Whats Past is Prologue Wm' Shakespeare

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Whats Past is PrologueWm. Shakespeare

• How to Study for the Mid-Term and Do Well
• Dr. Anne McGrail
• Shakespeare 201 Fall 2005

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Take exams seriously but not too seriously.

• Reminder Exam is worth 20 of your final grade
  (enough to help your grade, but not enough to
  erase all your hard work!

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Study Tips

• Study Groups are Good!
• Try to study for a short time every dayavoid
  cramming!
• Use the online bulletin board to check in with
  each other and ask questions this week.

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Beware of Mid-Term Loss of Focus

• Its loss of focus time!
• Im still getting over the flu
• Im bored
• Im too tired to study
• Ill study next week

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Dont be unkingd by your self-defeating
inner-critic!

• Im not good at Shakespeare
• Everyone gets it but me
• Im not really college material
• Im embarrassed asking questions

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Try for 15 X 5 2 100

• Study for 15 minutes every daygo online, check
  out a video, go over notes.
• Then study for two longer studying sessions alone
  or in groups.

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Use the Bulletin Board

• Sign on during the week and check in with your
  classmates
• Ask questions and answer other students
  questions for practice
• Sign on as a guest if youre nervous.

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Re-read what youve already written

• Go to the Bulletin Board and re-read what youve
  written.
• Re-read your quiz questions and answers. Would
  you answer differently today?
• Go over your handouts and notes from classtry to
  remember what was said in class.

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What Have You Learned so Far?

• Sonnets
• Midsummer
• Tempest
• Romeo and Juliet
• Figures of Speech

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Some Midsummer Themes

• Illusion and reality
• The natural and supernatural order of things
• Nature of Love transitory, inconstant
• Rivalry, abuse
• Play within a play
• Fathers and daughters
• Dreams
• Fairies, Kings and Queens, Mechanicals

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Some Tempest Themes

• Revenge and forgiveness
• The right way to rule
• Empire and colonialization
• Fathers and daughters
• Nature of love and lust
• Language
• Brutality, slavery, dominance and agression
• Natural and supernatural order

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Some Romeo and Juliet Themes

• Nature of true lovetragic?
• Blood feuds and social tragedy
• Fate and chance

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Other Major Themes to Think About

• Conflict involved in being human and alive
• The gap between appearances and reality
• Order and disorder
• Change and metamorphosis

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Language of Shakespeare

• Unusual word arrangement
• Omissions and additions
• Iambic Pentameter

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Figures of Speech Refamiliarize yourself
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SoliloquiesTranslate One!

• Get comfortable with the soliloquies so that you
  can do a translation like we did in class

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Comedies and Tragedies

• If you were given a characteristic of a tragedy,
  could you give an example from the plays?
• If you were given an example from the plays,
  could you talk about how this characteristic
  marks the play as a tragedy?
• What makes a play a comedy?

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Practice Responding to Scenes

• We will watch clips and scenes from the plays in
  different video versions.
• I will ask questions about the scenes and you
  will respond in writing.
• Practice by asking yourself some questions about
  key scenes you have watched or read.

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Whats Past is Prologue.

• Go over handouts from class as well as your notes
  to questions, quizzes you took.
• Most of whats on the test will be a different
  form of what youve seen in class.

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Dont Forget to Breathe!