WHAT SHAKESPEARE PLAY WOULD YOU ASSIGN?

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Philip

WHAT SHAKESPEARE PLAY WOULD YOU ASSIGN? Mary Jane had a long, interesting e mail exchange with a friend last week about which Shakespeare play the friend should assign to her eighth graders. (They read MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM in 7th grade and ROMEO AND JULIET in 9th grade). I put in my two cents worth and recommended HAMLET on the basis that at that age, they would not understand some things in a Shakespeare play, but they would certainly understand revenge, especially because revenge is important in so many of today’s movies and television shows. My friend wrote back that indeed her students understand revenge very well and that for that reason she was considering choosing THE TEMPEST. Upon reflection, I realize that I don’t think of THE TEMPEST as a revenge play, but of course it is.

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4 Responses to WHAT SHAKESPEARE PLAY WOULD YOU ASSIGN?

  1. Mary Jane Schaefer says:
    September 8, 2009 at 9:24 AM

    And what a strange one! After taking his petty revenges, Prospero decides to “forgive” because it is the “rarer” act. Is Shakespeare showing how our virtue is often motivated by posing for ourselves as virtuous? Or is this specifically about Prospero?

  2. Philip says:
    September 10, 2009 at 8:30 PM

    I do think that Prospero forgives partly out of a desire to distinguish himself from other mortals. He has to struggle not to exercise his powers and there are other reasons for what he does, including Ariel’s saying, “Mine would, sir, were I human.”

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