Classical - As You Like It - Shakespeare's Language

Classical - As You Like It - Shakespeare's Language

Today I am going to discuss the language that Shakespeare uses in his texts and the devices he uses to create the world of his writing, Shakespeare was a fantastic writer and continued developing through his career with inspirations all around him. As he grew more confident in his writing, he began to explore the possibilities through the medium of word and the devices he could create and use to make the writing flow and to stick devices to certain characters (that I will be explaining more on soon) to develop them and to give them a certain sense. As we are studying 'As You Like It' for our first taste in classical theatre I will use constant examples from the play.

Shakespeare's Devices

I'm going to give some key examples of devices Shakespeare would use in his plays, they appear frequently in his work and especially in 'As You Like It'.

1.  Rhyming - Rhyming is a simple concept, and is probably the most commonly known device used in Shakespeare's writing. The concept of rhyming is that two or more different words sound the same, he usually used this device in the verse form of his writing and used it to enhance emotions such as love and anger. He also uses rhyme because it emphasises a person's social status or intelligence. A character of the court or a person who specialises in writing or a creative career in a Shakespeare play would talk in such a way, it gives off their vibe and shows them in a beautiful light. Their intelligence is emphasised in the way that they talk. In As You Like It, Rosalind uses an interesting sentence that contains a lot of rhyme. Rosalind: If she love me, I charge her to love thee... (Act 4 Scene 3). As you cans see, this example definitely shows a heightened emotion. Rosalind (in this scene) is angry at Silvius because he has fallen in love with a woman who seems unlovable and un-devoting to a husband. The girl he has fallen in love with is a feisty character, and she will not love Silvius back because of his naive and devoting attitude, but she has fallen in love with Ganymede (Rosalind's disguise) because of "him" being angry at her, and now Rosalind is angry at the situation and decides to give Silvius a good talking to.
2. Repetition - Repetition is also a fairly simple concept in Shakespeare's writing, the main description of repetition is that a word is repeated twice or more in the same text. Shakespeare may have used repetition to emphasise a point a character was making, or to show a need for the word that was being repeated. Repetition is a vague device and can be used for anything, but Shakespeare does use a lot of it and can be found almost everywhere. In As You Like It, Celia uses repetition of the word brave: Celia: O, that's a brave man! He writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely... (Act 3, Scene 4). Celia here is using the word brave constantly because this is how she feels about Orlando. She feels he is brave, but is a coward about his bravery. Shakespeare has repeated the word brave and used it as an adverb because he wanted to show that Celia was being deeply sarcastic about Orlando's bravery, and wanted to overpower Rosalind because she is in love with him and Celia thinks this is a little foolish, she also might be jealous of Rosalind's new found love, and tries to put her down because of it.
3. Alliteration - Alliteration is another common device used in all types of writing as well as Shakespeare, in modern day it is one of the first linguistic devices that children learn about in school. Alliteration is when a row of words starts with the same letter, Shakespeare would use this for various reasons depending on what character is using it. In general, I believe Shakespeare used alliteration to emphasise a word or a phrase, to make it flow, alliteration is a poetical form and naturally a word sounds better when accompanied by an adjective or adjectives that compliment the beginning letter. Alliteration is used continuously through 'As You Like It' especially though characters like Jaques and Touchstone, an example of Touchstone's alliteration is: Touchstone: ...to be a bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb... (Act 3 Scene 2). In this scene, Touchstone is talking to Corin and is talking down to him, using his high mighty court-like wit to outsmart Corin, similar to the way Corin tries to educate Silvius on the ways of love and how he tries to coach him in dealing with Phoebe. Touchstone uses alliteration (alongside many other linguistic devices) to confuse Corin and gain a higher status. Touchstone is seen doing this a lot to many people in the forest, including Audrey who he woos and marries. Although Shakespeare uses it to emphasise certain words and to make them flow, Touchstone has a deeper meaning for using these devices so much. It gives him high status, people think he's a wordsmith, stringing sentences together like a true poet, when really he is the court's clown, maybe this is why he does it so much?
