Shakespeare wrote for the stage around 1600. Close reading means looking at how language, verse and staging create meaning in a short passage.
Much of Shakespeare is in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (da-DUM); a line has five iambs, so 10 syllables. Characters of lower rank often speak prose. A sonnet has 14 lines; Romeo and Juliet opens with one.
Use Point – Evidence – Explain – Link. Pick a short quotation, name the technique (imagery, metaphor, antithesis, irony), explain the effect on the audience, and link to the play’s ideas and context (power, ambition, fate, loyalty).
Blank verse is:
An iamb is a foot consisting of:
Shakespeare often gives lower-status characters:
A soliloquy lets the audience hear a character’s:
Dramatic irony is created when:
In “Point – Evidence – Explain – Link”, “Explain” means:
A line of iambic pentameter has 5 iambs.
How many syllables does it have?
Enter an exact answer, without rounding.A Shakespearean sonnet is a poem with a fixed number of lines.
How many lines does it have?
Enter an exact answer, without rounding.Pentameter means a line has:
A rhyming couplet at the end of a scene often:
Which is the best evidence for a point about ambition?
Antithesis means:
Which part of a response shows knowledge of context?
In a reading paper, you meet a text you have never seen. A calm method helps you find what is stated and work out what is only suggested.
The lighthouse had been dark for eleven years when Mara climbed its stairs. Salt had eaten the handrail to lace, and each step gave a small complaint beneath her boots. At the top she found her grandfather’s logbook, its last entry unfinished, the ink stopping halfway through the word "storm". She closed it gently, as though it might wake.
Name the device, quote a short phrase and explain its effect. Always answer the question that was asked.
How long had the lighthouse been dark?
Whose logbook did Mara find?
The unfinished word "storm" suggests that:
"Salt had eaten the handrail to lace" is an example of:
"She closed it gently, as though it might wake" shows that Mara feels:
The overall mood of the passage is:
An explicit detail is one that is:
When you infer, you:
The best quotations are usually:
"Each step gave a small complaint" gives the stairs:
What is the first thing to do with an exam question on a passage?
Questions from every topic in this course. Pick an answer for each one, then hit Check My Answers.
The best analysis of a quotation does what?
A soliloquy is:
Iambic pentameter has:
Shakespeare often gives lower-status characters lines in:
Blank verse is:
“Juliet is the sun” is an example of:
When analysing a quotation, you should explain:
A Shakespearean tragedy usually ends with:
Which is an inference from "its last entry unfinished"?
A strong language answer names a device and explains its: