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Discussion Questions
1. If you could find a diary by Shakespeare, what would you most hope to discover in it?
2. What do the details of Shakespeare's life bring to your understanding of his plays? Do you, ultimately, agree with the critics for whom biography is irrelevant—or does the stuff of life matter to the art?
3. Stephen Greenblatt shows that Shakespeare was an artistic risk-taker but he was also adept at staying out of deep trouble with the authorities. How do you think he reconciled the two traits?
4. Can you argue with Greenblatt's analysis of Shakespeare's portrayals of marriage?
5. Will in the World assembles evidence that Shakespeare's family had secret sympathies for the outlawed Roman Catholic faith. How might being brought up in such a family have affected Shakespeare's playwriting?
6. Given the paucity of information about Shakespeare's "lost years," would you have come up with a narrative similar to Greenblatt's, or do you imagine another story entirely?
7. What does Shakespeare's apparent interest in acquiring a coat of arms for himself and his family tells us about his choice of acting and playwriting as his profession? And what resonance does it have for an understanding of the characters in his plays?
8. From the nitty gritty of legal documents and real estate contracts, it seems Shakespeare was as tight with his money as he was generous with his imagination. Does it matter? Does it make us think of him or his work any differently?
9. Shakespeare, it is sometimes said, was such a supreme genius that he had no feeling of competitiveness. But Greenblatt suggests that Shakespeare felt an intense rivalry with his contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, even after Marlowe's death. What is the evidence for this rivalry?
10. How does the portrait of Robert Greene enhance—or limit—your understanding of Falstaff?
11. What makes Shakespeare's sonnets so enduring? Does the image of the Earl of Southhampton and his flowing locks disturb or enrich our reception of these poems?
12. To what degree do you think Shakespeare was molded by his culture in his portrayal of Shylock? Is it wishful thinking to suggest he was less of an anti-Semite than peers like Marlowe? How significant is the difference?
13. Do you find the connection between the writing of Hamlet and the death of Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, plausible? In an age of memoir and confessional interviews where writers and celebrities try to make sense of tragedies in their lives, can we really believe that Shakespeare would respond by not making sense, by removing critical elements of the story?
14. The modern playwright Edward Bond attacked Shakespeare for the way he ended his career, in retirement and carefully watching over his investments in Stratford. How does Will in the World deal with so quiet and apparently disappointing an end?
15. How do you think Shakespeare would have written his own death scene?
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