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STRUCTURE IN SHAKESPEARE




1. Use of inversion—a) shift from average word arrangement to the strikingly unusual so the line will conform to the desired poetic rhythm; b) uses unusual word order to afford a character his/her own specific style of speaking.

2. Shakespeare purposefully keeps words apart that we keep together to achieve poetic rhythm.

3. Separates words by long, interruptive statements: a) subjects separated from verbs; b) verbs separated from objects. These interruptions: a) give characters dimension, or b) add an element of suspense, or c) provide information to the plot.

4. Use of elliptical sentences where words are omitted but understood.

5. Use of intentionally vague language (doubletalk). Characters sometimes suggest things they would want to say, do , or have done. Sometimes they do this to avoid answering a question. It’s a kind of doubletalk.

6. Use of uncommon words—words we still use today, but now they have a different meaning.

7. Wordplay through use of figurative language. Use of: a) metonymy—a figure of speech using the name of one thing for that of another with which it is associated. Ex. The “crown”—the king; b) synecdoche—a figure of speech using a part for the whole. Ex. “boards”—implies a stage; c) personification; d) allusion—often alludes to heroes and heroines of Ovid’s Metamorphoses; e) puns—puns work through the ambiguity that results when multiple senses of a word are evoked; homophones often cause this kind of ambiguity. Ex. “mettle”/ “metal” f) simile; g) metaphor.

8. Use of different kinds of language. Use of prose vs. rhymed verse vs. blank verse. a) Shakespeare usually has lovers speak in language of love poetry using rhymed couplets; b) when characters joke or are engaged in bawdy conversation, lines are given in prose—it’s a way of letting the reader know if the character is jesting or serious; c) the majority of lines are in blank verse—does not use rhyme but uses iambic pentameter ( every second syllable in a line of ten syllables receives stress).

9. Shakespeare uses prose for the common people and blank verse for characters of noble birth.

10. Some action is presented through stage directions; other action is presented through the dialogue itself.