How to Read Shakespeare  (To Help Visualize and Orient):

•    Make a chart of character relationships; keep it in front of you as you read
•    As you read, use objects on a table to represent people
•    Read out loud
•    Read stage directions carefully (don’t skip them)
•    Pay attention to comings and goings (who is on stage?)
•    Pay attention to visualization clues in the dialogue
•    Read between the lines for subtextual clues of stage action
•    Make a movie of the play in your mind
•    Read Masterplots to supply basic orientation
•    Read analyses to suggest thematic issues

Close Reading Strategies:

•    When the text starts to “blur,” READ MORE SLOWLY

•    Reading quality is more important than reading quantity

•    Reading facility will follow reading quality

•    With difficult passages, identify subject, verb, object (SVO) and pronoun referents

•    Understand how the iambic pentameter line creates “chunks” of meaning

•    Translate figurative language into your own words

•    Rearrange syntax when necessary

•    Fill in missing words when necessary

•    Use the footnotes (remember, reading quality is more important than quantity)