GCSE English – 7 tips for studying Shakespeare

Photo by Matt Riches on Unsplash

Keeping up with schoolwork at home, during lockdown, communicating with teachers only online, I’ve had a glimpse of what students might be experiencing as, at 17, I completed my A levels living at home in Kuala Lumpur, communicating with a correspondence college by airmail. I had to develop strategies for staying motivated and organised, which proved very helpful when I subsequently went to university to read English.

From my own experience of tutoring English students for GCSE and A level, I know that Shakespeare texts often seem daunting and challenging, and even more so when they aren’t able to attend school.

With this in mind, I’ve put together seven tips to help with confidence, motivation, understanding and revision. Here they are:

1. Remember that Shakespeare didn’t write plays to make life difficult for 21^st Century GCSE students. I often say that he was the Elizabethan equivalent to Steven Spielberg, who’s directed many blockbuster films, including Jaws, Jurassic Park, ET, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark… The list is long. Shakespeare wrote plays to entertain. The language he used would have been as easily understood by his audience as the language in the films I’ve just listed.
2. Every Shakespeare play has a really good story. Make sure you are as familiar with the story as you can be. This will help you to understand what is happening as you read the play. There are many resources, online and in print, to help you with this.
3. Slow right down. Whenever we do something difficult, we tend to speed up, to get it over with. Unfortunately, the result is usually that we remain confused and feel disheartened. Slow down, focus on a few lines and work to understand them and appreciate the poetry. A few lines every day will build up to quite a lot in a week.
4. Thee, thou, thy and thine. Now, we only have one way of saying you, your and yours. That’s it. Up to a few decades ago, it was common to use ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ for you, ‘thy’ for your and ‘thine’ for yours. Learn these words and every page of your Shakespeare text will immediately be 10% clearer.
5. Read the text aloud. I know that reading Shakespeare aloud in class is often excruciating, especially for those with a little less confidence, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid reading it aloud altogether. It’s just a matter of your audience. Choose a few lines that you’re quite familiar with and read them out loud when no-one is listening. Do it again and again. When we read aloud we become much closer to the text. The sound of the words moves through our body. We forge a closer connection with the writer, and we give ourselves a better chance of understanding and remembering what they have written.
6. Word order. Over the centuries, we have gradually brought the verbs nearer and nearer to the beginning of our sentences. This is one of the main reasons why Shakespeare’s sentences often seem confusing. We have to wait until we get to the verb to grasp the meaning. Be aware that everything you need to know (once you have ascertained the meaning of any archaic vocabulary) is in the sentence. Often, all you need to do is rearrange the words into a more modern order. Remember that it is not Shakespeare who changed the order, because he was there first. We and our ancestors have adapted the English language over the generations.
7. For learning quotations and becoming familiar with the text, there is nothing like a working copy of the text. Just recently, I was able to buy a copy of Macbeth online for £2.50. With a working copy, you can highlight the quotations you want to learn and make notes in the margins. By all means write quotations in a notebook, put them on post-it notes all over the house or employ whatever other means you wish, but please don’t miss out on this helpful tip. As you flick through the book, looking for the quotations you need to learn, you will see them in context, in the moment within the play that they occur, and surrounded by the rest of the text. Quotations are not a condiment to be added to your answer once you’ve written it; they should be the lines of the play that you find most important and memorable. The heart of the play, the way you, and only you, read it. Try using a working copy and let me know if it helps.

As well as trying these tips, students can also read Shakespeare with me. As Macbeth is so commonly set for GCSE, I have made videos of myself reading and commenting on the whole play. Soon, these videos will be available as a course that you can stream.  Visit me at @harrietenglishtutor to find out more and watch recordings of previous Lives. You need to read the play, but you don’t need to read it alone. Read it with me!