Representation of english society in,,newcomsʼʼ works bu u. Thackery

Chapter 2. The Language of Shakespeare

2.1 Morphological peculiarities

Shakespeare lived at a time when England was undergoing the revolution in ritual theory and practice we know as the English Reformation. With it came an unprecedented transformation in the language of religious life. Whereas priests had once acted as mediators between God and men through sacramental rites, Reformed theology declared the priesthood of all believers. What ensued was not the tidy replacement of one doctrine by another but a long and messy conversation about the conventions of religious life and practice[11].

In the England of Shakespeare's time, English was a lot more flexible as a language. In addition, Shakespeare was writing as a dramatic poet and playwright, not as a scholar or historian. Combine the flux of early modern English with Shakespeare's artistic license (and don't forget to throw in a lot of words that have either shifted meaning or disappeared from the lexicon entirely), and there are some subtle difficulties in interpreting Shakespeare's meaning some 400 years after the fact. As with most popular playwrights of any era, Shakespeare uses language with facility and power, but with a colloquial freedom as well.
In English, one word can be as a noun, an adjective or a verb. And Shakespeare’s period marks out greatly. It was a time, when there were new grammatical functions for many words. And William Shakespeare stood on the first stage among his contemporaries. In his works, a word can be turned to another grammatical category.
Shakespeare’s innovative use of grammar, however, set him apart from his contemporaries. Shakespeare completely reinvented grammar, breaking away from the conformity of traditional rules[16].
We have to highlight a passage from Hamlet (III:4), where Shakespeare plays with the normal rules of English that demand a sentence is structured with the order; subject, verb, object. In the scene the queen says to her son: “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.” Nowadays, we would expect, ‘Thou has much offended thy father Hamlet’.”
Shakespeare used a great deal of SOV (Subject–object–verb) inversion, which renders the sentence as “John the ball caught.” This order is commonly found in Germanic languages (more so in subordinate clauses), from which English derives much of its syntactical foundation. Shakespeare also throws in many examples of OSV construction (“The ball John caught.”). Shakespeare seems to use this colloquially in many places as a transitory device, bridging two sentences, to provide continuity. Shakespeare (and many other writers) may also have used this as a device to shift end emphasis to the verb of a clause. Also, another prevalent usage of inversion was the VS order shift (“caught John” instead of “John caught’), which seems primarily a stylistic choice that further belies the Germanic root of modern English[16].
In Shakespeare’s noun-to-verb conversions “what are thought of as stable objects are wrenched from their passivity to acquire new vigour as actions,” observing further that “metaphor harmonizes well with the flexibility of conversion.” This union of metaphor and grammatical conversion is evident throughout Antony and Cleopatra, where shifts from noun to verb simultaneously affirm the fertility of metaphor and displace action from the material to the more fluid metaphorical realm. Whether the characters be Roman or Egyptian, their language persistently coins new words by incubating the solidity of nouns and adjectives into the dynamic liquidity of verbs. Thus, “joint” becomes a verb at 1.2.91, “safe” at 1.3.55, “dumb” at 1.5.50, “spaniel” at 4.7.21, and “boy” at 5.2.220, while “candy” melts itself into “discandy” at 3.13.166 and 4.12.22. These conversions garner tremendous dramatic advantages. For instance, Terttu Nevalainen notes that by turning dumb from an adjective into a verb, instead of using the already-available verb “silence,” Shakespeare gains both the solidity of an Anglo-Saxon root word (instead of the more abstract, Latinate “silence”) and an association with the inarticulacy of beasts – beasts were and are commonly described as “dumb” rather than “mute.” Such advantages supplement what is always present in Shakespeare’s functional conversion of nouns and adjectives into verbs, the “dramatic energy and economy of expression”[14].
Adjectives are freely used by Shakespeare as adverbs:

• 
  “I do know, when the blood burns, how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows.” (Polonius to Ophelia in Hamlet I:3);
  
• 
  “And you, my sinews, grow not instant old.” (Hamlet I:5);
  
• 
  “Which the false man does easy” (Macbeth II: 3).
  

We find the two forms of the adverb side by side in:

• 
  “She was new lodged and newly deified.” (A Lover's Complaint. 84).
  

The position of the article shows that mere is an adverb in:

• 
  “Heaven and our Lady gracious has it pleas’d.” (First Part of King Henry the Sixth);
  
• 
  “Ay, surely, mere the truth.” (All's Well That Ends Well III:5 ).
  

Such transpositions as “our lady gracious”, (adj.) where “gracious” is a mere epithet, are not common in Shakespeare. For example:

• 
  “My lady sweet, arise,” (Cymbeline II:3).
  

