Generating Character Vocabulary Lists for Shakespeare’s Plays

Mary Ellen Dakin

Introduction

Shakespeare’s characters are as rich and complex as the language they speak, but too many of our students lack a personal vocabulary equal to the task of describing and analyzing such complexity. This approach to vocabulary instruction begins with words not necessarily found in the text but necessary to a deeper understanding and expression of the complex and ambiguous nature of Shakespeare’s characters.

Objectives

To develop a rich and useful vocabulary for describing Shakespeare’s characters; to know, through frequent and varied use, a collection of mature, high-frequency words; to lay a foundation for making inferences about complex and ambiguous characters.

Grade Level: Middle/Secondary

Generating a Play-specific List

List the important and interesting characters in the play your students are about to read. Brainstorm for words you might use to describe these characters, words that take into account their dynamic and often contradictory natures. (See the Macbeth Character Vocabulary List for an example.) Note that I have listed the modifiers not in alphabetical order but in order of appearance of the characters: since the Witches appear first, my list begins with “equivocating” and “weird.” This is not to suggest that the first two words can only be used to describe the Witches: in fact, I encourage my students to explore the extent to which each word on the list describes all or most of the characters. Still, arranging a list by order of appearance helps students to see immediate applications for the words as they begin to read the play.

Applications

Students are more apt to learn new words when they are useful and used repeatedly in a variety of contexts. Good definitions are only the starting point. Consider the following instructional activities, many of which are outlined more fully in an excellent book on vocabulary instruction entitled Bringing Words to Life:

  • Beyond definitions, create student-friendly explanations for words in both conversational and written form.
  • Help students to build word relationships. For example, before students use these words to describe characters in a play, have them respond to this prompt, using a variety of words from your list: “Describe someone you know who is naïve.”
  • Create character webs and have students select words from your list that describe one or more characters. Encourage students to consider words with both positive and negative connotations as they build their character descriptions. (See the Act 1 Word Web graphic organizer.)
  • Create sentence stems for students to complete. (See the Sentence Stems handout for Macbeth modifiers.)
  • Write word questions for students to complete: “How might someone be valiant?” “Why might you be deceitful?” “When do you feel anxious?”
  • Challenge students to explain how pairs of words on the list are alike and/or different.
  • Make true/false statements: Naïve people are difficult to deceive: True? False?
  • Have students arrange the words on a continuum from, for example, good to evil.
  • Assign biopoems as a summarizing activity. Students can write biopoems about one or more characters in the play. (See the BioPoem Template.)
  • Encourage students to draw word cartoons that show the meanings of a word.

(See the Vocabulary Applications handout for additional examples.)

Works Cited

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. 2000.

Beck, Isabel L., Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan. Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: Guilford Press, 2002.