Explaining Character in Shakespeare

Appendix

Standards

The primary goal of this unit is not only for students to make judgments about characters, but to consider the process by which they make those judgments given their own biases and the evidence available to them in the text. The Common Core standard for literature that will be met most thoroughly as students read and analyze the play is standard 1 for grades 9-10, “cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.” Using writing and discussion, students should consider what pieces of evidence lead them to their conclusions about characters and how that evidence might be interpreted differently depending on the bias they bring to the reading.

Students will demonstrate mastery of this standard with various activities in the unit, but primarily the culminating project that asks them to consider a wide variety of evidence about a character, select the best evidence to support the judgment they make about that character and explain how the evidence led them to their conclusion.

By tracking one character throughout their reading of the play, students will also meet literature standard 3 in grades 9-10, “analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.” As students gather evidence about their character, they will complicate their own judgments about that character and consider how that character interacts with and is developed by his relationship with other characters.

Dealing with the complex language of the play will also help students meet literature standard 4 in grades 9-10, “determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.” Specifically, the analysis of rhetorical and persuasive strategy in Antony’s funeral speech will allow students to consider various aspects of language, primarily his diction.