SHAKESPEARE’S POETIC STYLE page 452

Actors spoke in verse in tragedies and histories.

Poetic style was suitable for aristocracy.

Shakespeare wrote in IAMBIC PENTAMETER --> an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. There are five unstressed and five stressed ones.

His poetry is irregular, the rhythm is linked to the meaning and mood of the text.

Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth: Shakespeare uses frequently BLANK VERSE --> iambic pentameter without rhyme.

In Othello rhyme is used by Iago to conclude his speeches. Moreover, Shakespeare uses ENJAMBMENT to talk about Othello’s stress and need to control himself.

Earlier plays: more regular, END-STOPPED LINES are frequent --> when a caesura ends a line. Caesura: pause in poetic lines.

Later, the poet became more experimental and did not mind to break the conventional rules. He preferred enjambment and abandoned end-stopped lines.

PROSE was used by characters that belonged to the low society, in comic episodes. Shakespeare changed from verse to prose in order to give a different tone and mood to a scene.

Although he didn’t follow specific rules, his language had a marked symmetry.