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Context is all-important when reading plays (which is what most of Shakespeare's output was) because the words are not Shakespeare's but the character's, and they are said under specific circumstances. For example, the famous speech "All the World's a Stage" is often anthologised without any regard for its context. However, you cannot really understand it until you know that the person saying it is a chronically depressed person who at this point is responding to the argument that there are clearly people worse off than he is on "this great stage of life".

Getting the context is one of the difficult parts of reading plays, and especially plays of Shakespeare's vintage which have very sparse stage directions. Without knowing what is going on on the stage, it is hard to understand why people say the things we do. Why does Gertrude say, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"? You have to know what else is going on when she says it.

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Q: Why is context so important when reading shakespeare?
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