GITS Script Reading and Analysis Series: “Shakespeare In Love” — Structure

Welcome to Week 8 of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for the 1998 movie Shakespeare In Love (written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard), your choice for the Romantic Comedy sub-genre.

You may access the 1998–06–04 version of the script here.

Today we discuss the script’s structure. You may choose to consider the story in terms of three-act structure with one of these iterations:

Aristotle: Beginning / Middle / End

Campbell [Hero’s Journey]: Separation / Initiation / Return

Hegel: Thesis / Antithesis / Synthesis

Jung: Invitation / Immersion / Integration

If anyone is into sequence theory, if you’d care to break down the script per its sequences, we would all laud and honor you.

Or make your case that the script has some other narrative structure… or perhaps none at all.

See you in comments!

For Day 1 of our analysis of Shakespeare in Love, go here.

For a lengthy interview with co-screenwriter Tom Stoppard, go here.

Remember the upcoming schedule of scripts:

Week 10 [November 7-November 11]: Drag Me to Hell [2007–09–26] — Horror Comedy

Week 11 [November 14-November 18]: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2003] — Charlie Kaufman

Week 12 [November 28-December 2]: Panic Room [2000–02–23] — Action Thriller

NOTE: THIS SERIES AND THE USE OF SCRIPTS IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!

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