Shakespeare’s Methods & Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Writer’s Methods and Techniques

Examiners want students to analyse a wide range of Shakespeare’s methods (AO2), not just the language. Remember, analysing methods means evaluating all of Shakespeare’s choices, which includes a lot more than just the lines he wrote for each character. It includes characterisation, form, structure and even stage directions. In this guide you will find sections on:

• Types of Shakespeare play

• Verse forms of Shakespeare plays

• How to quote Shakespeare in your essay

• Analysing Shakespeare’s methods

Shakespearean plays

Types of Shakespeare play

• There are three types of Shakespeare play:

  • Tragedy

  • Comedy

  • History

• Each of these forms has particular conventions and structures

• It is important to know the conventions because you can then say how far Shakespeare conforms to or breaks from, these standard conventions and structures

Tragedy

• Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are tragedies

• Shakespearean tragedies usually consist of:

  • A tragic hero: a once-heroic or innocent figure who is destined to die:

    • In Macbeth this is Macbeth

    • In Romeo and Juliet, this is both Romeo and Juliet

  • Fatal flaw (hamartia): a character trait that leads to the tragic hero’s downfall:

    • Macbeth’s hamartia is ambition

    • Romeo and Juliet both have the same flaw: impulsiveness

  • A foil: a character who stands in contrast to the tragic hero, who conforms to the typical societal expectations of the era:

    • Banquo is a foil to Macbeth

    • Mercutio acts as a foil in Romeo and Juliet, contrasting Romeo

  • Fate: all tragic heroes cannot escape their fate or destiny

  • Catharsis: a moment of shared expression for the audience. Often, this is sympathy for the once heroic figure, and the person they could have been. This is sometimes known as a technique called the tragic waste:

    • The deaths of all of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet evoke different levels of sympathy

  • Conflict: this can be both external conflict (battles, duels, feuds) or internal (psychological conflict)

  • Final restoration of the status quo: this means, essentially, that things go back to normal after the death of the tragic hero(s)

• Many of Shakespeare’s tragedies follow the same five-part structure:

1. Exposition: this is the introduction to the play for the audience, and an introduction to the themes and atmosphere. Foreshadowing often occurs in the exposition

2. Rising Action: here is when the tragic hero’s fatal flaw is exposed and an inevitable chain of events starts

3. Climax: this is the turning point in the play where the tragic hero has come too far to go back. In the language of tragedy, this is called peripeteia

4. Falling Action: the tragic hero finally comes to the realisation that they are to be defeated, or is doomed. This moment of realisation is called the anagnorisis

5. Denouement: normality and the natural order is restored

Comedy

• This type of play includes Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice

• Shakespearean comedies usually consist of:

  • Comedy:

    • Puns (a pun is a humorous play on words)

    • Slapstick (humour involving physical comedy, or embarrassment)

    • Characters who function as comic relief (these are funny characters used to contrast the play’s more serious themes)

  • Elements of the fantastical, supernatural or magical:

    • Unlike in a tragedy, this would not be presented as evil, but mischievous, or even positively miraculous

  • Unbelievable coincidences

  • Mistaken identity/gender swapping/characters in disguise

  • The subversion of societal norms:

    • Shakespeare often challenges contemporary taboos

  • Plot twists

  • Philosophical themes:

    • Shakespeare also includes weighty themes in his comedies: prejudice and wealth (Merchant of Venice); revenge and nature versus civilisation (The Tempest)

  • Evil or bad characters repent at the play’s conclusion

  • A peaceful resolution of the main conflict, and any other plot twists, which usually involve a wedding

• Many of Shakespeare’s comedies follow the same five-part structure:

1. Exposition: this is the introduction to the existing conflict that exists in the world of the play. Foreshadowing often occurs in the exposition

2. Rising Action: conflict is developed

3. Turning Point: the point in the play when the conflict reaches its height

4. Falling Action: things begin to clear up for the central characters

5. Denouement: the central problem is resolved, and we usually have a happy ending

History

• This includes Julius Caesar

• Shakespearean histories usually consist of:

  • Real historical events and characters

  • Biographical treatments of Medieval English kings, as well as important figures from Roman history

  • Elements of both tragedy and comedy (see above)

  • Commentary on Shakespeare’s own society:

