Shakespearean Drama

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ShakespeareanDrama

• Conventions Characteristics

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GENRE CONVENTIONS

• Shakespeares plays can be divided into three
  distinct categories
• A Tragedy is a work in which a series of actions
  leads to the downfall of the main character.
• The Comedies are generally identifiable as the
  comedies of Shakespeare in that they are full of
  fun, irony and dazzling wordplay. They also
  abound in disguises and mistaken identities with
  very convoluted plots that are difficult to
  follow with very contrived endings.
• The highly contrived endings are the clue to what
  these plays, all very different, are about.
• The plays that we normally mean when we refer to
  the history plays are the ten plays that cover
  English history from the twelfth to the sixteenth
  centuries, and the 1399-1485 period in
  particular. Each play is named after, and focuses
  on, the reigning monarch of the period.

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GENRE CONVENTIONS

• Shakespeares plays can be divided into three
  distinct categories
• The plays that we normally mean when we refer to
  the history plays are the ten plays that cover
  English history from the twelfth to the sixteenth
  centuries, and the 1399-1485 period in
  particular. Each play is named after, and focuses
  on, the reigning monarch of the period.

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GENRE CONVENTIONS

• Shakespeares tragedies are often cited as his
  greatest plays.
• A Tragedy is a work in which a series of actions
  leads to the downfall of the main character.
• This character is referred to as a Tragic Hero.
• Qualities of a Tragic Hero
• Possesses importance or high rank
• Exhibits extraordinary talents/ability
• Displays a tragic flaw-an error in judgement or
  defect in character-that leads to downfall
• Faces downfall with courage and dignity

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WRITING STYLE

• Shakespeares plays are verse dramas, plays in
  which the dialogue consists almost entirely of
  poetry.
• Generally speaking, Shakespeare wrote his verse
  dramas in blank verse, or unrhymed lines of
  iambic pentameter.
• Iambic Pentameter is a fixed pattern of rhythm,
  or meter, in which most lines contain five
  unstressed syllables each followed by a stressed
  syllable.
• EX.) Let me have men about me that are fat
• Qualities of a Tragic Hero
• Possesses importance or high rank
• Exhibits extraordinary talents/ability
• Displays a tragic flaw-an error in judgement or
  defect in character-that leads to downfall
• Faces downfall with courage and dignity

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WRITING STYLE

• Iambic pentameter Continued
• Iamb
• Unstressed u
• Stressed
• (one) Foot u
• EX.) Let me have men about me that are fat

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WRITING FOR STAGE VS PAGE

• The time constraints of stage plays mean writers
  must utilize additional tools to develop their
  characters. While these devices dont occur in
  real life, they do allow for an audience to
  interact with character in a more intimate way.
• A Soliloquy is a long speech given by a character
  while alone on stage to reveal his or her private
  thoughts or intentions.

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WRITING FOR STAGE VS PAGE

• An Aside is a characters quiet remark to the
  audience or another character that no one else on
  stage is supposed to hear. A stage direction
  usually in brackets indicates an aside.
• Aside to Audience
• Trebonius Caesar, I will. Aside And so
• near will I be
• That your best friends shall wish I had
• been further.
• Act Two, Scene 2, Lines 124-125

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RHETORIC/EMOTIONAL DEVICES

• Shakespeares plays often contain speeches known
  for their masterful usage of rhetorical, or
  persuasive, devices.
• These devices use language and sound to appeal to
  the audiences emotions and make the speech more
  convincing and memorable.
• These devices include
• The repetition of words, phrases, and sounds
• Parallelism, or repetition of grammatical
  structures
• Rhetorical questions, or questions requiring no
  answer

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RHETORIC/EMOTIONAL DEVICES

• Examples of Rhetorical Devices
• The repetition of words, phrases, and sounds
• Repetition
• And do you now put on your best attire?
• And do you now cull out a holiday?
• -Act One, Scene 1, Lines 50-51
• Parallelism, or repetition of grammatical
  structures
• Parallelism
• Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
• Rome more.
• -Act Three, Scene 2, Lines 22-23

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RHETORIC/EMOTIONAL DEVICES

• Examples of Rhetorical Devices (Cont.)
• Rhetorical questions, or questions requiring no
  answer
• Rhetorical Question
• Why friends, you go to do you know not what
• Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves?
• Alas, you know not!
• -Act Three, Scene 2, Lines 22-23

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USE OF IRONY definition

• Another powerful tool used by the Bard is irony.
  Irony exist when there is a contrast between
  appearance and reality. Irony exposes and
  underscores a contrast between
• what is and what seems to be  
• what is and what ought to be  
• what is and what one wishes to be  
• what is and what one expects to be
• There are three common types of irony in
  literature 

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USE OF IRONY verbal

• Verbal irony occurs when people say the opposite
  of what they mean. This is perhaps the most
  common type of irony.
• The reader knows that a statement is ironic
  because of familiarity with the situation or a
  description of voice, facial, or bodily
  expressions which show the discrepancy.
• There are two kinds of verbal irony
• Understatement occurs when one minimizes the
  nature of something.
• Overstatement occurs when one exaggerates the
  nature of something.

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USE OF IRONY verbal

1. Irony is often more emphatic that a point-blank
   statement of the truth. The opposite is shown as
   a point of comparison.
2. Verbal irony in its most bitter and destructive
   form becomes sarcasm .
3. Someone is condemned by a speaker pretending to
   praise him or her.

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USE OF IRONY situational

• In situational irony , the situation is different
  from what common sense indicates it is, will be,
  or ought to be.
• Situational irony occurs when the final outcome
  is contradictory to what was expected.
• Usually, the episodes in the plot of a story will
  lead the audience to expect a particular
  resolution or ending. If such an expected outcome
  fails and instead another contrary outcome
  occurs, the absurdity is termed situational
  irony.
• Such a form of irony is the result of a
  discrepancy in perspective, such that what is
  known and expected at one moment differs with
  what is known later on.

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USE OF IRONY dramatic

• In dramatic irony, the audience or reader knows
  something that one or more characters do not
  know. Because of that knowledge, the audience has
  a bigger sense of the action taking place.
• The key to dramatic irony is the reader's
  foreknowledge of coming events.
• Second readings of stories often increases
  dramatic irony because of knowledge that was not
  present in the first reading.

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USE OF IRONY dramatic

• Dramatic Irony
• Caesar, Good friends, go in and taste some wine
  with me,
• And we (like friends) will straightway go
• together.
• -Act Two, Scene 2, Lines 126-127

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IRONY CARTOON

• What follows is a visual guide to irony.

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