1. Shakespeare’s language
The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.

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 ”
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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)
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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)‏
A shot from Hamlet by Franco Zeffirelli (1990).
altered the expected number of syllables
“There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple”
(from The Tempest)‏
divided a single line between two or more speakers
Emilia: Why, would not you?
Desdemona: No, by this heavenly light!
(from Othello)‏
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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
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4. Imagery a.
clusters of repeated images build up a
sense of the themes of the play, like
light and darkness in Romeo and Juliet
A shot from Romeo+Juliet  by Baz Luhrmann (1996). b.
imagery from nature c.
imagery from Elizabethan daily life, like:
sports and hunting; shipping and the law; jewels; medicine
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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.179–181)‏ 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).
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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).
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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)‏
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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
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11. 8. Irony Verbal irony Dramatic irony The audience knows
something that a character
on stage does not
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”
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9. Pronouns: you and thee
Send clear social signals
YOU
THEE
Implies either closeness or contempt
Friendship towards an equal
Superiority over someone considered a social inferior
Used to address someone of higher social rank
Can be aggressive or insulting
More formal and distant form
Suggests respect for a superior
Courtesy to a social equal
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