Writer’s Effect – Shakespeare’s Language

Rhetoric – The Art of Persuasion

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion and involves all the ways of using language that can make it
more eloquent and convincing. It is the use of linguistic techniques to gain the confidence of the
listener/reader and appeal to their reason, their emotions and their imagination. Language is
power.
Ethos

Pathos

Logos

 Shakespeare’s dramatic language is intensely active and physical, pulsating

with verbal energy.
 It often contains inbuilt stage directions for action.
 Language creates a sense of space.
 It creates mood and atmosphere in vivid images.
 It creates the emotional mood of a character, such as tortured conscience, grief,
anguish, fear, love, generosity.

Imagery:
Verbal scene painting which appeals to the emotions. Gives insight into the character’s feelings
and thoughts. Shakespeare uses imagery from his life, the world around him in the city, nature,
even the stage he acted upon.
He enjoyed using the figures of speech which are similes and metaphors as they provided him
with the chance to compare. Personification is another favourite (turning things like death, time,
fate, war, love and England into persons, giving them human feelings or attributes.

Antithesis:
This is the use of words or phrases against each other. (‘To be, or not to be’ – not to be is the
antithesis – the opposite).
 Writer’s Effect – Shakespeare’s Language
The essence of drama is conflict. Shakespeare uses his language to embody conflict in its use of
antithesis. (‘My grave is like my wedding bed’)
Repetition:
Shakespeare’s use of repetition gives his language dramatic force. Repeated words, phrases,
rhythms and sounds add to the emotional intensity, heightening the dramatic effect. Repeating a
single word can add dramatic irony and be deeply moving.
Hyperbole:
Extravagant and obvious exaggeration.
Irony:
Verbal: saying one thing but meaning another.
Dramatic: When the audience knows what the characters do not and there is a sharp contrast
between events. ‘This castle has a pleasant air’ – audience knows it is not pleasant as a murder
has been planned which the king and others know nothing about.
Irony is often used to mock or mislead.
Oxymoron:
Two clashing/contrasting words brought together (‘sweet sorrow’, brawling love, loving hate’).
Pun:
Wordplay. When a word has two or more different meanings, the ambiguity has a comic effect.
Monosyllables:
Simple, short words can carry high emotional and dramatic charge. (‘False face must hide what
false heart doth know’).
Alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Rhythm
Lists
Word order
Writer’s Effect – Shakespeare’s Language