Thompson

Shakespeare Study Guide File Name: #222 stdy gd 10.03

List of Texts Covered:

intros to As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet

Belsey. "Reading the Past"

Jean Howard, "The New Historicism in Renaissance Studies

Shakespeare. As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet

Linda Fitz. What Says the Married Woman

Marriage and gender quotes

Laqueur

cartoons

“Savvy Queen Markets Chastity”

“Another Pretty Face”

Genesis 1-3

visual images

Topics in As You Like It

• courtly love and its critiques

• Is Rosalind a hero?

• How does Celia function in the play?

• describe sex and gender inversion and layering

Topics in Romeo and Juliet

• who is the hero?

• compare Juliet and Rosalind

• compare Romeo and Orlando

• compare male authority in the two plays

• compare female authority in the two plays

Questions:

1. Who is your persona? Describe that person’s life as fully as possible, based on the reading you have been doing to this point.

2. Describe the characteristics of tragedy as a genre.

3. Describe the characteristics of comedy as a genre.

4. How do the plays fulfill these descriptions or disregard them?

5. How are representations of early modern marriage conventions the same/different in each of the two plays?

6. Compare women’s use of language in both plays.

7. How do AYL and Romeo and Juliet function as bookends/companion pieces? Did I pick these sets of plays for a reason?

8. How does heterosexuality function in these plays? on private and public levels?

9. What are the possible homoerotic subtexts in As You Like It?

10. Explain the basic tenets of New Historicist criticism. (see Belsey and Howard)

11. Do you think that Shakespeare argues for or against companionate marriage in Romeo and Juliet and AYL? Think of all the things said about marriage, all the marriages, and the conclusions of the plays.

12. Explain the interaction/intersection of public and private in both plays.

13. What is the relationship of the Book of Ruth to As You Like It?

14. What is the relationship of Genesis 1-3 to the early modern world?

15. Describe four life events that you have used in your persona assns. thus far.