Because of its length, generic hybridity, and implausible romance conventions, The Winter’s Tale is a challenging play. Through expert guidance on understanding, interpreting, and writing about Shakespeare’s language, this book makes The Winter’s Tale accessible and exciting for students. It demonstrates that careful attention to Shakespeare’s complex dramatic language can clarify the structure and concerns of the play, as well as provide deep and satisfying engagement with the social, political, and ethical questions Shakespeare raises.
Divided into five chapters, each featuring a 'Writing Matters' section designed to connect analysis of Shakespeare’s language to students’ development of their own writing strategies, the book begins with a consideration of this unusual play’s hybrid genre and sources, and offers some basic strategies for comprehending Shakespearean drama. Chapter One provides methods for identifying and addressing the difficulty of Shakespeare’s figurative language, at the same time promoting appreciation for the power and richness of meaning that comes from the ambiguity of that language. Chapter Two considers how Shakespeare’s use of different verbal and dramatic forms — prose, verse, soliloquies, asides, dialogue, rhetorical tropes — shapes character, action, and meaning. Chapter Three examines the discourses in the play of gender, politics, festivity and religion to understand how the significance of language in The Winter’s Tale relates to the historical circumstances in which it is read or performed. Building on previous 'Writing Matters' sections, the final chapter provides guidelines for strengthening students’ analytical writing, particularly for longer essays.