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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Editor's Choice

Why do characters in the play use prose and verse, and what instances highlight these literary styles?

Quick answer:

Characters use prose and verse to reflect social class and emotional intensity. Prose represents the "rougher" speech of lower classes, while upper-class characters use poetry, particularly iambic pentameter, to show education and refinement. Passionate speeches often end in rhyming couplets. Fairies speak in trochaic tetrameter, distinguishing them from humans with a unique rhythm. These stylistic choices highlight differences in status and emotional states among characters.

Expert Answers

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As noted in the other answer, the reason Shakespeare uses poetry for some characters and prose for others is based on social class. Prose mimics the "rougher" speech of the lower classes. Upper class humans, such as royals, speak in poetry to show their higher levels of education and refinement.

The upper class human characters not only speak in rhyme, they speak in iambic pentameter. This is a verse form consisting of five iambs (ten syllables) per line, with the stress falling on the second syllable. When their speeches become more passionate, they tend to end in rhyming couplets, such as when Helena talks about love:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind

The fairies also speak with a specific poetic rhythm all their own. This distinguishes them both from upper class and lower class humans. They speak in trochaic tetrameter, meaning their lines are shorter (only eight syllables) and the stress falls on the first, not the second syllable.

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