UA Understanding Shakespeare Works through Contemporary Perspective Questions

1] “Seeing is believing,” we’re sometimes told. Consider the problems of evidence in Shakespeare’s plays. Characters often come to strong conclusions about the beliefs, feelings, or actions of other characters, but on what basis? Take two of the plays we’ve studied and show how one (or more) of the characters in each comes to believe what s/he does. What does s/he want to know? Why? What steps lead him/her to certainty? In the end, should s/he believe what s/he does? What does Shakespeare seem to be implying about the search for truth?

2] Love would seem to be a human universal, but is it? Early modern people had some ideas on it that we don’t share, and Shakespeare, clearly, had a few ideas of his own. Choose two plays. In each, choose a couple (for instance, Hermia and Lysander). For each couple, show how this playwright portrays their love. What causes this love? What problems does it run into? Can those problems be resolved? Why or why not? Show how, from a modern point of view, this love either seems “real” or how it doesn’t. Or is this the right question?