We are studying 'As You Like It' for classical project and, I feel, taking examples and quotations from this specific Shakespeare script will help me develop my understanding and knowledge of each scene in the play.
Shakespeare's Devices
Rhyming: Rhyming is one of the most simple devices that you find is frequently used by Shakespeare in all of his plays. The whole concept of rhyming is that two or more words (different words) create the same sound. You will usually find he uses this device to express a feeling such as love or anger or distress etc. In 'As You Like It' for example, the character Rosalind uses an interesting sentence that uses a lot of rhyme.
"If she love me, I charge her to love thee..." (Act 4 Scene 3)
From this sentence, you can see and hear, the emotions in this sentence are heightened dramatically from the use of the rhythmic device. Rosalind is angry at Silvius at this very moment because he has fallen in love with a woman who seems unlovable and un-devoting to a husband. The girl he has fallen in love with is Phebe who is a feisty character, and she will not love Silvius back because of his naive and devoting attitude. Phebe has fallen in love with Ganymede (the disguise Rosalind has taken upon herself). This therefore leads to Rosalind giving Silvius a good discussion about the situation.
Repetition: Repetition is seen as one of the other more simple and frequently used devices in Shakespeare pieces. The overall description of this device is that repetition is using the same word twice or more than twice in the same sentence. It seems that Shakespeare may have always used this device to emphasis a point a character was making, or maybe to show a need for the word that was being repeated to show it has meaning behind it.In As You Like It, Celia uses repetition of the word brave.
"O, that's abrave man! He writes brave verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely..." (Act 3, Scene 4)
From this quotation, you can see that Celia uses the word brave five times which really helps to audience or reader grasp her feelings and understand her meaning behind this repetition. Shakespeare wants us to see the sarcasm in this words Celia speaks about Orlando.
Alliteration: Moving on the more detailed and complex devices, alliteration is one of them but is also very commonly used just like rhyming and repetition. Alliteration can be noticed when a row of words start with the same letter. It seems, in my opinion, that Shakespeare would use it to emphasis a word or a phrase, to help make and keep the flow, "alliteration is a poetical form and naturally a word sounds better when accompanied by an adjective or adjectives that compliment the beginning letter". In "As You Like It", alliteration seems to be frequently used, such as the characters Jacques and Touchstone. An example of Touchstones alliteration is:
"...to be a bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb..." (Act 3 Scene 2)
This is taken from the scene in which Touchstone is seen talking to Corin and is talking down to him, using his high mighty court-like wit to outsmart Corin, similar to the way Corin tries to educate Silvius on the ways of love and how he tries to coach him in dealing with Phoebe.
Assonance: Assonance is when the vowel sounds of two non-rhyming words rhyme. An example of this device, an assonance, being used in 'As You Like It' is yet another quote from Touchstone with his fast and clever way of talking:
"by the copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a bellwether and to betray a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to a crooked-pated old cuckoldly ram, out of all reasonable match..." (Act 3 Scene 2)
This quote of touchstone is also taken from the same scene as the last one. To me, it seems that the use of this assonance from touchstone is very similar to the reasoning of using the previous device, alliteration.
Dissonance: The device of the Dissonance is when the sounds of two words clash violently on the ear of the opposing character or the audience so as to heighten both. Using the same scene as before Corin uses a dissonance creating a clash of the sounds 'i' and 'ah' making his expression jump out of the line.
"And would you have us kiss tar?" (Act 3 Scene 2)
In this scene, it's clever how Shakespeare uses assonance for Touchstone and dissonance for Corin, it represents that polar opposite between the two characters because Touchstone constantly bashes Corin for shallow thinking, giving him the higher status, and Corin tries to backfire every comment Touchstone makes but Touchstone only tries to emphasis his point further.The phrase "kiss tar" is such a rural expression, it emphasizes that Corin is the low status both in general and social classes in comparison to Touchstone.
Paradox: A paradox is one of the more complex and complicated idea for a device. A paradox is an idea that has sound (or an apparent sound) reasoning but leads to a conclusion that makes no sense or is self-contradictory. For example, to walk to the center of a room to the wall i would have to walk half of the distance, but i would still have half of the distance to travel. From that point, i would still have half the distance to travel again, and so on and so forth. I would always still have half a distance to travel to the wall, so theoretically i would never reach the wall (which is incorrect as i would reach the wall!). The overall idea of paradoxes is that they are often used to make an intellectual point, simply to just puzzle. It seems that Shakespeare enjoy this device a lot as there are aplenty in 'As You Like It'. For example, W.S uses paradoxes to either explain a complicated idea or a series of emotions that exist outside of reason, such as Rosalind:
"I will marry you, if ever I marry a woman, and I'll be married to-morrow..." (Act 5, Scene 2)
Rosalind seems to be stating Phebe that if Rosalind was to marry a woman she would of course marry Phebe BUT in this very same sentence she also states she is marrying tomorrow.She offers Phoebe this paradox to show Phoebe that the love she has for Rosalind is obsolete. It's useless and it can never happen anyway. This very line is a great use of a paradox!
Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms. For example, a tall dwarf, a white raven, an honest politician, a modest footballer and so forth. Shakespeare can be seen using many oxymoron's in 'As You Like It' as well as many of his other plays. For example, in 'As You Like It' Rosalind has a line in which features an oxymoron:
"As many other mannish cowards have." (Act 1 Scene 3)
In this scene, Rosalind speaks to Celia of how she will disguise herself as a man to travel through the Forest of Arden safely because she has been banished from the courts by her uncle the Duke. By using the term mannish cowards, she means addressing herself with a brave face even if that the time she is not brave at all. She knows that she will have to face situations that are feared by women but will learn to overcome fear by expressing bravery and heroic manner just like any man would although she is feeling like a coward. I feel this oxymoron respresents exactly how she feels! It represents the truth that she is avoiding to reveal.
Lists: Lists are one of the most famous rhetorical devices. The three-part list, for example, is used in Julius Ceasars famous quotation 'Veni, Vidi, Vici' or 'I came, I saw, I conquered'. Lists are also frequently used by public speakers and is recognized in many famous speeches also which they have been known to entise the listeners and draw them in. An example of lists from 'As You Like It' is within Rosalinds line:
"Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement. Shut that and 'twill out at the keyhole; Stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney." (Act 4 Scene 1)
I think that Rosalind uses this list to show that women are much much cleverer than they are seen to be. This seems because back when women were oppressed for being proud of who they are, it was hard to maintain any respect for a woman. Overall, she uses this list to empower women and raise the little status they had back in that day.
As you can see, these devices are all one we've heard of or seen before. But, Shakespeare uses them in a way no other has. Here are a few more devices that aren't as frequently used but have been heard of:
Verse: Verse is one of the important devices that is used in every William Shakespeare play. Verse is writing with lots of rhetorical and poetic devices; the form of speech commonly used by more higher status and upper class characters. This is because it reflects there higher standard of education. In 'As You Like It', shakespeare uses verse in one of the biggest speeches - "All the worlds a stage..." by Jacques. In this speech, you will find many different devices that make it a verse speech:
- Single Syllables - Single syllable lines make you go quite slowly. Shakespeare often used them to make an important or complicated point. For example, the MOST famous example is "To be or not to be..." whereas, studying as you like it, we have "all the worlds a stage". This is effective because there is so much meaning behind this phrase. The world is one big stage and everyone is playing out there own story. Being a very big point, it is not overplayed with depth making it such a short, passionate and opinionated phrase.
- End Words - End words are basically what the device is called. Its the end word of the verse. You may think its just the end of the verse, but there is much more meaning behind it. Its important. Back in the Elizabethan times, actor would have stressed the end words in verse speeches. In a big speech a list of the end words of each line normally offers you a good conclusion of the speech. In 'As You Like It', the "all the worlds a stage..." speech, you'll notice that the titles of the individual'seven ages' are all placed at the line ends - infant, lover, soldier, justice and so on.
- Iambic Pentameter - Iambic Pentameter is a device used to create a natural flow to a sentence in verse, it is made up of five "de-dums", like a heartbeat. Shakespeare uses this device in his works in order to make the ground-lings listen. Iambic Pentameter gives the language a beat and a momentum which is pleasant on the ear, and when a line fits neatly into that rhythm, it sounds nice to say and the pace picks up. Often in an Iambic Pentameter line, there is a word that doesn't fit into the rhythm and these are often important words that have more meaning compared the other words. For example, in Act 1 Scene 3, "I'll put myself in pour and mean attire, and with a kind of umber smirch my face..." The line ends are stressed and give us the subject of the conversation.
- Eleven Beat Lines - This device means that if a line has more than ten beats then there's normally a reason for it. The famous Eleven Beat Line within Shakespeare's work is "to be or not to be, that is the question" from Hamlet.
In conclusion, these are many of the devices William Shakespeare used in his work in which are still used to this day!
