Othello

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone

Is the next way to draw new mischief on.--Othello

Shakespeare was a genius when it came to pegging people and understanding human nature. Maybe that is why I actually enjoy his plays...for the simple fact that we can see ourselves in his characters. I recently read Othello, and while I won't call it my favorite tragedy of Shakespeare it is amazing how  he depicts the character of Iago!  Iago is the villian in the story who twists the truth to everyone around him for his own personal gain. While reading through the play I first thought it was unrealistic that someone would go about lying like that.  However, after thinking it through I realized that I am personally acquainted with several people who share Iago's "gift" of treachery.

If you are looking to read a Shakespeare play that has recognizable quotes this is not the one.  I have a feeling that Othello is less quoted that some of the more famous tragedies of Shakespeare (i.e. Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet). Also, the storyline is not as complex simply because there is pretty much one plotline and nothing more.  And yet, it is a fascinating story of jealousy, loss, betrayal, and deception.  In the end I was glad that I had taken the time to read it!

Shakespeare's Histories

Here are the characteristics of Shakespeare's histories.  What is interesting about these categories is that some of Shakespeare's tragedies have historical components like Julius Caesar and Macbeth.  But the histories are different in that...

They are set in Medieval English history.

They aren't historically accurate.  Whereas Julius Caesar is!

They provide social commentary about Shakespeare's time rather than that of Medieval history.

The 10 plays classified as history are as follows:



1.Henry IV, Part I
2.Henry IV, Part II
3.Henry V
4.Henry VI, Part I
5.Henry VI, Part II
6.Henry VI, Part III
7.Henry VIII
8.King John
9.Richard II
10.Richard III

Characteristics of Shakespeare's Tragedies

What are the characteristics of Shakespeare's Tragedies?

The Fatal Flaw All his tragic characters have some type of weakness-greed, ambition, etc.

Each main character falls.

External reasons cause their fall. Besides their fatal flaws that are part of their demise...Shakespeare's tragic characters also fall prey to other characters, fate, or even evil spirits.

The 10 plays generally classified as tragedy are as follows:


1.Antony and Cleopatra
2.Coriolanus
3.Hamlet
4.Julius Caesar
5.King Lear
6.Macbeth
7.Othello
8.Romeo and Juliet
9.Timon of Athens
10.Titus Andronicus

Stay tuned for a post about Shakespeare's histories.

Characteristics of Shakespeare's Comedies

We are continuing our unit on Shakespeare by watching several of his plays.  Some of our discussions have surrounded the characteristics of his comedies, histories, and tragedies.  Here are the characteristics of his comedies:

Comedy through language Play on words, metaphors, etc.

Love and Marriage are central themes in the comedies.  Someone is always falling in love with someone else, and there tend to be a lot of marriages.

Mistaken Identities The plot of most of Shakespeare's comedies surround mistaken identities.

The 18 plays generally classified as comedy are as follows:


1.All's Well That Ends Well
2.As You Like It
3.The Comedy of Errors
4.Cymbeline
5.Love's Labour’s Lost
6.Measure for Measure
7.The Merry Wives of Windsor
8.The Merchant of Venice
9.A Midsummer Night's Dream
10.Much Ado About Nothing
11.Pericles, Prince of Tyre
12.The Taming of the Shrew
13.The Tempest
14.Troilus and Cressida
15.Twelfth Night
16.Two Gentlemen of Verona
17.The Two Noble Kinsmen
18.The Winter's Tale


There will be more posts coming about Shakespeare's tragedies and histories.

Update on Shakespeare

It has been my goal to do some Shakespeare with my boys.  We started out by watching Julius Caesar (a tragedy) and we just finished Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew, which the boys really enjoyed.  At this point I have just had the boys watch the BBC videos.  I do want to have Zach read a few of them, but for the time being we are just enjoying how they were meant to be enjoyed by watching them. We have been discussing vocabulary, the meaning of certain conversations, the characteristics of tragedies and comedies.  We even discussed the similarities between Caesar and Lincoln. (See the teacher guide on Julius Caesar). We have read Bard of Avon to get some background on the writer.

My plan is to continue alternating between a tragedy and a comedy for the rest of the summer.  I really want us to do MacBeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.  I am less familiar with the comedies.  I am previewing every video we have watched because I have been warned that some of the comedies can be racey.  So if you decide to watch Shakespeare with your kids make sure you preview!

Here is my original post about Shakespeare with some awesome (cheap and free) resources to do a Shakespeare unit.


Any suggestions for good comedies that we should do???? I am just not familiar with the comedies as much.

Week of Rest

This week has been one of rest and recuperation for me.  Inevitably each spring I get a terrible cold or sinus infection as a result of all the pollen flying in the air. Well, this year was no different.  So I spent the week getting rid of my cold.  But that isn't to say that we didn't get anything done this week...here is what we did...

*We finished reading Shadow Spinner. A book that both the boys and I absolutely adored!  It had adventure, mystery, and heartache in it.  The whole theme of the book centered around forgiveness...at least that is the conclusion that the boys and I came to.

*We started our unit on Shakespeare...you can see what we are doing here.  I really want the boys to have a familiarity with some of Shakespeare's plays.  We started watching Julius Caesar this week, and I was surprised to find out that the boys are really enjoying it.

*Today I am hosting my Sunday School students (I teach Jr. High) at my home so that we can watch The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry....such a great movie! Not to be missed!

Shakespeare....here we come!

We are going to start learning about Shakespeare this year (since we are doing the Middle Ages, Renaissance and the Reformation, Shakespeare fits into that time period).  Last year we studied ancient history so I thought we would start with Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. It seems like a nice bridge between ancient history and the  Middle Ages.  Many of the women on the FIAR boards that I have gone to for years for homeschooling advice suggested that Shakespeare's play are meant to be watched and not read.  So we are going to start by watching and then reading them (my oldest maybe the only one that will read them at this point).  I have been warned that you need to preview any DVD of Shakespeare's plays...there can be inappropriate stuff in some of them.  This year my goal is to cover at least three plays.  We will see how far we get.  Here are some resources that I have found for teaching Shakespeare.


















Here are some other resources...

Sharing Shakespeare with Students  I recently bought this e-book from Currclick.  There is a lot of information in this.  It covers ALL the plays that Shakespeare wrote...giving summaries and background information. Here's a free e-book from the same author.

Free Teacher Guides for several of the plays!

Notebooking pages

More info