“My-lady” is more like one word than “our lady,” and is also an appellative. In appellations such transpositions are allowed.
Sometimes the two forms occur together:

• 
  “And she will speak most bitterly and strange.” (Measure for Measure V:1).
  

In Shakespeare’s works intransitive verbs sometimes acquire the transitional value. For example:

• 
  “Why this same strict and observant watch so nightly toils the subject of the land?” (Hamlet I:1).
  
• 
  In rare cases, the transitive verbs were used in the intransitive sense. For example verb “to lack (to be needed)”.
  

“… and what so poor a man as Hamlet is may do to express his love and friending to you, God willing, shall not lack.” (Hamlet I: 5).
Indicative simple present for complete present with adverbs signifying “as yet,” &c. This is in accordance with the Latin idiom, “jampridem opto,” &c., and it is explicable on the ground that, when an action continued up to the present time is still continuing, the speaker may prefer the verb to dwell simply on the fact that the action is present, allowing the adverb to express the past continuousness:

• 
  “That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.” (Henry IV I:4);
  
• 
  “How does your honour for this many a day?” (Hamlet III:3).
  

The Subjunctive after verbs of command and entreaty is especially common; naturally, since command implies a purpose.

• 
  “We enjoin thee that thou carry.” (Winter’s Tale II:3);
  
• 
  “I conjure thee that thou declare.” (Winter’s Tale I:2);
  
• 
  “Tell him from me
  

He bear himself with honourable action.” (The Taming of the Shrew).

2.2 Literary Devices in Shakespeare’s works

Shakespeare’s works are full of literary devices such as metaphors, similes, puns, allusions, etc. Let’s look through them.

Shakespeare’s plays contain a great number of puns, which often don’t impress modern readers. This could be due to several reasons; firstly, like a lot of comedy, puns require a visceral, instinctive reaction. If a joke has to be explained, it loses a lot of its punch, and that’s doubly true of puns. They rely on a sudden link being shown between two ideas which have previously been completely separate. If those separate ideas haven’t been long established in the audience’s mind, the explosion which should occur when they are “short-circuited” just won’t happen.
Shakespeare uses puns and wordplay for various different purposes[20]:

• 
  Gag puns
  

These are just jokes – they have no other justification than raising a quick laugh, and tend to attract groans when performed today. A good example would be Launce and Speed’s exchange in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, just after Launce has been criticising his dog, and Speed is advising him to hurry in case he misses the boat:
Speed: Away, ass! You’ll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.
Launce: It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.
Speed: What’s the unkindest tide?
Launce: Why, he that’s tied here, Crab, my dog.

• 
  Bawdy puns
  

Shakespeare’s works are full of dirty innuendos, which depend upon two meanings being implied by one word. For instance, the title of Much Ado About Nothing may well be a reference to the private parts of the female characters.
A more elaborate example is the “ring plot” at the end of The Merchant of Venice, in which Portia and Nerissa confront their intended husbands about the rings with they gave the men earlier in the play. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, the women were in fact the two “youths” to whom they gave away the rings. Pretending to be indignant, Portia declares that “I will ne’er come in your bed/ Until I see the ring.” (V.1) When all is explained, Gratiano remarks that “I’ll fear no other thing/ So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.” Under all these exchanges, of course, runs the pun in which “ring” represents both the physical object and the sexual organs. The jealousy and anxiety over who has got the “ring” resounds with issues of sexual fidelity and control over spouses.
Shakespeare used the oxymoron quite often to express mixed emotions both in his plays and his sonnets. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, “Parting is such sweet sorrow”, “O brawling love! O loving hate!” – these are a few of his famous oxymora.
Romeo and Juliet is a love story that is just filled with oxymora, but that's sort of how love is. It's wonderful and it's painful [21].
An example from Act 1, Scene 1

O brawling love! O loving hate!

O anything of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still–waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

“Serious vanity” used here is an oxymoron because “vanity” here means not being vain or proud, but the older sense of emptiness, or “something worthless, trivial, or pointless” as the dictionary defines it.

Also we can find oxymoron in Macbeth. For example[22]:

• 
  “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (I:2 line 40);
  

This quote simply means that it's one of those days when fog is followed by sunshine, then a thunderstorm, some hail, and more sunshine. In other words nature is acting somewhat strange.

• 
  “My dull brain was wrought / With things forgotten” (I:3 line 174–175);
  

Macbeth makes the lying excuse that he was thinking about something so unimportant that he has already forgotten what it was. However, those things are far from forgotten.

