The poetic devices in Shakespeare’s soliloquy “King Henry IV, part II” illustrates the King’s resent while having difficulties sleeping. When the man that could afford anything under the sun encounters a circumstance his status had no control of, he proceeded to must and bargained to the personification of sleep. Without immediate results, King Henry surrenders his pleading and lies with demise. To portray this, Shakespeare utilizes diction, imagery, and syntax. By stating,“How many thousands of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down”, the king “speaks” to sleep, while expressing his thoughts through juxtaposition and diction.
Shakespeare’s and Pacino’s texts both depict Richard’s downfall due to his lack of conscience and virtues in his ambitious quest for power to reflect the beliefs of a Providential and secular society respectively. As such, Shakespeare's use of stichomythia and rhetorical question “Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won?” accentuates the lack of compassion and morality in Richard’s persuasive abilities to emotionally manipulate Anne to accept him as a suitor in his path to attain greatness. With Richard’s gratification of his achievement, Shakespeare illustrates the tyrant within Richard as his moral conscience diminishes due to over-ambition, hence reflecting the harsh Machiavellian politics in the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s underlying message on over-ambition is further exemplified through the dissolution of Richard’s unjust reign and mental stability through the death imagery in “It is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. What do I fear? Myself?”. Richard’s unstable mind in the ghosts’ precession, encapsulates Shakespeare’s message of the ramifications of sacrilegious acts whilst asserting God’s divine retribution on any form of theomachy ambition. In accordance to Shakespeare’s illustration of the fall of man due to ambition,
n Shakespeare's King Henry V, King Henry prepares his troops for battle with a passionate speech about fighting, honor, and kinship. Henry uses strong ethos and pathos to persuade his men to fight the French, though they are outnumbered in the battle. Henry notes that his troops feel unprepared and overwhelmed for battle. This speech marks the moment where the boy Hal transforms into King Henry. For the first time, Henry takes on the role of a valiant king and takes control of the situation. He seizes the moment to prepare them and inspire them. Henry hopes by making an effective speech his men will understand why they need to fight.
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
Shakespeare introduces the reader to King Henry’s mind by juxtaposing how Henrys “poorest subjects are at this hour asleep” while Henry remains awake. By questioning Henry’s ability to remember, the simple task of sleeping, Shakespeare calls into question his ability to have a reliable mind. The mental stability of the king becomes questionable as he proclaims “O sleep! O gentle sleep!” as if sleep is a person. This apostrophe conveys the sanity that King Henry should express as a political figure. By referring
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare easily blurs the lines of reality by inviting the audience into a dream. He seamlessly toys with the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Among the patterns within the play, one is controlled and ordered by a series of contrasts: the conflict of the sleeping and waking states, the interchange of reality and illusion, and the mirrored worlds of Fairy and Human. A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us insight into man's conflict with characteristics of human behavior.
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
The differences in styles of language truly brings alive the plays' various characters, from the lowliest drawer to the noblest knight. The playwright's audience would have been composed of a similarly diverse spectrum of society, from the groundlings at the foot of the stage, to the members of the court in attendance, and these disparate members of the audience might very well have come away from the plays with different interpretations of
Almost immediately, he apostrophizes sleep, personifying it, and proceeds to ask a number of questions to the newly-conceived entity; his inquiries, which are rhetorical in nature, question sleep’s reasoning behind his insomnia. These show up numerously and in quick succession, indicating that he does not understand his sleeplessness, and is pleading for answers out of desperation; however, he maintains a formal, non-accusatory tone when inquiring. This reserve, however, gradually deteriorates, and the strength of his hysteria takes control of his language at line 15, manifesting itself in the form of a breathless periodic sentence. The tension increases throughout the sentence, and breakless structure indicates that the King’s attitude is approaching emotional hysteria. He ends his monologue with a synecdoche, noting that “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown;” he himself is completely vexed by his current state. Ultimately, the syntax suggests that the attitude of the King is that of desperation; he pleads for answers, and his frustration mounts as any type of concrete explanation goes
Shakespeare uses allusion and tone very effectively in Cardinal Wolsey’s speech from the play Henry VIII. Throughout the speech Shakespeare's diction conveys to the reader a bunch of mixed emotions all at once, emotions such as anger and sadness and hatred. The diction also conveys to the reader the tone that Cardinal Wolsey would have used as being yelling out of sadness, desperation and a want for justice for what Mr. Wolsey considers unjust. Shakespeare's allusion also conveys to the reader this same feeling mod mixed emotions as Shajespeare alludes to satans fall. The tone used in this speech does an excellent job at conveying to the reader Mr. Wolsey’s complex reaction to his dismissal from court.
Shakespeare’s Act IV of Macbeth is a short act, yet he manages to introduce suspense, a vivid turning point, and key character developments. Every line of this act is significant, adding another layer to the plot in some way, for example, the doctor’s one verse introduces King Edward’s ability to heal “wretched souls” (IV.III.161) in contrast to MacBeth. The succinctness of Shakespeare’s introduction to the foil of Macbeth and Edward’s kingship, the true evil that has gained control of Macbeth’s mind, and the foreshadowing that occurs, are what make this act critically stellar.
Shakespeare’s ‘King Henry IV Part I’ centres on a core theme of the conflict between order and disorder. Such conflict is brought to light by the use of many vehicles, including Hal’s inner conflict, the country’s political and social conflict, the conflict between the court world and the tavern world, and the conflicting moral values of characters from each of these worlds. This juxtaposition of certain values exists on many levels, and so is both a strikingly present and an underlying theme throughout the play. Through characterization Shakespeare explores moral conflict, and passage three is a prime example of Falstaff’s enduring moral disorder. By this stage in the play Hal has
King Henry V, is one of the only successful monarchs in Shakespeare’s plays. He displays great strength and intelligence. King Henry V is capable of uniting all of his people in his St. Crispin’s Day speech as they prepare to go to battle. The troops were greatly outnumbered and believed they had no chance at winning. But King Henry makes them feel like they are part of something important, and by doing this he motivates them to fight their hardest.
William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, composed during the last years of the 16th century, is as much as character study as it is a retelling of a moment in history. Though the play is titled for one king, it truly seems to revolve around the actions of the titular character's successor. Indeed, Henry IV is a story of the coming-of-age of Prince Hal and of the opposition that he must face in this evolution. This process gives narrative velocity to what is essentially a conflagration between two personality types. In Prince Hal, the audience is given a flawed but thoughtful individual. Equally flawed but more given over to action than thought is his former ally and now-nemesis, Hotspur. In the latter, Shakespeare offers a warrior and a man of action and in the former, the playwright shows a politician in his nascent stages of development. The contrast between them will drive the play's action.
Shakespeare’s choice of language shows that he values ability to sleep, which in my opinion is influenced by his own experience. He thinks of it as a “balm of hurt
Shakespeare’s employment of dramatic struggle and disillusionment through his character Hamlet, contributes to the continued engagement of modern audiences. The employment of the soliloquy demonstrates Shakespeare’s approach to the dramatic treatment of these emotions. The soliloquy brings a compensating intimacy, and becomes the means by which Shakespeare brings the audience not only to a knowledge of secret thoughts of characters, but into the closest emotional touch with them too. Through this, the audiences therefore gain a closer relationship with Hamlet, and are absorbed by him because they are able to resonate with his circumstances, as he is faced with enduring truths of the human condition. Through these, the struggle and