Study questions for The Taming of the Shrew

 1.  Is there an explanation for Katherine’s shrewish behavior?

 2.  What is Pertruchio’s taming strategy and how do you view it?  Is it justified?  Or does it constitute cruel and unusual behavior? 

 3. Whose point of view prevails in the play?  Katherine or Petruchio?  With whom do you sympathize? 

 4. What is the most important scene in the play and how would you stage it?

Study questions for Othello

1. Does this play validate or undermine racism and misogyny?

2. What accounts for Othello’s degeneration from loving husband to raging murderer?

3. Are the motives provided for Iago sufficient to explain his behavior? 
4. Which scene is the most important, crucial one of the play?  Why?

5. Why does Desdemona, who is originally presented as strong enough to stand up not only to her father, but also to frankly express her desires, become passive?

6. Why does Emilia take the handkerchief?

7. Does the play have a heroic character?  If so, who is it?

8. What connections can you draw between Othello and The Taming of the Shrew? 

Study Questions: Hamlet  

1. What is the connection between the domestic sphere and the political one in Hamlet?
2. Who is Hamlet?  What motivates him/drives him?  What do you think he has within him that passeth show?
3. What are the differences between Hamlet (Sr.) and Claudius?
4. What is the level of Gertrude’s involvement?  What are the reasons for this conclusion? 
5. How might we compare/contrast Hamlet and Ophelia?
6. What are some of the recurring motifs? What do they add to the meaning of the play? 
7. What is the “purpose of playing” in Hamlet?
8. What is the most important scene in the play?  Why? 
9. This play has a curious amount of echoing going on.  What accounts for it?  What function does it serve? 

Study Questions: Twelfth Night

1.  How do you feel about the trick played on Malvolio?  Is this just a prank?  Or do you read it as cruel and unusual punishment?

2.  Some scholars have argued that Antonio is the most constant lover in the play.  What are your thoughts on this point?

3. What does Feste mean when he says in act 1 scene 5: cucullus non facit monachum [the hood makes not the monk]: that’s as much to say, as I wear not motley in my brain.  (1.5.49-51)?  How does this comment relate to the play as a whole? 

4.  What do you make of the fact that Cesario and Sebastian are interchangeable for Viola? 

5.  Why do you think Shakespeare doesn’t have Viola appear on stage at the end of the play in a dress?  Remember that Orsino tells her, “Give me thy hand, / And let me see thee in thy women’s weeds” (5.1.263-264). 

6. What does this play seem to say about love and about marriage as an institution?