1. What links all the
words below?
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Copyright 2007
www.englishteaching.co.uk

2. Shakespeare’s language

Shakespeare is credited with adding some 1500 2000 words to the English language. This list
includes words which first appeared in print in
Shakespeare’s writing. Some are believed to have
been created by Shakespeare himself.
Others were in use before he published them for
the first time, or are words that he adapted from
words already in use or from other languages.

3. Thursday, 5th December
2013
L.O: To explore and analyse different
types of language in the play.

4. A bit of background

 There were no dictionaries until 1604! This means
that language used in that era was very fluid and
could be moulded and shaped.
 People studied Rhetoric .
 Poets and playwrights experimented with words,
phrases and imagery.
 Free to make up words and to adopt new ones,
they could also change meanings of words too.

5. 
 If a word didn’t exist, Shakespeare changed
an old one or made up a new one.
 Shakespeare had a huge fascination with
dramatic language. He truly believed in the
power of words to focus and light up the
imagination, persuade the intellect and move
the audience’s emotions.
 You can apply almost all you have learnt about
poetry to Shakespeare’s works.

6. Group task

 Look at the aspect of language your group has
been given.
 Discuss and prepare to feed back your findings.

7. Imagery
The use of emotionally charged words and phrases which conjure up vivid
pictures in the mind and imagination.
'Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground' (1.1)
'But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek / Dashes the fire out‘ ( 1.2)
'Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow‘ (1.2)
'Re-enter Ariel like a water-nymph‘ (1.2)
'This music crept by me upon the waters, / Allaying both their fury and my passion‘
( 1.2)
'Nothing of him that doth fade / but Doth suffer a sea-change / Into something
rich and strange‘ (1.2)
'Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it, / Him and his innocent child: for which
foul deed / The powers, delaying, not forgetting have / Incensed the seas and
shores‘ (3.3)
'I'll deliver all; / And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales‘ (5 .1)
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Shakespeare uses a lot of Imagery from nature. Look out for it.
What type of imagery is seen in the above quotations.
Imagery can employ:
Simile
Metaphor
Personification

8. Metaphor, personification and
simile
My library
Was dukedom large enough. (1.2.128)
.................The king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,—then like reeds, not hair,
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.' (1.2.213-216)
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.(3.3.97-99)
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (4.1.168-170)
Metaphor: A comparison
between essentially unlike
things without an explicitly
comparative word such
as like or as.
The endowment of
inanimate objects or
abstract concepts with
animate or living qualities.
Simile: A figure of speech
involving a comparison
between unlike things
using like, as, or as though.
Look at these examples and
identify the techniques that
have been used.

9. Antithesis
 The opposition of words and phrases against each other.
‘To be or not to be…’
‘To be’ is the thesis, ‘not to be ‘ is the antithesis.
There be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead
And makes my labours pleasures. (III.i.1-7)
Find the examples of antithesis in Ferdinand’s speech.
Why does Shakespeare use this conflicting language?

10. Alliteration, Assonance and
Onomatopoeia
‘................Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? (1.2.259-260)
Full fathom five thy father lies (.2.394)
“Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, ‘cock-a-diddle-dow!’”(1.2)
Alliteration refers to the
repetition of consonants in words
of close proximity. It generally
refers to the sounds at the
beginning of the adjacent words
Assonance refers to the
repetition of vowel sounds within
a series of words
Look for examples in the quotes
from the play.
What is the effect on the
audience?

11. 
Hyperbole
exaggeration. E.g. “It’s so
Extravagant and obvious
hot I am dying!’
Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. (1.2.106)
Explain the example in the quotation from The Tempest.
What is the effect on the audience?

12. Oxymoron

 Two incompatible or clashing words are brought
together to make a striking expression.
Do that good mischief which may make this island thine own
forever. (4.1)
Explain the example in the quotation from The
Tempest.
What is the effect on the audience?

13. Review

 Exit cards
 Write one thing you have learnt today about
Shakespeare’s language and The Tempest