• 
  “God's benison go with you, and with those/ That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!” (II:4 line 53–54).
  

The old man is giving a blessing to all those who would restore the goodness and bring peace to the troubled land. The old man knows that Scotland is going to end up in one big mess.
In Shakespeare’s works we can find a lot of metaphor examples. In Macbeth:

• 
  “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” (I:1 line 10);
  

This phrase is a metaphor that describes the state of affairs within Macbeth and without in Scotland. Evil and sinister things have taken the place of all that is good and just. Macbeth is a tyrannous ruler who consorts with witches and “murders” sleep; the kind and venerable King Duncan and Banquo are brutally killed. In the midst of all of this, Inverness becomes a living hell for its inhabitants while Macbeth and his wife suffer from delusions and paranoia [23].

• 
  “The sleeping and the dead. Are but as pictures. Tis the eye of childhood. That fears a painted devil.” (II:2 line 52).
  

Lady Macbeth’s comparison of the sleeping and the dead to “pictures” exemplifies her extraordinary courage and calm state of mind after the murder. Lady Macbeth should supposedly be faint–hearted because she is a woman; in reality, however, she and her husband have switched roles.
We can also find a metaphor in Hamlet [24].

• 
  “Yea, from the table of my memory
  

I'll wipe away all trivial, fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter.” (II:5 lines 105–111);

Hamlet wants to wipe his memory clean, as one would erase a slate. All of the images he has of his mother and uncle are insignificant to him now in the face of their betrayal. He will erase those images in his memory so as to not be deceived again. With his memories erased, Hamlet will be able to properly avenge his father's murder.

• 
  “This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace,
  

That inward breaks and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.” (IV:4 lines 28–30).
Hamlet is talking to Fortinbras’ captain about the land, which has been symbolically given to Norway to prevent them from invading Denmark. This statement is however, also descriptive of Hamlet's own condition. The events that have caused his madness fester inside him like an abscess or tumor. The cause is unseen by others though it is destroying him inside.
Consider the following examples from Shakespeare’s sonnets that use the metaphor of eye (which also include the use of metonymy – a special type of metaphor where the one phrase or word substitutes for a larger concept):

• 
  Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
  

And often is his gold complexion dimmed. (sonnet 18, lines 5-6);

• 
  Lo, in the orient when the gracious light
  

Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new-appearing sight
Serving with looks his sacred majesty. (sonnet 7, lines 1-4);

• 
  Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
  

How to divide the conquest of thy sight. (sonnet 46,lines 1-2).
Whether eye is meant to be the sun, or a concept of vision greater than the speaker’s ocular capability, Shakespeare shows the power of figurative language. While we may not speak in a poetic pentameter in everyday speech, metaphor is predominant in our conversation. We cannot speak long or well without metaphor.
The Simile may be regarded as an expanded Metaphor, or the Metaphor as a condensed Simile [25]. To illustrate this, when Romeo says of Juliet, –
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear”;
Here we have two metaphors, and also one simile. Juliet cannot be said literally to teach the torches any thing; but her brightness may be said to make them, or rather the owner of them ashamed of their dimness; or she may be said to be so radiant, that the torches, or the owner of them may learn from her how torches ought to shine. Neither can it be said literally that her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night, for the night has no cheek; but it may be said to bear the same relation to the night as a diamond pendant does to the dark cheek that sets it off. Then the last metaphor is made one of the parts in a simile; what is therein expressed being likened to a rich jewel hanging in an Ethiop’s ear.
Shakespeare occasionally builds a simile on the same plan; as in the following from Measure for Measure, I:3:

“Now, as fond fathers,

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children’s sight
For terror, not to use, in time the rod
Becomes more mock’d than fear’d; so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.”

Disguise is one of Shakespeare’s favorite devices, found in many of his works. Through it he alters the identity of an individual, which creates an elevated irony, a developed theme, and an enhanced comic element to the story. In As You Like It, Shakespeare, by having characters in disguise, creates an outlet for new ironies and comic twists throughout the work. The shepherdess who is in love with the “shepherd” Ganymede who is really a girl (Rosalind) is one of the comic twists, as well as Orlando sharing feelings of love to Ganymede who is really Orlando’s love Rosalind in disguise. Once again the hidden and mistaken identity constructs this plot and furthers its comedy. The entire purpose of mistaken identity can only be accomplished when a disguise is shown in the way to say and experience things in the one identity that can only be accomplished by the altar identity: this is what composes the comedy within the words. For example, in Measure For Measure, the Duke uses disguise and mistaken identity to reveal the truth about Angelo, while simultaneously providing comic moments when Lucio speaks of the Duke to the Duke unaware of his true identity.

