How can I identify and understand themes found in specific extracts of Shakespearean plays, and relate them to the play as a whole?

Despite the archaic language used in Shakespeare's work, it can be simplified by reading the scenes carefully. When you are presented with an extract of a play, as always you must read through it twice to familiarize yourself with the scene. It is important to know what has happened directly before the scene in order to understand the behaviour and context of the characters and the setting. Once you have situated the scene in the play, you can begin to analyze the relationship between the characters present that will reveal the themes of the play. By identifying language techniques such as metaphor and simile, we can begin to understand the loving or loathing nature of the relationship and thus the overarching themes of the play. Shakespeare's literature is also renowned for including provoking phonetic devices such as alliteration and rhetoric to convey themes of love, power, and hatred, so this is also on the checklist. Consider how much one character speaks in comparison to the other(s) - what does this say about the authority? is one character subservient to the other? Also consider the context of the play in relation to time period and location - does this impact the behaviour and attitudes of the characters? Always pay attention to stage directions as they will give you insight how the characters say things and what they do to further encapsulate certain themes. Once you have identified the themes in the extract, you can cross check them with other examples in the play. Was there another scene involving the two characters that foreshadowed the themes present in this one? Did other characters absent in this extract exhibit the same language or attitude elsewhere? Has there been a change in theme such as love to hate? or weakness to power? All the while, you must remember the context of each scene in order to apply your knowledge to the wider text.