An essential assignment in both ENGL 161 and 162 is the Literary Interpretation Essay. Typically, in ENGL 161, you study and write about a play, and in ENGL 162, you study and write about a novel. It makes sense to begin Literary Interpretation by focusing on dramatic literature because plays are a genre we are all so familiar with already. If reading a play feels difficult to you, as we proceed throughout this assignment, keep this overall strategy in mind: Find the Familiar. Remind yourself of how well-versed you already are when it comes to interpreting scripts.

You may have gone to see plays performed live, or maybe you have even performed in plays yourself. But even if you have never seen a play before, all of us have seen a show, and all of us are familiar with scripts. To remind yourself of just how much you know about scripts, ask yourself these questions:

Seen any good movies lately?

Streamed a favorite series on Disney+?

Liked any TikTok videos?

Followed any YouTube personalities?

Rooted for your favorite player while watching your team play a game?

Of course—we all have! Who doesn’t love the drama and pageantry of the Super Bowl or the NBA Championships, especially when it’s a close-scoring, nail-biter of a game, one that goes down to the last seconds and is filled with drama and suspense?

These are all shows, and at the basis of all of these shows are performed scripts. There is no movie without a screenplay. There is no Star Wars without a storyboard. There is no major sports broadcast without the scripted pageantry and symbolism-filled ritual of the opening ceremony or the Greek chorus commentary provided by the announcers.

If you’ve watched a celebrity Instagram live video, you’re familiar with soliloquies. If you’ve watched TikTok, you’re familiar with scenarios. And if you were raised to appreciate the drama of big sporting events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics, you already have a strong awareness of the formalist components of an amazing play: extraordinary characters presented as heroes who overcome obstacles and challenges, pre-recorded segments that set up the major plotlines and conflicts, rising action, suspense, catharsis, resolution—all in four acts that we call quarters and complete with an intermission that we call half-time.

One of Shakespeare’s most famous lines holds that “All the World’s a Stage.” Most sociologists would agree with this wisdom. They would say that we ourselves perform scripts every day—that human behavior is based upon us taking roles in life and then acting according to those roles. For instance, you might have several roles you play—hard-working student, loyal friend, loving grandchild, reliable dog-walker—and the way that you behave when performing each of these roles depends upon the setting and the people you are interacting with, and especially their expectations of you in each role.

Even though you are already familiar with plays and shows, you are going to be writing your interpretation of an aspect of how the play was written, so it will be useful to have an established set of questions in mind to draw your attention to the these elements as you read. Be aware of things like:

Context

When is the play set? When was it first performed? When was it first written? If the play is older, what parts of the play still seem especially relevant to today?

Character

In order they are mentioned, who are the characters in the first scene? Which character is mentioned first? Which character do we know by name first? Which character do the other characters spend the most time talking about? What is significant about the way in which the playwright presents the characters to us?

Structure

How does the plot develop? What are the major plot points in the first scene? When there is no movement of the plot, no action taking place, what else is going on? How are the language and dialogue crafted? How is the structure itself symbolic or reflective of the content?

Theme

What’s the message? How do thematic concerns affect the characters?

Setting

What are the geographical and physical settings? What is the setting like in terms of social, political, or moral elements? What is the effect of the setting on the characters?

Description

What does the playwright focus on in the foreword, character descriptions, and stage directions? Does the playwright include descriptions of the characters—their ages, appearance, clothing, mannerisms, and other details?

Dialogue

What does the dialogue tell us about the characters? Do the characters speak in rhyme? prose? dialect? multiple languages? Do they have any particularly funny, memorable, or quotable lines?

Literary Devices

How are literary conventions like metaphor, meter, symbolism, and imagery at work?

The focus of your interpretation should develop out of your own interests, so as you read, you also want to be noting your favorite character(s), your favorite lines, and the parts of the play that you connect with the most. As you read the play, then, the questions are also: What speaks to you? What resonates with you? What seems true?

Continue Reading: 22.3 Elements of Play