Shakespeare

1. Shakespeare Language Exercises

2. Stress • Stress refers to the relative force with which a sound or syllable is spoken. • “I do fear the students choose Ralph for their class president.” • Stress the word…I, Ralph, class president, choose, students. • How does the meaning change with each stressed word?

3. Inflection • The term “inflection” refers to a change in pitch or tone of the voice. • “What need one?” (Regan to Lear) • Volunteer #1: Read the sentence as if it were a question you were unsure of. • Volunteer #2: Read the sentence as if it were (almost) a statement.

4. Exercise • Write three (3) sentences often said to you by someone close to you: a parent, a brother or sister, a friend. • Indicate the typical inflection and meaning for each. • As a group, we’ll try to change the meaning of a sentence using our voices.

5. Subtext • Just like denotation, connotation, stress and inflection, the subtext of a line can greatly change its meaning. • Subtext refers to the thoughts we imagine a character has as he/she speaks the words in the text. • Can I have four volunteers, please? • Each volunteer will receive a different thought to keep in mind as they read the sentence.

6. Subtext Exercise • “You’ve made me very happy.” • Do you think all the message supplied to the speakers were the same? • What was the same each time? What changed?

7. Subtext Exercise • Make up and write down a subtext for the following line: “Oh, no you won’t.” Suggestions: father, lover, spy, etc. (I will call on students to read the line with their subtext in mind. The class will then try to guess what the subtext might be.)

8. Subtext Exercise (cont.) • “Is that a new hairdo?” • “So you want to borrow my car?”

9. Relating Subtext to Stress and Inflection • “He never had a single chance.” • Stress the words: he, never, had, chance • What subtext is implied in each variation?