Features of Shakespeare s language Shakespeare's language

Transcription

1 Shakespeare's language

2 William Shakespeare used language to: create a sense of place seize the audience s interest and attention explore the widest range of human experience He was a genius for dramatic language

3 1. Blank verse unrhymed lines with an arrangement of unstressed and stressed syllables known as iambic pentameter In sooth / I know / not why / I am / so sad / (from The Merchant of Venice)

4 2. Variations on metre to make his verse less monotonous, Shakespeare: altered the pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables that this too too sullied flesh would melt (from Hamlet) altered the expected number of syllables There s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple (from The Tempest) A shot from Hamlet ).by Franco Zeffirelli (1990 divided a single line between two or more speakers Emilia: Why, would not you? Desdemona: No, by this heavenly light! (from Othello)

5 3. Use of verse and prose VERSE PROSE generally used by aristocratic characters in serious or dramatic scenes generally used by lower-class characters in comic scenes in informal conversations

6 4. Imagery a. b. clusters of repeated images build up a sense of the themes of the play, like light and darkness in Romeo and Juliet imagery from nature A shot from Romeo+Juliet by Baz Luhrmann (1996). c. imagery from Elizabethan daily life, like: sports and hunting; shipping and the law; jewels; medicine

7 4. Imagery d. use of metaphors and similes There s daggers in men s smiles (from Macbeth) The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath (from The Merchant of Venice, IV.i ) e. use of personification Come, civil Night; Thou sober-suited matron all in black. (from Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene II) A shot from The Merchant of Venice by Michael Radford (2004).

8 5. Antithesis The contrast of direct opposites. Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O any thing, of nothing first created: O heavy lightness, serious vanity (from Romeo and Juliet) Frank Dicksee Romeo and Juliet (1884).

9 6. Repetition Repeated words or phrases add to: the emotional intensity of a scene Oh horrible, oh horrible, most horrible! (The Ghost in Hamlet) its comic effect O night, O night, alack, alack, alack, I fear my Thisbe s promise is forgot! And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall. (Bottom in A Midsummer Night s Dream)

10 7. Hyperbole Extravagant and obvious exaggeration Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur! Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire! (from Othello) ( Othello is haunted by the knowledge that he has wrongly killed Desdemona )

11 8. Irony Verbal irony The audience knows something that a character on stage does not Dramatic irony Saying one thing but meaning another It is structural: one line or scene contrasts sharply with another In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony calls Brutus an honourable man but means the opposite In Macbeth Duncan s line He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust is followed by the stage direction Enter Macbeth

12 9. Pronouns: you and thee Send clear social signals YOU THEE Implies either closeness or contempt More formal and distant form Friendship towards an equal Suggests respect for a superior Superiority over someone considered a social inferior Courtesy to a social equal Used to address someone of higher social rank Can be aggressive or insulting