Studying Shakespeare at university is a voyage of discovery. Because there is no national curriculum for university teaching your experience at different universities might be very different, but on the whole there are likely to be some common experiences.

Firstly you will be encouraged to find out what YOU think the text means. This means that your lecturer might not provide you with all the answers. It is time now to explore avenues which interest you personally and to recognise that no-one, not even the most expert Shakespearian in all the world, has all the answers. Even if we knew much more about Shakespeare the man, we could never know for certain what his texts 'really meant'. You should also be aware that historical distance makes it even harder to guess what Shakespeare's texts meant in his own lifetime.

There are two ways to approach this problem, and if you do a bit of reading you will find literary and performance experts who take both positions. Firstly you can use historical research to guess how Shakespeare's audiences would have appreciated his plays; you might for instance look at other literature from the period to see how similar themes are handled.

The other position is to accept that we can never know what Shakespeare's words meant to his audience and explore instead how Shakespeare's texts can be interpreted today with cultural/ psychological/ historical knowledge we have gained since Shakespeare's own period. You may find that your university uses literary or performance theory as a way to approach and interpret Shakespeare. This means taking a pre-determined position from which to look at the text or play and may help you to find a way in to explore Shakespeare's work.

You may be studying Shakespeare as part of an English Literature based course or as part of a performance based course, and so we have split out learning resources into two sections: Shakespeare on the page and Shakespeare on the stage. However at this level there is no hard dividing line between different disciplines and 'interdiscplinary study' is often encouraged. So whichever approach you are taking, please do explore both sections, you will probably find something of interest.

Shakespeare on the Page

Hamlet Through a Lens: Feminist and Freudian Approaches

Ideologies of Love in Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare on the Stage

What do we Know About The Tempest?

Race Place and Identity in Othello