Unlocking Shakespeare

Understanding Shakespeare is often presented as a case of translation; of changing the archaic, old-fashioned, and high metaphorical language of the 16th century stage into words and sentences that make more sense to our modern ears. This can often be assisted by performance; the joy of watching thespians bring these words to life with action and emotion and acting choices. However, when looking at Shakespeare's plays in the classroom, we don't always have the choice to see the Bard's work erupt, cajole, and brood across the stage.

To have a better grasp on the playwright's texts there needs to be an increased awareness of the way in which the contemporary 16th and 17th century audiences of England saw the world - and this goes beyond just understanding the words. In order to see things through their eyes with a greater level of comprehension we need to consider the connotations of certain terms that are used; terms that reflect a radically different set of beliefs and values to those we currently take for granted.

'You' and 'Thou'

You may or may not be surprised to learn that some languages have multiple pronouns for the same way of addressing someone. A 'formal' and an 'informal' version of you is present in Italian, French, German, Danish, Swedish, etc. One is polite and formal, the other is more colloquial and friendly. In English we currently have no such convention; using only you in both situations. In Shakespeare's time, however, this wasn't the case.

The formal terminology was as it is now: you, your, yours, yourself.

The informal equivalent, though, was: thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself.

To make things more complicated, the choice of who got called what was dictated by the Elizabethan class system, and by personal relationships. Here are some examples:

• Thee - if someone was beneath someone in social status, or if two high status people were in private and had a close enough relationship to not be concerned by the 'rules'.
• You - if someone was the same status, or higher, or if you wanted to show respect.
• Sometimes a character in a Shakespeare play will momentarily switch to using a different pronoun in order to insult someone. This can be used to reveal great drama to a modern reader once they are familiar with the above system as it was considered incredibly disrespectful and offensive to do this to someone.
  

Swearing

The modern usage of the term 'swearword' is usually reserved for things like 'sh_t', 'f_ck', etc. It should be noted, however, that the origin of the term 'swear' is closely tied to religion and a person's relationship with God. Generally speaking there have been two kinds of swearwords in the last two thousand years - those that are used in connection with topics and things that are considered taboo or unmentionable (see the examples above) and those that are used in connection to things that are considered sacred.

In Shakespeare's time it was the sacred form of swearing that was considered more serious. If you swore something before God (made a promise, EG. "I swear to God', or "May you be damned to Hell") then it was highly offensive if it you did not mean it, and committing offenses (blasphemy) against God was believed to inevitably lead to Hell. Additionally, as Elizabethan society was a culture that did not include any atheists, saying these things in a flippant manner meant you were invoking something sacred and powerful from God for things that were beneath Him. It was taboo for anyone to presume that they could tell God what to do, so wording had to be careful if a person did not want to offend.

Shakespeare makes use of both kinds of swearing throughout his plays, but you will note that it is the religious kind that features more heavily. As you may be aware from our own context, swearing can be quite varied and colourful, and the religious kind of swearing in Shakespeare's context is no different, with many characters often swearing on different parts of God or icons related to God. Some examples:

• S'blood = short for 'God's blood'.
• Zounds = a shortened version of 'God's wounds'.
  
• God's Bones, God Almighty, Jesus Christ = mentioning these things in a non-religious context was considered offensive.
• Blessed = especially when used in combination with something that a priest would never bless (EG. Part of a fig - hence the swearword 'Blessed fig's end' in Othello)
• God's will = wishing that God would do something on one's behalf was incredibly presumptuous and offensive.
• Damn = asking God to send someone to Hell. Also presumptuous.
  
• Oath = to take an oath before God was an incredibly sacred thing to do. To use the term flippantly was to make a mockery of this.
• By the mass = referring to a holy congregation in a church.
• Strewth = not used by Shakespeare (to my knowledge) but familiar to older Australians. This is a shortened version of 'God's truth'.
  
• Gadzooks = a contraction of 'God's hooks', referring to the hooks that held Jesus to the cross.
  

The Humours

There are several references in Shakespeare's plays to the humours that exist within a human's body. This is a reference to the medieval belief (dating from classical Greek and Roman medicine) that, in the same way that the world consisted of four elements (wind, earth, fire, water), a human's body was made up of its own four components: the humours. Each humour connected to a fluid within the body and corresponded with emotions and personalities. An imbalance in any of one of these humours would be cited by Elizabethan doctors as the source for disordered behaviour, and the terminology associated with this is still partially in use today.

It might be easier to think of the humours as being a medieval explanation for things that would be later explained by science (chiefly medicine and psychology).

