Over the past few lessons, we have been familiarizing ourselves with Shakespeare’s style and the way he uses language. After reading Sonnets 147 and 148, we have explored the protagonists decent into madness and his blindness that has been caused by his love for “The Dark Lady”.
1. The poem has a significant change in tone from the last one. How is this poem different in the way it talks about “The Dark Lady”? Support your answer with examples from the poem.
2. There is a strong metaphor created around eyes and sight. Explain how Shakespeare uses this metaphor to explore the protagonist’s mental state. Do you think it is effective- why/why not?
3. The poem ends with language you might associate with something negative. Sonnet 147 did this as well. Analyse why, after the protagonist describes his love for this woman throughout the poem, he would want to express the darkness that surrounds her in what could be perceived as an aggressive manner.
Students are using these questions write a short piece which will summarize our discussions in class. They should use their personal blogs to publish this.
The idea behind this introductory series of lessons is to ensure that we are familiar with Shakespearean language (decoding, comprehending and analyzing) before we begin our study of King Lear.