4. Assonance - Assonance is when the vowel sounds of two non-rhyming words rhyme, Shakespeare could use these to make a scene and its language more colourful, everyone will agree that assonance (when said aloud) makes it sound like a story being told in a poet-like, spell kind of form, I believe Shakespeare would give assonance to characters of higher class, maybe ones that are more poetical and involved in writing, or maybe characters that have a supernatural element to them. A brilliant example of assonance being used in 'As You Like It' is yet again, Touchstone with his fast and clever way of talking: Touchstone: by the copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match... (Act 3 Scene 2). Since this is the same scene as the last example of Shakespeare's language, I believe the reasoning for Touchstone's use of assonance isn't much different from his reasoning for his use of alliteration. However, I do believe because he doesn't want to completely lose all of the fun he is having with Corin, he uses this assonance to draw him back in after insulting him. He hides through this words, and uses them cleverly to get what he wants.
5. Dissonance - Dissonance is when the sounds of two words clash violently together, like when the rhyming of the two words doesn't match what so ever, causing both of the words to be emphasised and heightened. In the same scene as before, Corin uses a rural expression that includes dissonance: Corin: And would you have us kiss tar? (Act 3 Scene 2) In this scene Touchstone constantly bashes Corin for shallow thinking, giving him the higher status, and Corin tries to backfire every comment Touchstone makes but Touchstone only tries to emphasise his point further. I think it's clever how Shakespeare uses assonance for Touchstone and dissonance for Corin, it represents that polar opposite between the two characters, and because "kiss tar" is such a rural expression, it emphasises that Corin is the low status both in general and social classes.
6. Paradox - A paradox is a more complicated idea compared to the other devices, it is an idea that has reasoning but leads to a conclusion that completely contradicts the first reasoning. For example, it is like a box that when turned on, it is only designed to turn itself off. Thus the idea becoming confusing and self-contradictory. Paradoxes are often used in Shakespeare's writing to either create an intellectual idea or to make a character look stupid in a sense, because when using paradoxes there is a fine line between intellect and stupidity. There are many paradoxes in 'As You Like It' one being in Act 5 Scene 2 with Rosalind. Rosalind: I will marry you, if ever I marry a woman, and I'll be married to-morrow... (Act 5 Scene 2). Rosalind says to Phoebe that if Rosalind where to marry a woman, she would marry Phoebe, but in the same sentence states that she is getting married tomorrow, however it is obvious in the play that she doesn't like women and wouldn't marry a women. She offers Phoebe this paradox to show Phoebe that the love she has for Rosalind is obsolete. It's useless and it can never happen anyway. This is a clever use of paradox.
7. Antithesis - Antithesis is the common dilemma of weighing two ideas down, saying things like "on the one hand, and on the other hand", giving a character or a situation two possible ideals. One possible famous example is Hamlet's "To be or not to be", to give you an idea of how Shakespeare has used it. The thoughts in Shakespeare's Prose are usually expressed using antithesis. Antithesis is not always serious however, it can be used in more comical situations, Touchstone uses antithesis against Corin to lower his status, calling his rural life "vile". Touchstone: Truly shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in the respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. (Act 3 Scene 2). Touchstone balances the pros and cons of the shepherd's life to try and annoy Corin as well as up his own status, it's not used much different to any of the other devices Touchstone uses in this scene, but it's a great scene to show how Touchstone uses many of these devices and how clever he truly is.
8. Oxymoron - An oxymoron is a contradiction, for example a tall dwarf or a white raven. Shakespeare uses a lot of examples of oxymoron in his plays, for example one in 'As You Like It' could be: Rosalind: As many other mannish cowards have. (Act 1 Scene 3). Rosalind in this scene is discussing with Celia how she will address herself after being banished, she will dress up as a man. She is using the term mannish cowards, meaning that she will try to maintain a brave face even though that is not what she is feeling at all. Rosalind knows what is to come but has to hide those feelings, a man is supposed to be brave but she is feeling like a coward. This oxymoron represents how she feels perfectly because everything is opposites. It represents her truth inside a disguise.
9. Lists - Lists are one of the most famous rhetorical devices there are, being used continuously in many Shakespeare plays, especially in a famous example; Julius Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered". Also used in famous speeches and used in a way to entice the listener. Lists, especially in three parts, are extremely good for drawing an audience member in. A good example from 'As You Like It' is Rosalind's line in Act 4 Scene 1: Rosalind: Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that and 'twill out at the keyhole; Stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney. (Act 4 Scene 1). Rosalind uses this list of three to emphasise that women are cleverer than they seem, back in a day where women were oppressed for being proud of who they are, it was hard to maintain any respect for a woman. However, this combats that idea, and she uses this list of three to give women empowerment.

