Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard:
1. Did you enjoy the book's structure as it alternated among three different time frames: Cromwellian England of 1658, the London of 1587, and London 15 years later? (Did you occasionally find it difficult to keep "Lizzy's" story separate from "Linney's"?)
2. At the onset of the story, Liz says to Arlene, "From the beginning I had terrible judgment in men." How does this statement set expectations for the story that follows? What are the parallels in Arlene's life?
3. The novel gives us two glimpses of Shakespeare—through Liz's eyes and, 15 years later, Arlene's? Describe the way this novel presents Shakespeare—and the ways in which he changes from Liz's time to Arlene's.
4. What draws Liz and Will together?
5. How does Liz's low opinion of herself cloud her belief in Shakespeare's talents?
6. Why might author Wright have chosen to tell his story three steps removed—through Liz, who tells Arlene, who then tells Charlotte. Consider how Charlotte questions the story's accuracy after so many years. Talk about Arlene's response and how it relates to the nature of storytelling...perhaps to the nature of all art, even to history itself:
That is an uncommonly literal reading of events and, if I may say so, does a disservice to your intelligence. In relating anything, we only approach the truth; we are never exactly there. Moreover, does not another truth besides the factual lurk in any account of events? A truth perhaps far more important?
7. In what way is literature a substitute religion for Arlene? Why is Hamlet her favorite play—what themes does it explore that have meaning for her own life?
8. What does Arlene think about Shakespeare after their meeting? Does he know or suspect she is his daughter? In what way does Arlene resemble her father—inward and outward. How are her insights into the human heart like her father's?
9. What does Charlotte regret about her own upbringing? How do society's codes for women restrict her life...and the lives of all women?
10. How does Wright portray life for the majority of men's and women's lives in the late-1500s to mid-1600s—especially the contrast between those of Oxford Manor and the "wretched masses" crowding the streets of London. Do you find Wright's descriptions of clothing and the other minutiae interesting or tiresome?
11. In what way do the lives of the novel's characters parallel the lives of Shakespeare's characters?
12. This novel contains loss and sorrow. Was it too sad? Would you have changed outcomes in the book—as Linney says she changed the fates of many of Shakespeare's characters?
13. As a male, does the author write in a convincing female voice? Wright could have written the book about a young man—after all, the book's title is "bastard" not "daughter." Any thoughts on why he decided on a female heroine rather than a male?
14. What are some of the humorous parts in the book? If you're in a book discussion, read them out loud.
15. Talk about the role of religion and the various religious practices (both traditional and non-traditional) in this novel.
Finally, not a question but an observation sent to us from Ginger Megs in Australian—we thought you would find it interesting:
Tea wasn't in common usage in England until 1660 and then only by the fashionable rich; a servant girl as written about on page 5 of Mr Shakespeare's Bastard would not be drinking tea.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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