Discussion questions (week 10)

Remember to type out your answers to these questions if you want to get credit for ideas that you don't have a chance to share in discussion!

1. Our discussions of Shakespeare often return to his discussion of power -- perhaps the power sought by monarchs (Theseus, Henry, Macbeth) or the power sought by private citizens (Hermia and Lysander, Shylock, Pistol). But how does Kurt Vonnegut discuss power and the powerful in Slaughterhouse V? How is this discussion of power different from and similar to the discussion of power in the Shakespeare plays (and sonnets) we have read -- particularly Henry V and Macbeth? Why is Vonnegut treating power similarly to the way Shakespeare treats it? Why is he treating it differently?
   
   
2. [This question might be rewritten later this week if I can think of a better way to phrase it.] In what ways does Shakespeare's narrative technique in Henry V and in Macbeth seem similar to Vonnegut's narrative technique in Slaughterhouse V? Think, here, about the order in which the two writers put their plots together: the use of the Chorus in H5, say, or of the problematic narrator in S5. You might think about how all three texts move between the supernatural (God in H5, the Tralfamadorians in S5, the witches/Fates in M) and the ordinary.
   

Shylock's skull-cap...

...should be spelled "yarmulke." This is a transliteration from Yiddish, hence the occasional variation in spellings.

Upcoming movies

Here are the movies that TAs will be showing over the next five weeks:

• Tue. Nov. 27: Scotland, PA (2001)
  
• Wed. Nov. 28: Macbeth (1948)
  
• Wed. Dec. 5: Henry V (1944)
  
• Wed. Dec. 12: Macbeth (1979)
  
• Thur. Dec. 13: Prospero's Books (1991)

All movies begin at 6:30 in Humanities 1101. Be sure to sign in before you leave!

Discussion questions (week 9)

Discussion questions are back! In case you have forgotten their rules, my expectations are as follows:

• Before discussion you will spend about an hour reviewing your notes, rereading portions of the play, and thinking through answers to these questions.
• You will type and print your answers so that, in theory, I might be able to call on you in discussion on Friday and you will be ready with an answer. (Historically, I haven't called on people; still, I like having this as a threat.)

There are two questions for this week:

1. Take any speech in H5 as your own -- it doesn't have to be as long as the Archbishop's speech that we looked at on Friday, but it should be at least 30 lines. Look at the speech for four things:
   1. How and why does it use repetition?
   2. How does it try to persuade its audience?
      
   3. In a more general sense, how does it suggest the techniques by which language asserts power?
   4. How does the speech respond to, create, and transform metaphors that exist elsewhere in the scene or the play?
      
   
   
   
2. Put together an outline of Henry V by act, noting the setting, main characters and main action for each scene. This should take about ten minutes. Spend fifteen or twenty minutes thinking about the logic of this organization. Why does Shakespeare fly us around so much? Why do we jump to the French side when we do? Why do we get scenes with the barfolk when we do? Why do we get scenes with Katherine and Alice when we do?
   

Essay 2 assignment

Here, in case you wanted it, is a PDF of the assignment for the second mini-essay and the second essay.

Following the plot

I realize that our discussion on Friday was more than a bit fragmented. If you are baffled by Henry V, let me suggest three techniques that might help you tackle the text a bit more easily:

1. Read a summary of the play before or at the same time that you read the script. Prof. Dubrow has written study guides for each of the plays we are tackling this semester, which are all online here. If you are interested in detailed scene-by-scene summaries there are, obviously, dozens of options out there. After a quick survey of the options, I have to say that I prefer the Cliffs Notes scene-by-scene summaries of Henry V, available for free online, which seem generally more accurate and articulate than other versions I could easily find. (Ignore their pedantic "commentary," of course.)
   
   
2. It is usually ideal to read the script before watching a movie adaptation of the play so that your reading isn't influenced by any one interpretation of the text. Still, if you are having trouble understanding the characters, arguments, or plots of Henry V it might be worth watching a movie version before you have finished reading, so that the play seems like more than page after page of dull political speeches.
   
   
3. I know I've been advocating this every week, but I'm serious: if you get the audiobook versions of these plays and listen to them either when you're just walking around campus or if you sit down and listen to the audio while you follow along in the script you will become far, far more comfortable with the content of the plays.

It goes without saying, I hope, that the single best way to master any of these plays is to reread them -- twice, if that's possible. Remember that you will be responsible at 7:30 pm on Dec. 21st for every line of Henry V. Unless you have an eidetic memory you won't be remembering every line after one quick reading.

Germaine Greer on Shakespeare's wife

If you are into podcasts and what we know about the biography of Shakespeare, you might want to check out Germaine Greer's aggressive defense of Anne Hathaway in this podcast from the Guardian Unlimited Book Club. As with any Shakespeare biography -- and Greer acknowledges this in the podcast -- we have to be more than a little suspicious of claims that cannot, ultimately, be rooted in any sort of evidence. Still, this is worth a listen if you have the time and inclination.