Exercises

Tell the story of Shakespeare's life.

1) What political events of the time may have influenced Shakespeare in his childhood?

2) Speak about Shakespeare's early education at Stratford-on-Avon, and later on his contact with intellectual circles in London.

3) Which of Shakespeare's poems were first published and to whom were they dedicated?

4) Who was Richard Burbage?

5) Comment on Shakespeare's activities as a dramatist and actor at the Globe Theatre.

6) Why and when did Shakespeare retire to Stratford?

Shakespeare's Works:

1. By whom were Shakespeare's works collected and published?

2. What plays belong to each of the four periods of Shakespeare's creative work?

3. When did Shakespeare write his sonnets? What sonnet form did he use?

4. Who are the characters in the sonnets and what are the themes that appear in them?

The Comedies:

1. What is the chief topic dealt with in the comedies?

2. Tell the story of "Twelfth Night".

3. Name the leading characters of the play.

4. What is the conflict in the play?

5. According to Shakespeare, only actions dictated by natural feelings are justifiable: how is this idea expressed by the characters in the comedy?

6. How does the comedy end?

7. What contradiction underlies the plot and brings about the comic situations in the comedy?

The Historic Plays:

1. What is the chief idea developed in the historical plays?

2. Describe the character of Richard III as a typical representative of feudal brutality, conspiracy, and treachery.

3. According to the laws of historical development, the feudal knight, whether he is chivalrous or not, is doomed.

Describe the two knights, Hotspur and Falstaff, as representatives of decaying feudalism.

4. Compare Shakespeare's "ideal king" with the gallery of kings appearing in his histories. Is an ideal king possible?

The Tragedies:

1. How did Shakespeare deal with the idea of monarchy in the third period of his creative work? Follow the development of such characters in Macbeth, Lear and Hamlet in connection with the crown.

2. Describe Hamlet as a young man of the Renaissance period.

3. What is his attitude to the hypocrisy and treachery that reign at court?

4. Who are Hamlet's enemies and who are his friends?

5. What social satire is concealed in the grave-yard scene?

6. Did Hamlet posses the qualities required in a king? Would it have been easy for him to become king?

7. Everybody expects Hamlet to kill Claudius; what makes him delay his vengeance as he does?

8. Which demanded greater will-power in Hamlet's situation, action or delay?

9. What makes Hamlet finally kill Claudius with ease?

10. Was there any other way out for Hamlet?

11. Tell the story of "King Lear".

12. How does Shakespeare show the tragic character of King Lear in development?

13. What social ideas does Lear come to through his trials?

14. What paradoxes are there in the construction of the tragedy? What is achieved by this device?

15. Why is the play "King Lear" Shakespeare's greatest work dealing with the theme of state and society? What is Shakespeare's conception of the real cause of crime as shown in "King Lear"?

16. Compare Shakespeare's tragedies of the first and third periods: in the tragedies of which period would a happy ending be possible?

17. Dwell on the power of money in its relation of man to man.

Plays of the Fourth Period:

1. How does the style of Shakespeare's plays change in the fourth period?

2. Why is "The Tempest" considered the most profound and significant among the plays of the fourth period?

3. What was Shakespeare's attitude to the common people?