William Shakespeare

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Features of Shakespeare’s Plays

Characters Stage directionsStructure Variety of style Imagery Plot

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Characters- Different social classes (Hierarchy)

- Aristocracy- Nurses- Rustics- Servants

- Family ties- Conflict between young and old generation

- Symmetrical correspondences

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Stage Directions- Information about the scene- Indirectly, hidden in the text- Cooperation of the reader

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Structure- Acts/Scenes Division

- no curtain- no interval

- Conventions: natural on stage -> close contact between audience and actors- Soliloquies- Asides- Introductory passages- Funeral orations- Death-bed speeches

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- Different Levels - Speech ->

Characters from different angles- Action ->

- Plot- Symbolic- Realistic

- Insertion of allegoric scenes, songs, music, dances, magical transformations

Variety of Style

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ImageryDifferent linguistic levels

Similes Metaphor Mythological allusions New and archaic words Puns Alliteration Assonance

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Plot

Gradual clarification of mysterious things

Contrast between scenesOpen questions

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