    • Although he used historical figures in his plays, they are often about issues prevalent in Elizabethan or Jacobean society

    • He often explored societal norms and moral values, especially in his Roman plays (plays based on Roman history) 

  • An examination of fate:

    • We will often see dreams, curses and prophecies

    • Characters often cannot escape their fate

  • An examination of power and leadership:

    • Freedom versus authoritarian rule

    • Rebellion against tyranny

    • Ambition

• Lots of his histories served as Elizabethan propaganda:

  • Elizabeth I (a Tudor queen who reigned from 1558 until 1603) was queen when Shakespeare wrote many of his histories

  • These plays celebrate the founders of the Tudor dynasty

  • They criticise rival houses, or historical rivals of the Tudors, such as the House of York in Richard III

• Writing his Roman plays gave Shakespeare more freedom to subtly comment, or even criticise, the House of Tudor and Elizabeth I:

  • Julius Caesar was written at a time of anxiety in England

  • Elizabeth I was refusing to name a successor and there were fears of rebellion or even civil war

  • These are the themes Shakespeare explores in Julius Caesar

Shakespearean verse forms

• Shakespeare used three forms of poetic language when he wrote his plays:

  • Blank verse

  • Rhymed verse

  • Prose

• He uses each of these different forms throughout his plays

• Shakespeare used these different forms of language for dramatic purposes; they performed different functions:

  • To distinguish characters from one another

  • To reveal the psychology of characters

  • To show character development

Blank verse

• Blank verse consists of unrhymed lines of ten syllables, although it does not always exactly fit that pattern:

  • For example in Macbeth: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen”

• Typically in Shakespeare plays, blank verse represents human feelings in speeches and soliloquies. It is the form used the most by Shakespeare

• It is the form most often used for the main characters in Shakespeare’s plays, especially when they are speaking of important subjects

• Blank verse is the form of language most often used by characters of high status

• In Romeo and Juliet, all the noble characters speak the vast majority of their lines in blank verse. In Macbeth, the famous soliloquies before the murder of Duncan from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in blank verse

Rhymed verse

• Rhymed verse consists of sets of rhymed couplets: two successive lines that rhyme with each other at the end of the line

  • For example, in The Tempest:

      “Prospero my lord shall know what I have done:

      So, king, go safely on to seek thy son”

• Shakespeare often used rhymed verse to reflect ritualistic and supernatural events in his plays:

  • In Macbeth, the witches speak in rhyming couplets

• However, Shakespeare occasionally uses other forms of rhymed verse within his plays, for example, in the sonnet:

  • A sonnet is usually a standalone love poem of 14 lines

  • Shakespeare uses this form of language when Romeo and Juliet first see each other to reflect the instant love they feel for each other

Prose

• Prose is unrhymed lines with no pattern or rhythm:

  • For example, in Much Ado About Nothing:

         This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne. They have
         the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady; it
         seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why it
         must be requited.

• Shakespeare used prose for serious episodes, letters, or when characters appear to be losing control of their minds (when it would be unrealistic for them to speak poetically):

  • In Macbeth, Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth speak in prose once she has lost her mind

  • In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio begins to speak in prose when he is being reckless in his fateful exchange with Tybalt

• Shakespeare also uses prose for low-status characters:

  • In Romeo and Juliet, the nurse and the musicians speak in prose

• Sometimes, Shakespeare uses prose to reflect comedic speeches or dialogue:

  • Nearly three-quarters of the entire play of Much Ado About Nothing is written in prose since it is a Shakespearean comedy

How to quote Shakespeare in your essay

• The Shakespeare exam is a closed-book exam, which means you don’t get a copy of the play to use in your exam:

  • This means that examiners do not expect you to memorise dozens of direct quotations from the play

  • The extract has been chosen for you to use to answer your essay, which means it will contain many lines that you can use as evidence in your essays

  • As much as you should take a “whole-text” approach to your essay, there will be plenty of excellent quotations that you can, and should, select from the extract first

  • If you are memorising quotations, focus on learning a few, short quotations that are relevant to the key themes in the play you are studying

• The extract should serve as a springboard to the rest of the play:

  • This means that when you are thinking about what other references to include, you should be led by the themes and ideas in the extract and not by the quotations you have memorised

• References don’t need to be direct quotations:

  • They can be things that characters say in different parts of the play in your own words

  • They can be references to things that happen in the play or the way that different characters are presented elsewhere

• Examiners repeatedly stress that textual references are just as valuable as direct quotations when referencing the rest of the play:

  •  “You don’t get extra marks for more quotations, but you do get more marks for making plenty of interesting comments about the references you have selected.”

