1. Let’s do some writing…
In your journal, describe the image that you see. Think of your written piece as a mental snap-shot of what you see. Be as descriptive as possible. Choose your words with thought and care.
Pass out hand-out from Folger’s workbook (pg 54)

3. My Language is Different from Your Language…Or is it?
An Introduction to the Language of Shakespeare (part 2)

4. Shakespeare’s Use of Language…
Did you know that Shakespeare used 25,000 – 30,000 words in his plays? WOW!!!
He made up words. This is referred to as neologism.
Examples: lonely, gloomy, hurry, laughable, road, ETC…
Many of the words he used were the first time they were seen in print. He coined a lot of phrases.
“eaten out of house and home,” “pomp and circumstance,” “foregone conclusion”

5. Shakespeare’s Use of Language…
Shakespeare loved to pun
The usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound
He played with his words and his audience
Bear, bier
Barn, born
He was extremely flexible with literal and figurative language
Literal - Adhering to fact or to the ordinary construction or primary meaning of a term or expression
Figurative - Expressing one thing in terms normally denoting another with which it may be regarded as analogous 

6. Language as Theme
Shakespeare uses “several verb forms and patterns to serve as tools, affective instruments designed to move the audience, to give pleasure, to engage, to amuse, to excite” (McDonald 55).
Richard III (I.i.1-31)
His character is wicked, villainous…straight up mean.
What does Shakespeare do with the language in this passage?
Read Richard III soliloquy

7. How Shakespeare Uses Language…
Aside
Usually a short, pithy conversation to audience and no one else
Monologue
Long speech on stage that other people can hear
Soliloquy
Long speech with no one on stage, internal thoughts
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Metadrama
Play within a play
Poetry and prose in Shakespeare's plays document (McDonald 77).

8. How Shakespeare Uses Language…
Most of Shakespeare’s plays are open script
Lack of stage direction
Most direction added by editors
Language speaks/dictates the direction
Moments “to make your own”
Closed scripts
Modern plays
Doesn’t allow for “openness” or interpretation of the setting/direction

9. Genres of Shakespeare’s Plays
Comedy, History, Tragedy, Romance
Tragedy
Refers to the literary structure that moves to an unhappy ending; thus implies an unfavorable assessment of the human experience
Ends in annihilation, misery, separation, loss
Emphasis on failure, waste, disappointment, and self-destruction.
The “tragic” hero dies…along with everyone else.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy