Common Elements of Shakespearean Works and Comedies

1. Common Elements of Shakespearean Works and Comedies Tools for analysis of author’s style.

2. Verse/Prose Usage: • Shakespeare wrote his plays using two different kinds of language: verseand prose. 

3. You can tell if a passage is written in verse if • a.)    the words do not go all the way across the page • b.)    the first word on each line is capitalized, regardless of the sentence break • c.)    there is a regular rhythm of unstressed and stressed syllables • d.)  there are usually 10 or 11 syllables in each line. • Example: • Duke Orsino says to Cesario: • O, then unfold the passion of my love.Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith. • It shall become thee well to act my woes. • She will attend it better in thy youth • Than in a nuncio’s of grave aspect. (I.4.26-28)

4. You can tell if a passage is written in prose if          a.) the words go all the way across the page;          b.) the first word of each line does not begin with a capital unless it is the first word of a sentence;          c.) the words do not share a consistent rhythmic pattern. Example, spoken by Maria: “By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o’ nights. Your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours ’” (I.3.4-6).

5. As a general rule (applicable in about 95% of the cases) you can assume that: a.) Upper class characters speak verse; lower class characters speak prose. Examples: Duke Orsino in verse (almost all the time) versus Feste in prose (almost all the time) b.) Serious material will be in verse; comic material will be in prose.     Examples:  Orsino explaining his passion for Olivia in verse, and the phony letter that fools Malvolio in prose

6. c.) Noble characters will speak verse; villains will speak prose. Examples: Sebastian speaks in verse almost always; Malvolio speaks in prose almost always. d.) Romantic passages will be in verse; non-romantic passages will be in prose. Examples: Viola describes in verse how she would love Olivia (I. 5.269).Feste describes in prose Malvolio’s misperception (IV. 2.37).  

7. Watch for places where a character changes from one form to another in the same scene, such as when Viola (in Act I, scene 5) changes from prose when she banters comically with Olivia to verse when she tells her how cruel and unreasonable is her rejection of Orsino’s suit. Why would Shakespeare have a character switch from one form which he or she has consistently used to another?

8. 2. Use of Rhyme: Almost all of Shakespeare’s verse is called blank verse, meaning there are 10 or 11 syllables in each line, in iambic pentameter (five units or feet in an unstressed/stressed pattern) and the lines are unrhymed, or blank.  Sometimes Shakespeare will use verse which is rhymed with similar sounds at the end of the lines.  Such rhymed passages are done to make the contents more formal or to emphasize the emotional content. Investigation: Find an example of this spoken by Olivia in Act I, scene 5. Why would Shakespeare want to emphasize this? .  Additionally, rhyme and unusual rhythm can be used to evoke magical charms or they can emphasize musical effects, as in all of Feste’s songs in Twelfth Night. Bonus . . .in what meter did Shakespeare write Feste’s songs??

9. 3. Unusual Metaphors: One of the dominant qualities of Shakespeare’s language, regardless of the form, is the incidence of unusual comparisons, often expressed in metaphors where the comparison is implied.  When Maria, in Act I, scene 5 at line 201, asks Viola to “’hoist sail, sir,’” she refers to her as if she were a ship that is no longer welcome in port. Viola answers using the same nautical metaphor: “’No, good swabber [sailor]; I am to hull here [remain in port] a little longer.’” Sometimes a comparison can be very elaborate with a number of different parallels drawn between the two things being compared.  In Act I, scene 5, at lines 220-229, Olivia compares Viola’s declaration of Orsino’s love as if it were a sermon in church, based on a text from the Bible.  In Shakespeare’s terms, such complex comparisons are called conceits, and they were highly prized by Shakespeare’s audiences.

10. The Major Conventions of Shakespearean Romantic Comedy • The main action is about love. • The would-be lovers must overcome obstacles and misunderstandings before being united in harmonious union. • It contains elements of the improbable, the fantastic, the supernatural, or the miraculous, e.g. unbelievable coincidences, improbable scenes of recognition/lack of recognition, willful disregard of the social order (nobles marrying commoners, beggars changed to lords), instantaneous conversions (the wicked repent), enchanted or idealized settings, supernatural beings (witches, fairies, Gods and Goddesses). • There is frequently a philosophical aspect involving weightier issues and themes: personal identity; the importance of love in human existence; the power of language to help or hinder communication; the transforming power of poetry and art; the disjunction between appearance and reality; the power of dreams and illusions).