Language, Rhythm & Rhyme
English Lit: AQA GCSE Romeo & Juliet, topic 5.1.1
Poetry and Prose
Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses a lot of blank verse (non-rhyming lines) and iambic pentameter (lines of 10 syllables), which uses rhyme.
Significance
- This was often used in Elizabethan plays to express ideas of love.
- In much of Romeo and Juliet, both protagonists (main characters) speak in blank verse and iambic pentameter, especially when speaking to one another.
Blank verse
- Blank verse is associated with the wealthy, higher-class characters or characters who do not necessarily believe in love – the Montague and Capulet servants speak in prose (which does not have a rhythm or any rhyming).
Prose
- Shakespeare often used less poetic language for some of the more comedic characters – he writes some of Mercutio’s and the Nurse’s sexual comments in prose.
Tybalt's language
- It is interesting to note that Tybalt rarely speaks in rhymes (something which is associated with love poetry).
- He usually only rhymes when he talks about killing other people or taking revenge ('Now, by the stock and honour of my kin / To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin' and 'A villain that is hither come in spite / To scorn at our solemnity this night'.)
- This could suggest that the only love Tybalt feels is the love of fighting and murder.
Romeo and Sonnets
Romeo occasionally speaks in sonnets (which are also a form of love poetry).
Sonnets explained
- Sonnets have 14 lines, are written in iambic pentameter and are structured in six sets of alternative rhyming couplets. There is one rhyming couplet at the end.
- The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Romeo's use of sonnets
- Romeo’s sonnets show his immaturity and his romantic side - he tries to woo (gain the love of) Juliet with sonnets, but she doesn’t like this overly-romanticised method and thinks he is being insincere.
- As he becomes closer to Juliet and matures, he uses sonnets less and less.
Test yourself on Language, Rhythm & Rhyme
Which characters often speak in blank verse and iambic pentameter when they are communicating with one another?
Which characters speak in prose?
Tybalt rarely speaks in rhymes. When does he?
Which of these are true of sonnets?
Which of these are true of Romeo's use of sonnets?