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For over 400 years, Shakespeares plays have enthralled, moved, and enriched each new generation of readers and theatergoers. How to Read and Understand Shakespeare builds the skills that allow you to reach your own understanding of the plays, to deeply comprehend Shakespeares transcendent poetic language, the spellbinding world of his great characters and stories, and his revelatory reflections on human experience. The tools you learn are yours for years of enjoyment of these monumental treasures of our culture. -- Publisher website

In two containers

Course 2711; consists of 24 lectures in two parts

Unabridged

Lecturer: Marc C. Conner, Washington and Lee University

Lecture 1.

Approaching Shakespeare ; the scene begins --

Lecture 2.

Shakespeare's theater and stagecraft --

Lecture 3.

A Midsummer Night's Dream ; comic tools --

Lecture 4.

A Midsummer Night's Dream ; comic structure --

Lecture 5.

Romeo and Juliet ; words, words, words --

Lecture 6.

Romeo and Juliet ; the tools of tragedy --

Lecture 7.

Appearance versus reality in Twelfth Night --

Lecture 8.

Twelfth Night ; more comic tools --

Lecture 9.

Richard II ; history and kingship --

Lecture 10.

Politics as theatre in Henry IV, part 1 --

Lecture 11.

Henry IV, part 2 ; contrast and complexity --

Lecture 12.

Drama of ideas in Henry V

Lecture 13.

Macbeth ; "foul and fair" --

Lecture 14.

Tragic woman in Macbeth --

Lecture 15.

Staging Hamlet --

Lecture 16.

Religious drama of Hamlet --

Lecture 17.

Women of Hamlet --

Lecture 18.

Merchant of Venice ; comedy or tragedy? --

Lecture 19.

Arc of character in the Merchant of Venice --

Lecture 20.

Measure for Measure ; is this comedy? --

Lecture 21.

Measure for Measure ; overcoming tragedy --

Lecture 22.

Tools of romance in The Tempest --

Lecture 23.

Tempest ; Shakespeare's farewell to art --

Lecture 24.

Tools for a lifetime of Shakespeare