Read the assigned Pelican edition of Henry V. Consider it as a text, and answer few questions.

Business 3920 (Wall) – Paper #4 – due Tuesday (4/30) worth 30% of total course grade

The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to consider how plays are created for potential customers or consumers and how the types of customers to whom plays are marketed changes their presentation. There are 3 parts to the assignment.

Part 1

Read the assigned Pelican edition of Henry V. Consider it as a performance text. Then, in approximately one page (double-spaced), address the following questions: For what kind of audience or market did Shakespeare write this play, and how did he try to appeal to that audience? What does he assume about their tastes and expectations? How do you know?

– Do not do outside research. What does the text of the play itself tell you about how Shakespeare tried to appeal to his audience? Use one or two quotations from the play (and do not quote from anything else).

– Do not write about readers of the printed play in this part of the assignment. Focus on audiences who saw the play and heard the language performed in a theater. What clues does the text that survived give you about them?

– Do not try to cover everything in the play related to its audience. You have one page, so choose one specific scene or aspect of the play on which to focus.

Part 2

Look at a printed edition of Henry V other than the assigned Pelican edition. You don’t necessarily need to read all or most of the content in this book, but look at enough to address the following questions in one page (double-spaced): For what kind of reader market was this book published? pleasure readers? scholars? students (at a certain level)? theatrical companies of actors, directors, etc.? someone else? what does the book’s design imply about these readers needs? their interests? their limitations (if any)? How is the book designed to appeal to that market of readers? How do you know?

Feel free to look at any version of Henry V that has ever been printed. There are online facsimiles of the earliest quarto and folio printings at internetshakespeare. uvic.ca. Modern editions can often be found in booksellers and libraries (including the Marriott Library). You can look at a standalone printing of Henry V or a large compilation of Shakespeare’s plays in which Henry V is included, like the “First Folio” of 1623, or like many modern collections of Shakespeare’s complete works. But you must use a version of Henry V that was printed at one time. You may access that version through the internet, but do not use a free online edition or an exclusively electronic edition. If you look at a facsimile on a website like internetshapeare.uvic.ca, write about the original readers of the printed book, not the current users of the site.

– Again, do not do outside research. What does the book itself tell you about the market for which it’s intended? You can use a quotation or two from the book as your evidence and/or describe something specific about the way the book is printed, such as the layout of pages, the kinds (or the omission) of footnotes and other helps for readers, the cover details, etc.

– Again, do not try to cover everything that could be said about the book’s market. Choose a specific focus.

Part 3

Watch Laurence Olivier’s film adaptation of Henry V. In one page (double- spaced), address the following questions: For what kind of audience or market did Olivier make this movie, and how did he try to appeal to that audience? What does he assume about their tastes and expectations? How do you know?

We will be watching and discussing the film together in class. If you miss a day of viewing or need to review something in the film, the film is available at the Marriott Library, both in DVD format and as an electronic resource that can be accessed anywhere through the library’s website (just go to lib.utah.edu, and use your student ID to log in when prompted).

– Again, do not do outside research. What does the film itself tell you about how Olivier tried to appeal to his audience? Quote (or paraphrase) from the film, and/or describe specific visual details.

– Again, do not try to cover everything in the movie related to its audience. Choose a specific focus.

So, you will produce approximately three pages, total (double-spaced), one for each part. I want you to focus first and foremost on careful close analysis in each part. But the very best papers will tie the content from the three parts together into a larger thesis, and it may help you focus your approach to compare the performance text, printed book and film to each other. For instance, you could choose the same scene or part of a scene from each and compare them, then consider what the differences tell you about the different audiences or markets for which they are intended. Or you could look at something that only appears in one of the three versions you discuss and consider why the other two don’t have it, in terms of the audiences for which they’re meant. Or you could consider how each version you discuss talks directly to its market audience, how it makes a sales pitch. Shakespeare’s play talked to his audience through the character of the “Chorus.” How do the book and movie address their readers and audience?

Please upload your papers to our course’s Canvas site on or before Tuesday, April 30th. If you have any trouble doing so, let me know, and we will make an alternative arrangement.