Importance of Speech in Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Richard III

Through Shakespeare’s use of minor characters in his play, Hamlet, the playwright was able to subtly develop Hamlet’s character. In using minor characters, Shakespeare emphasized certain traits which the main character held. These minor character also personify the motifs of contrast between a sickly interior versus healthy exterior and contrasting life and death; the minor characters’ embodiment of these motifs further establish for the audience the importance of these motifs within the play.

Deceit and trickery play a huge part in the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Deception is a key theme in the play, it also moves the plot along. Trickery and deception is used in the love stories of couples Hero and Claudio, and Benedick and Beatrice, with opposite results. This play demonstrates two different kinds of deceit: the kind whose only purpose is to cause trouble, and the kind that is used to form a good outcome. In the relationship of Hero and Claudio, deception nearly succeeds in breaking them apart forever, while in the case of Benedick and Beatrice, it brings them closer together.

William Shakespeare is the world’s pre-eminent dramatist whose plays range from tragedies to tragic comedies, etc. His general style of writing is often comparable to several of his contemporaries, like Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s narrative poem, “The tragical history of Romeo and Juliet”. But Shakespeare’s works express a different range of human experience where his characters command the sympathy of audiences and also are complex as well as human in nature. Shakespeare makes the protagonist’s character development central to the plot.

Have you ever wondered why Shakespeare uses so many descriptive words that could really be said in one? Or why some characters speak in rhyme and sometimes not? Shakespeare writes in this way to show how the characters feel through the rhythmic and descriptive words that they use. How the characters speak also shows how sincere and loving they are. Shakespeare had a way of writing that informed us about the characters and what we needed to know about them and also makes it interesting to read.

The use of descriptive language is important for the writer to entertain, persuade and teleport the reader into their work. Descriptive use and imagery allow the reader to experience the setting, sound, taste, and mood as if they can live through it. Which takes us to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Not only does he use exceptional details and imagery throughout the play between the characters, but the way he uses word allows us to put ourselves into the play as if we can feel what they feel. It also allows us to experience and go through the play as if we are in it also. So in this paper, I would like to focus on a few major moments where I believe Shakespeare descriptive language is the strongest.

Shakespeare uses metaphors and figures throughout his plays to give the reader and audience a further understanding of the story he is telling. In Metaphors We Live By, it is stated that “…Metaphorical expressions in everyday language can give us insight into the metaphorical nature of concepts that structure our everyday activities…” (Lakoff & Johnson 7). Through these conceits Shakespeare expands a normal idea and transforms it into

To establish the sinister intentions of Richard the actor, Shakespeare makes reference to his moral and physical impediments that leave him cursing “I that am not shaped for sportive tricks…I that am curtailed…”. Through the subtle use of anaphora and repetition of ‘I that am’, which is fleshed out by a definitive tone, the audience is made aware of how Richard is led ostensibly “to prove a villain” and thus, adopt a disguise. Moreover, Richard’s theatricality is stressed as he embarks as a ‘master’ of his own fate, for he perceives himself as “subtle, false, and treacherous”. His sinister intentions are exemplified by the use of tricolon, evocative word choice and short sentence patterning that create a sharp staccato effect. These intentions allow Shakespeare to subtly resonate Richard with the Vice from the medieval morality plays as well as the Renaissance Machiavelli who actively sought power, caused mischief, practised deceit and cynically gloats over his success. Moreover, Richard’s acting allows him to confide in his audience as he is paradoxically honest about his dishonesty, whilst also encouraging his audience not to detest him, but rather, take delight in his cleverness as the ‘director’ of the play. Thus, the opening soliloquy of Richard III offers an insight into how Richard manipulates the

Much Ado About Nothing, a comedic play of Shakespeare, consists of a diversity of complex characters. One of those characters is the classic villain known as Don John. He is an envious man with no scruples on making people’s lives miserable. Throughout the play, he does nothing but make his loved ones suffer. Shakespeare portrays Don John as a static character through his vindictive thoughts, his manipulative intentions, and villainous personality.

Shakespeare is known for intertwining numerous plots within his plays, as highlighted in The Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night’s Dream. Within these plays, Shakespeare outlines and follows a series of plots set up for each character. As the plays progress, the interrelated plots contrast and conflict with each other giving rise to character conflict and development. Parallels initially introduced are then further emphasized as the characters’ conflicts reach their climax. Through these plot parallels, the audience is able to see how the ideals, values, and situations of each character are related.

Shakespeare’s characters have universal appeal because they are extremely relatable, the character flaws can be related to real flaws people have in real life, the love and romance are inspiring and captivating by anyone who is searching for or is in a relationship, the story lines accentuate the characters themselves, resulting in deeper characterizations, the character’s motives are direct and logical, and all of the characters are believable; all of these reasons build up the relatability of Shakespeare’s characters. This relatability is exactly why they are so universal and why they represent “common humanity”.

In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.

The power of language holds great significance not only in Shakespearean study but of our daily lives as well. Every nuance Shakespeare creates leaves a clue to a greater truth or understanding of our humanity. Exploring the works of Shakespeare with this in mind allows for audiences to gain more appreciation and awareness of the depth of language and communication through his dialogue and characters as Shakespeare: “asks us to adorn the actor with our thoughts and ‘carry them here and there, jumping o’er the times’” (Bevington xiii).

Although picking out the apposition and metaphors in each of the characters’ lines is difficult to do during an actual performance in a dark auditorium, compared to a normal Shakespeare in Performance lecture, where we are able to look at the physical text and listen along to our classmates’ readings or video clips, the director and actors clearly displayed an understanding of Noble’s concepts. The dialogue between characters had interaction, not only through a cordial handshake or a playful hug, but in their voice. The actors fed off of each other’s lines, and kept the story in action. When the actors spoke to one another, their speech sounded like a normal conversation. There was no point in the musical where a character’s line felt out of

A Midsummer’s Night Dream is a story of requited and unrequited love between two couples, conventions existing within society, supernatural enchantment and features a play within a play. The extract from Act III, Scene 1 is of pivotal importance. It is the first oie themes, symbolismccurrence of two character types converging; namely the Queen of Fairies – Titania – and Bottom, a weaver and performer. The use of distinct language techniques, diction, and contextual relationships expands on themes and symbolism introduced in earlier scenes, and which are prevalent throughout the play. Analysis of language, structure and characterisation within the extract assists in making decisions about performance possibilities, and aids in challenging audience

Prior to Shakespeare’s ascendancy on the English stage, Bloom argues, there was no concept of the individual self, just types. These types persist in Shakespeare’s plays as residual stock characters displaying