These 9 devices are all ones we've probably seen before, however Shakespeare used a more complex way of writing in his plays using more devices. Here are some more examples:

Verse - Verse is an incredibly important device used in every Shakespeare play. It is the opposite form of Prose. Verse is writing used with lots of poetical devices and rhetorical devices, a form of speech used commonly by characters of higher class (to represent their higher status, to show their better form of education) and much more. Shakespeare uses verse in one of the biggest speeches in 'As You Like It', Jaques's 'All the world's a stage...' speech. In this speech there are many devices that make it a verse speech, for example:

• Single Syllables - Single Syllables are great to look out for in verse speeches. Often Shakespeare uses them to make an important, hard thinking or complicated thought, the very first line in Jaques's speech is a line of single syllables 'All the world's a stage...'. See how it emphasises his point? Yes, the whole world is a stage for everyone to play out their story. It's a big point, but expressed in a simple way without losing any passion or opinion.
• End Words - End Words are words at the end of a line in verse (not much to it, right?) but these are incredibly useful. Back in Elizabethan times, the actor would stress the end words on verse speeches, in a big speech a list of the end words of each line normally offers you a pretty good summary of the speech. In 'As You Like It's famous speech, they all summarise the stages of a man's life; "infant" "lover" "soldier" and more.
• Rhyming, Assonance and Alliteration (all explained above) are used in verse, mainly because they are rhetorical devices.
• Iambic Pentameter - Iambic Pentameter is a device used to create a natural flow to a sentence in verse, it is made up of five "de-dums". So, if you were to say "de dum, de dum, de dum, de dum, de um" and that fit the syllables in a sentence, that sentence would have Iambic Pentameter. Shakespeare uses Iambic Pentameter to give the language a light and pleasant beat that is good to the ear. It makes his words enjoyable, even today, and when a line fits into the rhythm it's nice to say and it speeds up the pace of the line. More than often there is a word in these types of lines that do not fit the Iambic beat, this is because these words are meant to be emphasised. An example of this is Celia's line in Act 1, Scene 3: Celia: I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, And with a kind of umber smirch my face. The line ends are stressed and give us the subject of the conversation.
• Eleven Beat Lines - If Shakespeare has written a line that has more than ten beats there's normally a reason for it. If a line sounds heavy or that it has too many words in it for a verse, it's usually because it's trying to emphasise the way the character is feeling in verse. An example of this is Phoebe in Act 3 Scene 5, she wants to really work out whether she loves or hates Rosalind's disguise, Ganymede. Phoebe: But that's all one; Omittance is no quittance. I'll write to him a very taunting letter. In the whole monologue beforehand, she weighs down all the pros and cons of Ganymede and justifies all of them as to why she may love him. She comes to a conclusion and this line at the end shows her massive amount of thought.

Prose is generally just a normal way of talking. A character would use prose to talk to another character informally, usually family or close friends, people who they were associated with and close with. The way we talk to each other everyday is in prose, basically. A famous example of prose in 'As You Like It' is Rosalind and Celia talking to each other in Act 1 Scene 3. Rosalind and Celia are cousins but have grown up together in the court under the rising of Duke Frederick. Here's a short snippet of a conversation between those two:

Celia: Why, cousin! Why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy, not a word?

Rosalind: Not one to throw at a dog.

Celia: No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs. Throw some of them at me. Come, lame me with reasons.
Rosalind: Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should be lamed with reasons and the other mad without any.

In this conversation you can see that Celia and Rosalind are playing around, Celia knows that Rosalind has eyes for someone and she wants to find out so she uses prose to get her way, becoming more friendly and informal with her cousin. This friendly behaviour isn't alien to Rosalind however, because the two are basically like sisters. They are extremely comfortable with each other and know how each other work, I think if Celia was more angry with Rosalind about this, she would use a more formal way of talking.