Strategies
Prior to reading any Shakespeare or Spenser the class and I will have a brief introductory discussion about what we know about Elizabeth I and 16th century England. Students will also read the introduction to Elizabethan literature in their textbooks. We will then watch Shekhar Kapur's movie Elizabeth to give the students historical context and background knowledge of the time. Students will also be asked to read the introduction to Alison Weir's biography, The Life of Elizabeth I. This excerpt will be copied for them and gives a brief history of Elizabeth's reign and an excellent description of life at the time. Students will also begin a KWL (what do you know, what do you want to know, what did you learn) chart for the unit.
Before we begin this unit, my students will have read Macbeth and we will have analyzed its language and themes closely. Students will be well familiar with Shakespearian language and will be ready to view several plays. We will do Macbeth first to prime students to obtain the most information and enjoyment from the movies. While Lady Macbeth will be a topic of discussion in the initial Macbeth unit, looking at her as a strong female and a foil to Elizabeth will be saved for this unit. Lady Macbeth will serve as the anti-Elizabeth, and the historical context behind her history with James I will be examined. Why might Shakespeare have made her so fragile at the end? What might he have been saying to James I in this play? How might Shakespeare be addressing James' complicated relationship with Elizabeth, considering that she chose him to succeed her but also killed his mother? Once students have seen or read all of the plays in this unit they will be asked to go back and reflect on Lady Macbeth and her role within the unit. While she is certainly a strong character, she is not the most flattering female regent.
The students and I will engage in a Socratic Seminar discussion of Macbeth. When beginning a Socratic Seminar, I provide the students with an initial discussion question and then sit back and let the students lead the class. When the comments start to peter out I will introduce another question to keep the conversations going. Students are provided with a rubric beforehand (see Classroom Activities) and know that they must make three substantial comments in order to receive full credit for the assignment. When first implementing Socratic Seminar at the beginning of the year, I provide the students with the discussion questions beforehand so they can have their comments ready for class. Slowly they are weaned and by this unit must know the text well enough to maintain the discussion without knowing the questions in advance. Students know that "I agree" and "That's a good point" do not count as one of the three comments. The easiest way to monitor the discussion is to have a class roster and make tick marks as each student adds to the conversation. Like the students, I have to be trained and remind myself that this is a student-led classroom activity and not a lecture or platform for my beliefs on the text. I will ask various questions from the play such as: How would you describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? What is the "power dynamic" within this relationship, and who, ultimately, do you believe has the upper hand? How does the relationship change over the course of the play? If the main theme of Macbeth is ambition, whose ambition is the driving force of the play? What types of disguises does Lady Macbeth wear? What are her motives for these disguises? After this discussion we will move on to the witches. Students will be asked the following: Are the three Wierd Sisters on someone's side? What might the witches represent? In what ways do they affect the outcome of the play? What is their role on a thematic level? Another theme we will explore is what it means to be a man and how gender is manipulated in this play. Students will expound upon the following prompts: The theme of "What is a real man?" is repeated throughout the play. Discuss this theme and cite examples from the play. Is the question limited to male characters? Another important theme in Macbeth is the relationship between gender and power, particularly Shakespeare's exploration of the values that make up the idea of masculinity. What are these values, and how do various characters embody them? How does Shakespeare subvert his characters' perception of gender roles? Once students have demonstrated the ability to maintain the discussions on these questions we will be ready to move on to Shakespeare's comedies.
