The Tempest is widely considered the last play written
independently by William Shakespeare. Knowing this, do you find a difference in the
language in this play than you do in other works you’ve read? Think of Macbeth,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Henry IV Pt. II.
I do not find a difference in language in The Tempest than other plays by Shakespeare. I read King Lear over the summer and find it a little more provocative. It had many lines that were references to sexual things or just females or males that are more “out there,” but they were disguised in Shakespearean language and somewhat tricky to pick up on. Maybe as we get farther into the play more of this will arise. I don’t think this is a difference in style as much as it is a difference in the context of the plays.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Taylor. I do not find the language much different, but the subject matter of this play is very different. At this point in our reading, I find The Tempest to be more of an adventure novel than a drama-filled tradejy, like the other works I've read by Shakespeare.
DeleteI don't find much of a difference in the language, just in the content. The writing still reminds me of Shakespeare's other plays, except maybe a bit harder to understand just because of the subject matter, not because of the language. It still flows the way other Shakespearean plays do. I agree with both Lauren and Taylor that this play still reads like a Shakespearean play, though it is much more like an adventure novel than the tragedies such as Macbeth. The only slight difference I've noticed so far is more back and forth between characters than in other Shakespeare plays, but that doesn't really change the language. It's just because of the number of characters and the situation they've been placed in.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rebecca about the frequent "back and forth" language. Even in Romeo and Juliet, there is not back and forth language like there is in this play. There are many scenes where the royalty and nobleman are all just saying one word and one line retorts to one another, and they are bickering and joking around like I haven’t experienced before in Shakespeare’s writing. Most of the time this back and forth language is making fun of people or things (like Adrien and Gonzalo) which is very typical of Shakespeare however. He often is making fun of things with his language and you can really see this in the back and forth conversations.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to the previous posts, I do not see a distinct change of language in the play compared to others. I agree with Taylor and Rebecca with the use of back and forth langauge, and while I often find it difficult to follow Shakespearean plays, The Tempest has so many characters it makes it even more challenging. Even though the setting is on a remote island, unlike any other plays, I find similarities between conflicts and themes in other Shakespearean plays.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the themes also resemble other Shakespearean plays. It's another story about the politics of an era though in a more unique setting than the others. It's sort of a political story with an adventure fantasy twist to it, but it's still about rulers and power struggles.
DeleteLike I said earlier, I don't find The Tempest to be much different for any of Shakespeare's other plays. After reading the other posts, I have realized that I like the plot of this play more than the other Shakespearean works I've read. Therefore, because I am more interested, my comprehension of the story increases. At first, I thought there was a difference in the language simply because I understood it better, but it's really just because of the more adventurous story line.
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