    bid me farewell. 

    And once again, our summary can help translate a bit.

    Okay, now that we're all Shakespeare'd out, we want to hear your lovely words. Use clues from the excerpts you just read to answer the following in one to three sentences each:

    1. How long will a performance be? Which line told you so?

    2. What kind of "ears" should an audience have? What does this mean?

    3. What are "imaginary forces"? What is Shakespeare telling the audience to do?

    4. What does it mean to "bid me farewell" when she curtseys?

    5. Why does Shakespeare ask his audience to act in this way?

    6. Why would Shakespeare include these apologies to his audience? (Hint: think about what you have learned about the power the audience had.)

  3. Part Three

    Got it? Good.

    Now we'll ask you to think about everything you've just read and write a paragraph (five to seven sentences) answering the following question: How do you think the audiences usually behaved if Shakespeare had to include these instructions to them? Did they put their feet up on the seats? Were they rowdy? Silent? Did people throw popcorn at them if they talked? No, we're not speaking from experience or anything...

    We'd start our paragraph off like this:

    Audiences in Shakespeare's day behaved quite differently [or not] from theatergoers today. An Elizabethan audience would…

    You get the idea. Enter your paragraph into the box below.