Looking at Character
February 14, 2008 by ilrlo
Rex Gibson (1998), in Teaching Shakespeare, discusses ways to study Shakespeare’s characters in the classroom. In keeping with his view that these plays should be treated as scripts, not text, Gibson suggests various activities that parallel what Shakespearean (and other) actors do to get “into character.” These are interesting. I have seen such activities done in an acting class but not in a language arts class. I think that one could probably do a few of them, but most likely a language arts teacher would not have the time to spend weeks on building actors’ searching characterization. I liked the four questions that Gibson asks students to answer: “Who am I? What am I saying? Why am I saying it? And How do I speak?” (p. 112). By answering these questions, students have to really understand the language that the character uses and the story (which provides background/motivation), and they must think of the character as a person with attitudes and reasoning. From this, students may be able to better connect with the character as they “get to know” him/her better.
In terms of participatory activities that include other aspects of the curriculum, students could integrate this knowledge into writing assignments and critical thinking discussions. After evaluating what they know about characters (evaluation is high on Bloom’s taxonomy too), students could create an extra monologue from the point of view of one of the characters, perhaps even demonstrating some of the literary language tools that Shakespeare employed. An activity that Gibson suggests is to stage job interviews with the students applying for a job while playing a character. He proposes having students apply for jobs and also having students play the interviewer as a character. I appreciate this activity because this works on multiple curricular tasks at the same time. Students will need to understand their characters, so they will need to research aspects of the character from their text/script. They will need to understand how a job interview is conducted and be able to think quickly and give plausible answers to questions. Students will need to work on their persuasive skills in order to convince the interviewer that their character is right for the job.
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I really like how you take character analysis to the next level of evaluation and application. I think I will steal your monologue idea to use in my classroom; I can see how that would be an interesting and useful assignment.
I think I have always considered Shakespeare as texts that were meant to be seen…or scripts that were meant to be acted out. I think of all drama this way, but I was also a theater junkie for my entire childhood. The play is the thing, right? So, what I found useful about the Gibson text is its universal application. These activities could be used with any play. Plays were meant to be acted out, and I think it would behoove teachers to treat them accordingly.
I like Gibson’s take on Shakespeare instruction. I particularly liked the lessons that you referred to that dealt with students interviewing characters. I think this forces students to have a deeper understanding of the character and his or her motivations in the play. This also forces the student to modernize the character and put him or her in a present day situation. It’s a great way to incorporate lots of different skills into one lesson.