II. Reading and Study
The purpose of the first and second readings will be the same as that stated in the previous two outlines.
III. Study of the Play as a Whole
Setting.—When does the play open? What two events of history has Shakespeare combined in Act I? Why?
How many days are required for the action of the play?
Show where the scenes follow one another without loss of time, and where they do not.
How are the descriptions of nature used to make the action more effective? Compare Shakespeare's use of storm and prodigy in this play with that in Macbeth.
Plot.—Where did Shakespeare get his material for this play? How has he modified it? Select two or three important modifications and show why he made them. In this story of the rise and fall of the conspiracy show by what successive steps it reaches the highest point in the first scene of Act III. At this point is our feeling one of sympathy with the conspirators or of opposition to them? Why? Where does the fall begin?
Trace the successive steps of the fall to the end in the last scene of Act V.
Does our feeling toward the conspirators change? Why? Compare the opening scene of this play with the corresponding ones in The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth. Which seems to you the most interesting and the best, regarded as an introduction?