Next students will view Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It and Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night. Students will be provided with character names and descriptions and a brief plot summary so that they can follow along and keep track of the characters. Upon the completion of both movies, students will be given copies of scenes depicting Rosalind/Ganymede and Viola/Cesario. They will use these scenes and their knowledge from the films to complete a Venn diagram on the four characters. Students will need to list individual traits of each of the four characters and the note the similarities between Rosalind and Viola, Rosalind and Ganymede, Ganymede and Cesario, and Viola and Cesario. In the center students will mark the similarities of all four characters. After this introductory activity, students will participate in a Socratic Seminar concerning the two plays. Questions to be asked include: Disguises are central to the plot of Twelfth Night and As You Like It; how is this thematically important? How is love depicted in the plays? What points does Shakespeare seem to be making about romance? Discuss the role of mistaken identity in Twelfth Night. What do these mix-ups signify? What kinds of love are the marriages at the end of the plays based on? Explain whether each marriage will flourish or fail and why. In Viola's soliloquy in Act 2, scene 2, lines 17-41 she claims that her problems can be blamed on women's weakness. What are women's weaknesses (to Viola)? Both Viola and Rosalind's "problems" could be resolved by their shedding of their disguises. Why do they take so long to do this? Twelfth Night and As You Like It are romantic comedies, and love is the primary focus. Why do you think each of the characters falls in love? Was it because of the situation, because of personality, or because of appearance? Support your argument with evidence from the play. Gender ambiguity in Shakespeare is a prominent topic of discussion. Why do Viola and Rosalind disguise themselves as boys? What does their behavior suggest about gender? Do the plays suggest that concepts of gender are static or fluid? How are women thought of and treated in these plays? Are women treated differently today? How so? Transformation is a common theme in these plays; based on the texts and films, which characters do you believe experienced the greatest transformation and why? Which characters could be models of Elizabeth? What might Shakespeare be saying about Elizabeth by having female heroes drive his plot?
After our Socratic Seminar students will be given "On Monsieur's Departure" by Elizabeth I. We will read the Wikipedia description of the poem 19 as well as one found at www.cs.rice.edu20 and discuss its history as a class. Students will then make connections between the plays and the poem. Questions they will consider are: How does the poem change notions of disguise in the plays? How does it compare to the disguises we use in real life? Is the poem realistic? How does it relate to modern life? What can we learn about Elizabeth from this poem? Is she being honest in the poem or telling her people what they want to hear? If she loved someone so much why did she never marry? Could the poem be written about someone other than Anjou? Could the poem be written about England? When our discussion is finished students will share times they have worn a "disguise" or hidden their true selves to protect themselves or their feelings.
The students will next watch Franco Zefirelli's film version of The Taming of the Shrew. While this version does not include the induction which frames the play, it is perfect for our purposes as it emphasizes the relationship between Petruchio and Kate. Zefirelli clearly recognized Kate's ability to disguise her "shrewishness" with subservient behavior. In the wedding scene Kate appears a patient and dutiful fiancé, but she is only biding her time until she can deny Petruchio at the altar. Her disguise is imperfect though, and he sees through it. After reciting her monologue in Act V, Kate leads Petruchio out of the reception, demonstrating who she thought should lead whom all along. Students will have a movie viewing questionnaire to complete as they watch the film. This will ensure that all follow along so they can answer the simple plot or character questions. When the film is over we will read selected scenes that deal with marriage and the relationship of a man and a woman, paying particular attention to Act V and Kate's final speech. After viewing the film and reading selected scenes, the class will discuss the following questions: What is the message of Kate's final monologue? Do you think she is sincere? Has she been tamed or is she only acting? Disguise plays a crucial role in The Taming of the Shrew. What can we infer about Shakespeare's take on the effects of disguise? Can clothes really make the man? How are the disguises in this play different from those in the other plays? How are the characters' motives different? What techniques does Petruchio employ to "tame" Katherina? Why do they work? Is Petruchio's manipulation of Kate plausible? Who is the shrew? Explain your answer. What social issues does Shakespeare raise in this play? Are they still valid today?
After our discussion of the film and selected scenes of the text, students will be given a copy of "An Homily on the State of Matrimony." As the selection is a bit long we will "jigsaw" the text. The class will be broken up into groups, and each group will be responsible for annotating a different section of the piece. After 10-15 minutes a representative from each group will present the results to the class. Thus, all students read part of the homily but become familiar with the piece as a whole. I will fill in any gaps if necessary. Then, as a class, we will answer the following questions: How does "An Homily on the State of Matrimony" relate to the play? How does Kate's speech in Act V maintain a dialogue with it? What do we learn about women in Elizabeth's time from this text? What does this say about Elizabeth's never marrying? Does it apply to her marriage to England? Why could this homily be seen as ironic? Do these notions of marriage still hold true today? Which do you agree with, and with which do you disagree? Is this homily culturally or religiously specific? How could it be updated for modern relationships? I do not intend to bring up any of the speculation mentioned in my rationale unless my students jump to that conclusion in our discussion. The discussion questions included are meant to discourage reading or viewing this play on a literal level alone. I hope that they question whether or not Kate's speech is sincere. I also hope that they see the irony behind Elizabeth's situation and that described in "An Homily on the state of Matrimony."
