Shakespeare’s Language

Year 11 English Advanced 2011

• If a word didn’t exist, Shakespeare changed an old one or made up a new one.

• Shakespeare had a huge fascination with dramatic language. He truly believed in the power of words to focus and light up the imagination, persuade the intellect and move the audience’s emotions.

• You can apply almost all you have learnt about poetry to Shakespeare’s works.

Dramatic language

‘Suit the action to the word, the word to the action’

• His theatre • Stage Magic • Creating atmosphere and setting through language.• Intensely active and physical, pulsating with vibrant energy.• Inbuilt stage directions.• Evoke Imagery• For example: Grief and Loss:

‘Death lies upon her like an untimely frostUpon the sweetest flower of all the field’

Imagery• The use of emotionally charged words and phrases which

conjure up vivid pictures in the mind and imagination.

‘Why what’s the matter, That you have such a February

face, So full of frost, of storm, and

cloudiness’

• Shakespeare uses a lot of imagery from nature. Look out for it and see how much you can find. Discuss the above quotation and say why you think it’s effective.

And…• Imagery can employ:• Simile• Metaphor• Personification

‘ She never told her loveBut let concealment like a worm I’th’budFeed on her damask cheek. She pined in

thought,And with green and yellow melancholyShe sat like Patience on a monumentSmiling at grief’

Look at this example and see if you can spot the techniques that have been used.

• The opposition of words and phrases against each other.

• ‘To be or not to be…’

Remember!• There is no drama without conflict!

Antithesis

Lists

• Accumulate words and phrases like a list. • Increased dramatic effect by making

description forceful, and atmospheres or arguments more passionate or extreme.

• ‘Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind worm’s

sting, Lizards leg, and howlet’s sting,’

Alliteration, Assonance and Onomatopoeia

• ‘More a matter for a May morning!’• ‘What lusty trumpet thus doth

summon us?’• ‘The murmering surge, That on th’unnumbered idle

pebble chafes’Find the examples of alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia? Provide a justification.

Repetition: why use it?

• Dramatic force• Repeated words, phrases, rhythms and

sounds (rhyme, alliteration, assonance) add to the emotional force of a moment or scene.

• ‘Thou; lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never’• Lists: Shakespeare often makes his characters

list things. Can you think of any examples? What effect does this have?

Verse• It was expected that plays would be written

in verse• Verse is normally written in iambic

pentameter• Five stressed (/) syllables alternate with five

unstressed (X) syllables, giving a ten-syllable line.

• X / X / X / X / X / But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?Iambic pentameter is similar to the human heart beat.

• Rhythm that is exactly regular can become monotonous and boring.

• Shakespeare sometimes varies the rhythmic pattern to include more or fewer than ten syllables.

• Not boring or repetitive.

• We will find examples of these varied rhythmic patterns as we study the play.

Rhetoric• To speak persuasively.

• Is the speech a logical argument? How does it begin, handle evidence and counter objections, conclude?

• Think about how it appeals to the emotions and the imaginations of the Shakespearean audiences?

• Try to look at how techniques have been used in the language.

Rhyme

• Uses rhyme in songs, prologues and epilogues, masques and plays within plays.

• Blank verse• Strong rhymed couplets are used for exits

• Sometimes rhyme occurs in speech shared by two characters to express shared emotions:

Juliet: ‘O now be gone, more light and light it grows

Romeo: More light and light, more dark and dark our woes

Self-persuasion

• Thoughts of the protagonist. Normally displayed through a soliloquy.

Hyperbole

• Extravagant and obvious exaggeration. E.g. “It’s so hot I am dying!’

• Two incompatible or clashing words are brought together to make a striking expression.

Oxymoron

Irony

• Verbal and dramatic

• Verbal irony is saying one thing and meaning another.

• Dramatic irony within plays is when the audience is aware of something of which the character is not.

Puns and Malapropism

• Puns are words that have two or three different meanings.

• Malapropism• Inappropriate, muddled or mistaken use of

words.

Monosyllables

• Simple short words can carry a high emotional frequency and dramatic charge.

• E.g. ‘To be or not to be’

Why do I need to know all these things?

• For this module, you are required to show insight and depth of analysis.

• Understand Shakespeare’s use of language for dramatic, poetic and figurative effect.

• Understand Shakespeare’s stagecraft and appeal to the audience.

Hints for critical analysis

• Plan your answer and make detailed notes.• Do not re-tell the story.• Analyse in depth; look at characters, stagecraft, their

language and how this informs the audience of the situations.

• Comment on language use*• Comment on the social, historical and cultural

context.