Shakespeare's tools for verse and prose
Here (in alphabetical order) are brief explanations of some of the major language devices Shakespeare uses to make meaning in his verse and prose. Shakespeare did not necessarily give them the technical labels in bold below - he simply used these verbal strategies to great effect. It is perhaps not so important to know the technical terms as it is to appreciate how Shakespeare achieves his effects and to recognise the clues they offer us.
Alliteration is the repetition of consonants in words close together. It commands attention, emphasises special words and helps to link ideas. It can be used for comic or satiric effect, as Beatrice does in Much Ado About Nothing. Hear how she tuts and taunts Benedick with her repetition of 't's:
BEATRICE And men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too.
Antithesis uses a parallel sentence structure to compare two opposing ideas. Shakespeare is very fond of this device and uses it often, for coherence and to point up the key ideas in the passage. Here are two examples:
MACBETH This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good.
RICHARD III And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false and treacherous
Antithesis is a major feature of Shakespeare's prose and always deserves our attention. It is a clue: what idea is being emphasised? Why? Notice how often Brutus uses antithesis in the speech from Julius Caesar cited above.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same phrase or verse line. Again, this is done for emphasis. Vowels carry much of the music and feeling of the verse and the repetition of them strengthens the emotion, mood or atmosphere described. Ophelia's pain in reflecting on the change in Hamlet is captured in the repeated 'o', 'eh' and 'aw' sounds, almost like wail of grief:
OPHELIA
O, what a nOble mind is here O'erthrOwn.
The cOUrtier's, sOldier's, schOlar's eye, tOngue, swOrd,
Th'ExpEctation and rOse of the fAIr stAte,
The glAss of fAshion and the mOUld of fOrm,
Th'ObsErved of All ObsErvers, quite, quite dOwn.
A marked pause within a verse line is called a caesura. It is usually indicated with a full stop or a semi-colon. It slows down the line and marks a change of some kind, often an emotional change. Shakespeare used it with increasing frequency as he developed his poetic technique. See how often Hermione uses it in this brief extract from The Winter's Tale, written late in Shakespeare's career:
HERMIONE The Emperor of Russia was my father.
O that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial! That he did but see
The flatness of my misery; yet with the eyes Of pity, not revenge!
What clues to Hermione's emotional state do these strong breaks give us? How would they help to guide an actor's way of speaking the lines?
A verse line which only makes sense when it runs on and stops at a caesura in the following line is called enjambment, from the French word for 'to straddle'. It's the opposite of an end-stopped line whose sense is contained within the line. Many more end-stopped lines are to be found in Shakespeare's early plays, while enjambment is a feature of his later work. Enjambment can give emotional urgency to a thought by providing the energy to drive it on. It can also seem more natural than a more self-contained verse line. Notice the examples of enjambment in Hermione's speech above and compare this passage from Romeo and Juliet, a much earlier play.
PRINCE ESCALUS
A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished.
Half and shared lines are deviations from the standard iambic pentameter line spoken by a single character. A half line can be anything from a single syllable to three or four iambic feet: it's an incomplete iambic line. Why, we need to ask, has the character not completed the line? What is the internal or external reason? Unless there is an interruption, a half line indicates a pause and we are invited to wonder what fills this pause.
Two or more shared lines between two or more characters make up one line of verse. Here is a sequence from Macbeth which contains both shared and half lines. Why does Shakespeare write shared lines for the characters at this point in the play? What fills the pauses of the half lines?
LADY MACBETH I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
Did not you speak?
MACBETH When?
LADY MACBETH Now?
MACBETH As I descended?
LADY MACBETH Ay.
MACBETH Hark!
Who lies i' the second chamber?
LADY MACBETH Donalbain.
Shakespeare's prose and poetry are full of lists and ladders. He uses these when characters are intensifying an idea or feeling - when they are raising the stakes. In prose especially, a list or ladder helps to give form and unity to the text. Here is Rosalind from As You Like It:
ROSALIND
There was never anything so sudden, but the fight of two
rams, and Caesar's thrasonical brag of I came, saw, and
overcame. For your brother and my sister no sooner met, but
they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner
loved, but they sighed; no sooner sighed, but they asked one
another the reason; no sooner knew the reason, but they
sought the remedy
Onomatopoeia is the use of a word which sounds like what it means. Here are two examples of a device frequently found in Shakespeare's verse and prose:
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears...
(The Tempest, Act 3 Scene 2)
The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees...
(The Merchant of Venice, Act 5 Scene 1)
Shakespeare is a master at creating mood and atmosphere through the sounds of the words. Although only 'kiss' in the passage above may be strictly onomatopoetic, notice how the sounds of many of the other words contribute to the spirit of the speech together with its gentle rhythm. The length and quality of the vowel sounds are one tool Shakespeare uses; the sounds of consonants are another.
Compare this line to the ones above:
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs,
The duke shall grant me justice
(The Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 3)
Hear the hisses, the bullet-like monosyllables, the hard plosive consonants.
Shakespeare can make music of infinite variety with his command of language.
The Elizabethans were an aural society, good at listening, and they relished wordplay. Shakespeare's plays are full of wordplay in the form of puns. Shakespeare's puns can sometimes be more difficult for today's readers because many of them are topical, referring to events and attitudes of the time. A pun is a play on meaning of the same or two similar words, like this, from Twelfth Night:
VIOLA Save thee, friend, and thy music! Dost thou live by thy tabor?
FESTE No, sir, I live by the church.
VIOLA Art thou a churchman?
FESTE No such matter, sir. I do live by the church;
for I do live at my house, and my house doth
stand by the church.
Mercutio makes a more sombre pun when, dying, he says:
MERCUTIO Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man.
Notice how the effect of the pun exchange from Twelfth Night above depends upon repetition of words and phrases. Shakespeare uses repetition extensively in his plays and poetry to heighten dramatic effect, to comment ironically, to create wit, and to link situations, thoughts and feelings.
Repetition of words and phrases is always worth investigating. Here is a famous instance of repetition, heavy with irony. Notice the shared line which, together with the repetition, tells us so much about the character relationships at this point in the play:
OTHELLO Is he not honest?
IAGO Honest, my lord?
OTHELLO Honest? Ay, honest.
Simile and metaphor are two ways of creating word pictures. In the Elizabethan theatre audiences were called on to use their imaginations to create the scenery of the play: the Elizabethan stage was relatively bare compared to most modern theatre practice.
Shakespeare's word paintings can take us in a moment from Egypt to Rome, from England to France. They can enliven and illuminate private feelings and public debate. In a breath, Shakespeare can move from very plain language to the most extravagant similes and metaphors.
Similes enrich description by comparing two seemingly unlike things using 'like' or 'as.' Metaphors do the same but miss out the comparative words. Notice how Macbeth moves from a simile in the first line into an extended metaphor in the rest of the passage:
MACBETH And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind.
Metaphors and similes like these offer us insight into the way a character thinks. They are a valuable clue.
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