  • The most important thing is that these references are directly related to the ideas and themes you are exploring in your essay, and provide evidence to prove your thesis

Analysing Shakespeare’s methods

In order to achieve the highest AO2 marks, think about methods as Shakespeare’s choices, not just the language he is using. What overall decisions has he made in relation to characters, setting, stagecraft, form and structure? For what reasons has he made these choices? What overarching message do they help to convey?

What not to do when analysing Shakespeare’s methods

• Don’t “spot techniques”:

  • Examiners dislike when students use overly sophisticated terminology unnecessarily (“polysyndeton”; “epanalepsis”)

  • Knowing the names of sophisticated techniques will not gain you any more marks, especially if these techniques are only “spotted” and Shakespeare’s intentions for this language are not explained

  • Instead of technique spot, focus your analysis on the reasons why Shakespeare is presenting the character or theme the way he does

• Don’t label word types unnecessarily:

  • Similar to technique spotting, this is when students use “the noun X” or “the verb Y”

  • This doesn’t add anything to your analysis

  • Instead, examiners suggest you focus on ideas or images, instead of words or word types

  • Instead of “Shakespeare uses the noun “scorpions” to show…” use “Shakespeare uses the image “full of scorpions” to show… “

• Don’t limit your analysis to a close reading of Shakespeare’s language:

  • You gain marks for explaining all of Shakespeare’s choices, not just his language

  • Only focusing on his language, therefore, limits the mark you will be given

  • Instead, take a whole-text approach and think about Shakespeare’s decisions about:

    • Form

    • Structure

    • Characterisation

    • Stagecraft

    • You do not need to include quotations to analyse the above, but you will still be rewarded well by the examiner

• Don’t focus only on the extract:

  • You will not be responding to the full task and text, and your mark will, therefore, suffer if you focus only on the extract, and not the wider play overall

  • Use the extract as a springboard to ideas and themes in the rest of the play

• Never retell the story:

  • “Narrative” and “descriptive” answers get the lowest marks

  • Move from what Shakespeare is presenting to how and why he has made the choices he has.

What to do when analysing Shakespeare’s methods

• Take a whole-text approach:

  • This could involve commenting on structure: “ ‘at the start / this changes when / in contrast…’ “

  • This could involve commenting on Shakespeare’s choice of form

    • How has he conformed to or subverted the form of tragedy/comedy/history?

    • What deliberate choices has he made with his verse form? Why does he shift to prose or rhymed verse?

  • Think about how characters develop: are they presented differently at different parts of the play? Why has Shakespeare chosen to present this change?

  • Are characters presented differently from each other? Why? What does each represent?

  • Do characters’ relationships with each other change? Why might Shakespeare have chosen to do this?

• Remember that characters are constructs, not real people:

  • Think about what each character’s function is in the play

  • What does Shakespeare use each character to say about humanity, or about society?

• Always frame your essay with Shakespeare in mind:

  • As the examiners say: “writers use methods, including language and structure, to form and express their ideas – the choices the writer makes are conscious and deliberate”

  • Therefore, write that Shakespeare “highlights X”, “suggests Y”, “challenges Z”

  • Use the words “so” and “because” to push you to explain your own ideas further:

    • Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as losing her resolve in Act V, Scene I, because he is commenting on the fatal consequences of committing a mortal sin like regicide” 

• Zoom out to big ideas in your analysis:

  • Go from analysing language, or other writer’s choices, to Shakespeare’s overall intention, or message

  • This should also link to your thesis and argument throughout

  • You can begin these “zoom out” sentences with “Shakespeare could be suggesting that because X, then Y” or “Shakespeare could be using the character of X to challenge contemporary ideas about Y”

  • Use modal language to present sophisticated ideas:

    • Using words like “could”, “may” or “perhaps” shows that you are thinking conceptually