Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a comedy where commoners and royalty speak together frequently, in both prose and blank verse. The usage is not always clear to the modern reader but is easily understood with sufficient knowledge of the literary styles of the period in which Shakespeare lived. This shift from one form of speech to the other gives many things to the audience, allowing them to better perceive and understand the situation and characters that Shakespeare is portraying. The effect of the change is easily felt by the Elizabethan viewers, and can be explained to the modern reader, such that the impact it has on the atmosphere of the play is made adequately apparent. Generally in Elizabethan plays blank verse is used by nobility: such as Dukes, gentlemen, Kings, Queens, and the like. In contrast, prose is used mainly by fools, clowns, and the lower class. These two distinctive ways of portraying dialogue are particular and help to segregate the classes. Blank verse is the manner of writing, in which each line of the play consists of ten syllables, none of which usually rhyme. This is meant to be spoken in a halting and therefore dignified manner, with the speaker stopping at the end of each line; one had to p
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd. 1998. Crane, Milton. Shakespeare's Prose. London: Cambridge University Press. 1951. in a damned-colored stock. Shall we set about Of course, in this play and others, there are exceptions to this rule of speech assignment. The characters Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, though obviously nobility by title, speak in prose as opposed to blank verse as their social class would suggest.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Act Scene, Kings Queens, Sir Andrew, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Canadian Oxford, Sir Toby, Maria Olivia's, Lords Officers, Taurus That's, blank verse, twelfth night, sir toby, sir andrew, toby sir, lower class, sir toby sir, ha ha, speaks prose, act scene, characters sir, plays blank verse, toby sir andrew, prose blank verse,
Approximate Word count = 1157
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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