After discussing these questions as a class, students will create their own homily about the state of a high school relationship. Their piece need only be a page long but should include all of the necessary ingredients of a healthy relationship. Students should ask themselves: What are the roles of the men and the women? Who should be in charge of what aspects of the relationships or should everything be split down the middle? How does religion factor into a modern relationship, if at all? Students will then share their homilies with each other, and, if they feel comfortable, we can "age" the pages in an oven and place them around the room.
For our final Elizabethan text students will be given cantos i-iii of Book III (Britomart's introduction and history) and iv and vi of Book IV (the tournament and her "unmanning") of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Because this text is more difficult than Shakespeare we (I) will read aloud. Students will follow along in their text to get a feel for the spellings and to have access to the footnotes. After Book 3 we will have a class discussion about Britomart as an Elizabeth figure. How would you describe Britomart? What is significant about the tapestry of Venus and Adonis? Why would Spenser include that story? How can Malecasta be characterized? Describe her castle and her Castle Joyous. What do Malecasta's six attendants represent? How do those six characters/actions contrast with the kind of love that Britomart represents? Why would Malecasta get into bed with Britomart? If Britomart is the knight of chastity, how can she be in love with Artegall? How can someone be chaste if they feel sexual attraction to another? Is Britomart enchanted or in love at first sight? How is Britomart's disguise similar to Rosalind and Viola's? How is it different? Who is the virgin on the throne? Why did Spenser add this information? Who wins the tournament? Who wins the next time Britomart and Artegall meet? What is significant about Artegall being the one to reveal Britomart as a woman? Why would Spenser have them each win and lose against each other? What does that say about their relationship? Is their meeting through battle significant? Why or why not? After searching for Artegall for so long, why doesn't she accept his advances instantly? Why do they part?
After reading our excerpts of The Faerie Queen students will read Elizabeth's Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. If time allows I will show the brief clip from Shekhar Kapur's movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age that corresponds with this text. Students will identify similarities between Elizabeth and Britomart in this speech. Elizabeth refers to herself as a "weak and feeble woman" with the "heart and stomach" of an English king21. She also states that if anyone dares to invade her borders, she will "take up arms" and be "general, judge, and rewarder of every one of [her troops'] virtues on the field.22" Students will be asked: Why does Elizabeth insist upon appearing as a warrior in this speech/film clip? What physical similarities do you see between the two? Why would Elizabeth undermine herself by referring to her weakness?
After all of our readings and viewings, students will complete a body biography of their chosen female character. If supplies and space allow it, students will create life sized cut outs of a body and will place quotes from the play in various area of the body. Otherwise they will place their quotes in a body cut from 11 X 17 inch paper. Quotes related to characters' thoughts will go in the head, lines related to the character's emotions will go in the chest, and lines related to a character's actions will go in the limbs. This activity will force students to actually read the play-or book, in the case of The Faerie Queene. Too often students can get away with reading the Cliff's Notes or Sparknotes on a Shakespearian play or other piece of literature. When students are forced to match up a quote to its context within the scene, they are more likely to read the selection, or at least it becomes obvious when they have not read it. This activity will help students prepare for a character analysis paper on the female character of their choice. I do not wish to read 90 papers on Portia, so I have included an extensive list of interesting female characters from either Shakespeare or Spenser. All are not necessarily "strong" women, but all are interesting and will make for a varied crop of research papers.
As an activity that culminates our reading, viewing, and discussing, my students will complete a research paper on a compelling female character in Elizabethan literature. The list of acceptable female characters is included in the Appendix. A character analysis paper written through an "Elizabethan lens" will demonstrate what my students have learned and will help them to incorporate historical context into all of their analysis. They may either focus on the theme of disguise as a means to an end or just look at the character development of a strong female. Papers will be three to five pages in length and will require both textual and critical support.
Students will also present their papers to the rest of the class so others can be exposed to many different Shakespearian or Spenserian characters. Students will use their body biographies as a visual aide, having colored the side without the quotes to look like their female character. They will give a brief synopsis of the play they read, why they chose the character they did, and why she did what she did in the play. They will explain her personality traits, her motivations for her actions, and the resolutions to her conflicts. Hopefully, other students will be inspired to read several of Shakespeare's plays or other sections of The Faerie Queene after hearing of interesting stories.
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