The humours were as follows:

• Choler
• Yellow bile from the liver
• If someone was 'choleric' they were considered to be easily angered or irritated.
• Sanguine
• Blood
• A 'sanguine' personality was someone who was cheerful and optimistic, especially in bad situations.
• Melancholy
• Black bile
• Someone 'melancholic' was prone to depression and sadness.
• Phlegm
• Mucus
• A 'phlegmatic' personality was, at best, unemotional and dependable. At worst, the term was related to apathy and laziness.
  

In Othello, for example, there are several references that can become clear upon reflection of the above information:

• "Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler" - Iago, Act 2, Scene 1
• "I think the sun where he was born / drew all such humours from him" - Desdemona, Act 3, Scene 4
• "Were he in favour as in humour alter'd" - Desdemona, Act 3, Scene 4
  
• "I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour" - Iago, Act 4, Scene 2
  

And So...

That's just the tip of the Tudor iceberg. I'm sure I'll revisit this topic more each time I teach a Shakespeare text - I'll look forward to it as I find it endlessly fascinating!

Craft of Writing: Irony and Symbolism

Hello! Our cohorts should be passingly familiar with both irony and symbolism by the time they reach Year 12 but it never hurts to revisit these keystone elements of writing, especially as students are preparing themselves to engage with the Craft of Writing module in the HSC. Below are some mini-lessons designed to support students in their consideration of writing craft. Students are shown how to use a technique, alongside examples, and then put it into practice. 

Irony

What is it: Irony occurs when words are used to indicate something opposite to their actual meaning. There are three types of irony, all of which reflect a difference between appearance and reality. These are:

1. Verbal irony - which can take the form of sarcasm, exaggeration, contradictory phrases, or deliberate understatement.
2. Situational irony - when an audience's expectation of something in a text is not fulfilled. Otherwise known as 'subversion'.
3. Dramatic irony - when the audience is aware of something that some of the characters are not.

Examples:

• Verbal Irony: "Some animals are more equal than others" - Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Situational Irony: A woman receives a letter about her husband's death and struggles with the news. When her husband then miraculously shows up, she dies of a heart attack from the idea of not being free of him (subverting the audience's expectation that she is upset that he has died). - The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
• Dramatic Irony: The audience knows right from the outset that Iago is manipulating Othello in regards to Desdemona's handkerchief, however, Othello is driven into a jealous rage at the ideas that Iago suggests as he is unaware of the truth. - Othello by William Shakespeare.

Why use it:

• Irony brings an additional level of meaning to a situation, and calls attention to ideas through a contrast between what is said and reality.
• Readers are forced to use their imagination to consider the full implications and underlying meanings when irony takes place.
• Verbal irony can work effectively to create humour when used in conjunction with kairos (the right time and place).
• Situational irony helps writers subvert reader expectations for more effective and original storytelling. It can add extra dimension and impact to the emotional connection between the reader and the text. 
• Dramatic irony if often associated with the tragedy genre as it emphasises the fatal impact of a character misunderstanding something. Dramatic irony also assists an author in building reader engagement as it creates a tension between the reader (who knows what is happening) and their need for a character to realise what the reader already knows.

Quick Activity #1: Write a paragraph using characters from either The Tempest or Hag-Seed that demonstrates one of the three forms of irony.

Quick Activity #2: Write an explanation of which irony you used in your previous exercise and how it was demonstrated.

Quick Activity #3: Did you write about Hag-Seed or The Tempest last time? This time write a paragraph using the characters from the other, and use a form of irony that you didn't use last time.

Quick Activity #4: Write an explanation of which irony you used in your previous exercise and how it was demonstrated.  

Symbolism

What is it: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Symbolism is closely related to the human ability to think abstractly, which is what led to the creation of language. The moment humans could think of things that didn't exist in the physical world was the moment that they needed to come up with symbols to represent them. Written language is symbolism at its most basic; a series of symbols representing different sounds.

Examples:

• "Rosebud," the final word of the ruthless entrepreneur Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed,is revealed to the bed of his childhood sled. The sled symbolises the happier childhood that he lost forever at age 8. - The film Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles. 
• The Golden Country, dreamt of by Winston repeatedly, symbolises the pleasant world he can never live in. - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

Why use it:

• Adds depth to a text and its ideas, and demonstrates the abstract themes that 'power' the text.
• Can allow authors to 'say' things without having to explicitly say them, which in turn allows the audience to bring their own interpretation to the text.
• Symbolism can help the reader identify the sort of text or story they are reading, due to the associations and connotations that come with more well-known symbols (such as the generic convention of a full moon in a horror text).  

Quick Activity: Consider the masque scene in The Tempest, and the discussion in Chapter 28 of Hag-Seed where different ways of staging it are discussed. In what way (different to those discussed) would you stage it? Justify how your version would symbolise one or two themes from the text.  

 

Here are these two writing elements on the one sheet for ease of use:

• Writology Issue 5

Happy writing!