/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21527884]

Which of Shakespeare's plays are the easiest to understand?

[Anonymous No.21527887]

>>21527884
Titus Andronicus.

[Anonymous No.21527892]

>>21527884
A comedy of errors is pretty fun.

[Anonymous No.21527895]

Romeo and Juliette, since everyone knows the story anyway.

[Anonymous No.21528182]

>>21527884
Try reading Shakespeare out-loud. It helped me in school.

[Anonymous No.21528224]

>>21527884
Depends on what you mean by "easy to understand". None of them are difficult to read after you get used to the language. If you're really having trouble understanding, I recommend watching the play first and then reading it. Going in with the context and all of the scenes played out visually in your mind will help you keep track of everything that's going on while you read it.

[Anonymous No.21528254]

>>21527884
H A M L E T

[Anonymous No.21528264]

>>21527884
Our class was made to read As You Like It at age twelve. I don't recall it being difficult, so give it a try.

[Anonymous No.21528594]

>>21528254
Best part of hamlet is you can watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead[spoiler/] afterwards. It’s a play about the two side characters. Also you get to see a young Tim Roth. I saved the best for last: the hamlet movie has one of the best hamlets in cinema history. That is none other than Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh. Idc I’ll spoil his hamlet because you can’t he’s so captivating. https://youtu.be/U4kc88Z7ElQ
>feel free to call me a faggot now

[Anonymous No.21528600]

Ligotti likes Macbeth and kind of shat on Hamlet if that means anything to you.

[Anonymous No.21528669]

>>21527884
The Tempest? I suggest going through once looking up minimal words and reading summaries on wikipedia after each act or scene to check for comprehension.

The next one you read will be easier, etc. Vocab gets repeated, at least make sure you look up repeating vocab.

[Anonymouṡ No.21528861]

>>21527884
Shakespeare can be difficult in three ways:

a) Archaic language. This is especially bad in the early comedies (e.g. Love's Labours Lost) with lots of wordplay and puns that no-one gets now.

b) Convoluted, almost perverse language. This is a feature of the late style, e.g. Winter's Tale. I think by this stage in his career his audience was used to him and he liked twisting about to keep them (and himself) interested.

c) Complexity / weirdness of plot / theme / psychology. "What's it all about?" e.g. The Tempest, Measure for Measure. This usually doesn't matter. You might be a bit puzzled, but in a good way.


Here's a baker's dozen that aren't too bad. In chronological order:

— TITUS ANDRONICUS
Straightforward gore + revenge. About as subtle as a half-brick in a sock in a dark alley.

— RICHARD III
A sort of simpler Macbeth.

— ROMEO AND JULIET
You probably know the story, which helps.

— A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Not too much wordplay.

— THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Sometimes called a "problem play", but it's not really hard to follow; some people just think it's not clear how we're meant to feel about Shylock.

— HENRY IV, PART 1
Pretty easy. You just have to get the nature of the Hal-Falstaff relationship.

— HENRY V
Pretty easy. He talks a lot of French to the French princess but you just look it up and go OK. Or not.

— JULIUS CAESAR
They do this in schools because it's easy.

— AS YOU LIKE IT
Lots of prose, which might be easier. Cheery bucolic setting. Everyone likes Rosalind. Orland is a fine fellow too, even though he writes "poems" which are almost as bad as the poems in /lit/ poetry threads. WARNING: Lots of songs that go HEY NONNY NONNY.

— HAMLET
Of course there's a lot going on, but it's not too hard to follow the general currents. Even when Hamlet is making weird puns (which he does all the time) it doesn't matter if you don't get them. You know he's (usually) just being snarky and passive-aggressive. You look them up in the footnotes and go OK.

— TWELFTH NIGHT
Not too hard to follow. You have to forgive the standard "woman mistaken for a man" stuff.

— KING LEAR
He's portraying a very raw and bare-bones world, so the language is often plain, which helps. The Fool makes some impenetrable "jokes" but you just look them up and go OK, that was edgy-funny I suppose.

— MACBETH
Another school favourite.