IN DEPTH...

This is a page where I can broaden the context of a discussion and offer motivated students advanced material.

LITERARY DEVICES

Shakespeare used literary devices he knew his Renaissance audience would appreciate. To help my students understand and recognize these devices here is a list of several that you will encounter in your reading:

1. Allusions—Shakespeare used both mythological and Biblical allusions. For example, the sergeant compares a bloody

scene of death on the battlefield to Golgotha which is the place of Christ's death in the New Testament (I,ii.).

One of the mythological allusions is Macduff's comparing the dead Duncan to a Gorgon of Greek mythology which

could turn a person to stone because of the terror evoked (II,iii).

2. Figurative Language—Shakespeare's mastery of language is exemplified through his use of imagery such as similes,

metaphors, personification, alliteration, and symbols. To help students understand these, discuss the word pictures Shakespeare

paints. Because Shakespeare's pictures are so vivid, students might be able to illustrate them with drawings or collages.

Similes:

(Flower imagery)

Look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it. (I,v)

(Disguise)

Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. (I,v)

Metaphors:

(Planting imagery)

I have begun to plant thee, and will labor

To make thee full of growing. (I,iv)

(Clothing imagery)

Why do you dress me

In borrowed robes? (I,iii)

Personification:

If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir (I,iii)

Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? (I,vii)

Alliteration:

But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears. (III, iv)