3. The development of Shakespeare’s style

Shakespeare revolutionized the Elizabethan drama. He was an amazing man with a powerful mind. It seemed that Shakespeare truly understood the meaning of life. He analyzed people and their behavior and applied that to his writing. Not only did his knowledge of the human mind make him great, but also Shakespeare’s knowledge of the art of writing. He is often considered one of the most brilliant writers of all time. “It was dramatic poetry that his genius found its goal.” [14] But like any good writer, his style and skills improved over time. When we analyze Shakespeare’s work, we can see how this applies to him.

Shakespeare's First Period
William Shakespeare began writing when he was fairly young. Records of his first pieces of work show that he was between the ages of 21–28. In Shakespeare’s beginning years, he mainly wrote nondramatic poems. What this means is a poem that is written but not performed. Some of these pieces include Venus and Andonis and The Rape of Lucrece. A short time after these poems, he started writing dramatic “poems” that were eventually performed. Some of these “poems” include The Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labor’s Lost. When Shakespeare wrote his first works, there was not much depth in the elements such as characters. In The Merchant of Venice, one of his earlier plays, the characters seemed to be one dimensional or cartoonish. For example, the character named Gobbo seemed not to have any emotions. Instead, he would just speak what he had to say, not act it. Also, Shakespeare did not have much depth in plot. Most of his plots were imitative. Shakespeare based most of his plots on stories that were already written; they were not original. Another problem with his plots was that they had the same basic theme: love’s wealth, love’s truth, love’s order. Further in Shakespeare’s beginning years, the language he used was all the same. He used all verse and no prose. In the first part of Henry VI, we can see that he had 2379 lines of blank verse and no lines of prose. This is also true for the third part of Henry VI, King John, and Richard the Second [17].
The earlier pieces of Shakespeare’s writing are not as well known as his later works. The reason these plays are not well known is because of his lack in developing the plot and characters. Later on in his career, we can see how he improved his style.
Shakespeare’s Second Period
William Shakespeare's second period lasted between 1595–1600. During his second period, his work started to improve. It got better in several ways. One way was his development in plot. Shakespeare’ plots started to become more original. He also started bringing history into his writing. “Particularity in his histories and comedies of this period, Shakespeare demonstrated his genius for weaving various dramatic actions into a unified plot”. Though he had not quite reached this point in his career yet, he was on his way to do it. After every one of Shakespeare's plays, he kept on improving his style[17].
Shakespeare's Later Period
Shakespeare's later period is considered by many people to be his greatest period. This is when he wrote some of his best known works. Some of these include: Othello, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, etc. Perhaps the reason these works are considered some of his best is because of the change in his style. As opposed to Shakespeare's earlier works, the three elements in his plays changed. Some of his characters became better developed. In Julius Caesar, we can see how these characters became more “lifelike”. For example, when we look at Cinna the Poet, we can tell that he has actual emotions and feelings. He tells about his thoughts and dreams, and makes us feel like we are actually listening to him.
Another change in his style is the plot. Shakespeare made the plot more complex. For example, instead of “recycling” plots, he came up with new, original plots. Hamlet has a more original and more complex plot compared to some of his earlier works. Shakespeare’s style improved in another way; he developed the language more. When he started writing, he used all verse and no prose. This changed in his later period. In Shakespeare’s later period, verse and prose were almost balanced out. In Hamlet, there are 1208 lines of prose and 2490 lines of blank verse in his 3931 line play. When we put these elements together – characters, plot, and language – we can see why his later plays improved.
Shakespeare’s Final Period
In Shakespeare’s final years, he wrote some pieces that are not well known. Some of these include: Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, etc. During this period, Shakespeare used good plots. “In Cymbeline, Shakespeare weaves together three distinct threads of story, two of which he derives from well known literary repertories.” What this means is that he had a very complex plot that brought the story together. One of the reasons Shakespeare’s later works went “down hill” was because of his language. He did not use an equal part of verse and prose. In Cymbeline, he used 2585 lines of blank verse and 638 lines of prose. Also, in Henry VIII, he used 2613 lines of blank verse and 60–70 lines of prose. Most of the famous plays that Shakespeare wrote had an equal part of verse and prose. William Shakespeare dedicated most of his life to creating some of the greatest works ever written. When we look back at his life, we can see all the changes and struggles he went through. “. . . Shakespeare is considered as one element in the great intellectual and spiritual movement of the Elizabethan period.” He can truly be considered one of the greatest writers of all time.