How to read a play by Shakespeare

Yesterday, I said a speech in Toastmaster's Club. The title of the speech is--How to read a play by Shakespeare. Here is the text of the speech. I added some details for this post because the speech was only five minutes long. Shakespeare is universally considered a great playwright. Shakespeare lived in the 16th century and was born in a village in England called Stratford-upon-Avon. Being a person living in the 21st century it was just a bit difficult for me to understand Shakespeare's plays. In the past few months I read a few plays by Shakespeare. The plays I read are The Merry Wives of Windsor; The Merchant of Venice; The Winter's Tale and I am currently reading The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I was not in a class with a teacher explaining the plot and character and class discussions enlightening themes. I was reading Shakespeare by myself. What is the best way to understand a play by Shakespeare? Here is how I went about understanding a play by Shakespeare. First read the list of characters. Most plays by Shakespeare has a substantial number of characters. The Merchant of Venice has 20 characters. The Winters Tale has 27 chatacters. It is important to know the names of these characters before reading the play.

(This is a list of actors in the play The Winter's Tale from 1623. Isn't it exciting to see the list of characters from how this ancient play was staged four centuries ago perhaps, almost as soon as Shakespeare wrote it?) Coming back to the How to read a play by Shakespeare-- After reading the list of characters read the play itself. As you read the play you may have to go back again to the list of characters to see who is who. Then read the play again. In Shakespeare the richness is provided in the dialogues. So many poetic phrases and entire poems are spoken by different characters. Dialogue, to me, has at least four functions. Dialogue tells us about the character. Dialogue reveals the character to us. Thus Portia's wisdom is revealed by Portia's dialogue. Some dialogues have allusions to greek mythology or classical literature. Some dialogues contain wise proverbs. Thus in the Winters Tale Perdita says "The self same sun that shines upon his court hides not his image from our cottage but looks on alike." After understanding the dialogues, it is time to understand the plot. Most probably by the time you read the play twice you already do understand the plot. The best way to completely understand the plot is by finding where a scene is taking place. The exact sequence of events and where each scene takes place shows the intricacies of the plot and the interplay of dialogue, character, plot and scene. After this it is a good idea to read essays written by scholars about the play. We can get a different perspective from such essays. We can understand themes in the play. I read an opinion in a scholarly essay that said that the readers who read the play The Merchant of Venice after the holocaust feel differently about anti-semitism from readers or audiences of Shakespeare's day. I did not think of this idea before reading the essay. I also read about Shakespeare's intention in having a cruel jew being the victim of anti-semitism, in some essays. Thus the ideas in the essays about the plays helps us get a perspective that is different. If any idea seems important then take that into consideration while reading the play again. Ask yourself what stands out most to you in the play. Is it a theme or idea that emerges? Is it a dialogue spoken by a character? Sometimes there is more than one theme. Write about the ideas that you think are important. This is how I went about reading plays by Shakespeare.