Shakespearean Drama

1. Shakespearean Drama The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

2. Poetry devices • Metaphor: Review • A figure of speech which compares two things that are really not alike in most respects, but which seem alike in one meaningful way. In a metaphor, the comparison is made without the use of such words as “like” or “as.”

3. Metaphors The old man’s face was a brittle page in the book of his life. Carpeting is indoor grass, lush and soft on the feet. The locker room’s smell was an attack force, assaulting my nose with random explosions of pungent odors.

4. Metaphors Effective metaphors or not? A Porsche 911 Turbo is a fast car. A tornado is a funnel cloud. A heavy-metal rock star is a loud singer.

5. Poetry devices • Simile: Review • A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things that are not really alike in most respects, but that are alike in some way that makes the comparison effective. In a simile, the comparison is always made by using specific comparing words such as “like” or “as.”

6. Similes The heavily tattooed man is like a walking storybook. Lake Minnetonka is like a woman’s heart: deep, murky, and mysterious. During the last minute of passing period, Wayzata High School is like a beehive, with students buzzing frantically around, trying to get to the right cell of the honeycomb on time.

7. Similes Effective similes; yes or no? Fresh-fallen snow is as cold as winter. The black stallion was as black as coal. Candy is like sugar: super sweet.

8. Shakespeare’s figurative language • Let’s re-visit Friar Laurence’s soliloquy at the beginning of Act 2. In it, find an example of: • Metaphor • Simile • Personification • Classical allusion • Reversed sentence construction • Wait, what’s that? • Let’s find out.

9. Shakespearean Drama • When Shakespearean actors say their lines, they don’t just speak lines of dialogue. Often, they’re also speaking lines of dramatic poetry that are written in a sound pattern called iambic pentameter (invented by the Greeks): • When these lines don’t rhyme and are not grouped in stanzas, they’re called blank verse: a line has five instances of unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. • “Romeo and Juliet” features much more rhymed iambic pentameter, often with punctuation at the end of each line to make the rhymes even stronger. • He often employs rhyming to emphasize the strong emotional content (such as Romeo and Juliet’s love). Adapted from Barron’s “Simply Shakespeare”

10. Shakespearean Drama • An iamb contains one unaccented (or unstressed syllable) and one accented (or stressed) syllable in that order. It borrows from the natural swing of our heartbeats to go ker-THUMP, ker-THUMP. • Five of these ker-thumping units in a row make a line of iambic pentameter.

11. Shakespearean Drama • Here is a line of perfect iambic pentameter: • “He WENT to TOWN toDAY to BUY a CAR.” • That can get monotonous. So writers like Shakespeare change the iambic pentameter pattern of their blank verse to keep things interesting – and to make poetry. • “In SOOTH/I KNOW/not WHY/I AM/so SAD” (Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1)

12. Sonnets Sonnets were most often used as love poems. Romeo and Juliet recite one to one another when they meet at the party. However, sonnets are used elsewhere in the play, too (such as in the prologues). The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three verses with four lines in each verse, then a fourth verse with only two lines.

13. Sonnets The structure of it might look like this: Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx

14. Sonnets The rhyming pattern for the first three verses is: ababcdcdefef This means the last word of the first line rhymes with the last word of the third line. The last word of the second line rhymes with the last word of the fourth line in each quatrain. For the fourth verse (the two-line verse, known as a couplet) the rhyming pattern is gg. This means the last word of the first line rhymes with the last word of the second line.

15. Sonnets Let’s look at a sonnet from Romeo and Juliet that all of you are somewhat familiar with: The Prologue to Act 1

16. Sonnets Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona (where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which but their children’s end nought could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage. The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

17. Sonnets • The poem has 14 lines, arranged in three verses of four lines, and a fourth verse of two lines. • It follows the rhyming pattern noted earlier. • Lastly, each line contains 10 syllables: • From (1) forth (2) the (3) fatal (4,5) loins (6) of (7) these (8) two (9) foes (10) • That’s your challenge: to write a sonnet. • But there’s more.