Discussion Topic
Purpose of Iambic Pentameter in Romeo and Juliet
Summary:
In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter to enhance the play's rhythm and emotional impact. This meter, consisting of five iambs per line, mimics a heartbeat and is used by noble characters, distinguishing them from lower-class characters who speak in prose. In Act 1, iambic pentameter highlights significant moments, such as Romeo and Juliet's first exchange, which forms a sonnet, symbolizing their connection. It also aids memorability and emphasizes important words, as seen in the prologue and Romeo's heroic couplets.
In Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet, what is the purpose of the iambic pentameter?
There are already a lot of helpful answers about this question going over what iambic pentameter is and how Shakespeare uses it generally. Here is one specific example of Shakespeare using meter to structure and manipulate the text that might put meter into better context. It concerns the first words Romeo and Juliet speak to each other before they kiss, toward the end of act 1. Here is the conversation in its entirety:
[To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
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Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
This whole conversation is written in iambic pentameter. We can examine a random line:
This ho/ly shrine/the gen/tle fine/is this/
splits up evenly into five feet of two syllables, with the emphasis on the second syllable of each. The fascinating thing about the dialogue in this first meeting is that it also forms sonnet. A sonnet is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with an alternating line rhyme scheme and a rhyming couplet at the end. Shakespeare was famous for writing sonnets and here has snuck one into the most famous romantic story ever told. It gives the effect of two halves completing a whole: Romeo and Juliet's is a meeting that constitutes literal poetry. This is an extreme example of how Shakespeare used meter to enrich his work.
Meter in poetry refers to the pattern of stressed (accented) and unstressed (unaccented) syllables in the lines of verse. This pattern gives poetry its rhythm, along with other devices like rhyme. There are different kinds of metrical "feet"—small groups of two or three stressed and unstressed syllables—and one type of foot is called an iamb. An iamb consists of two syllables: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. Thus, a meter that primarily uses iambs is called iambic. We also count the number of metrical feet per line: one foot is monometer, two feet is dimeter, three feet is trimeter, four feet is tetrameter, five feet is pentameter, and so on. Therefore, iambic pentameter relies on iambs as the dominant foot and has five feet (or ten syllables), on average, per line. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is also referred to as blank verse.
In Shakespeare's plays, nobles tend to speak in iambic pentameter, while people of lower classes speak in prose. There are exceptions, of course. In act 1, the Chorus speaks in iambic pentameter. Sampson and Gregory speak in prose, as do Abram and the other servant. Benvolio and Tybalt, however, speak in iambic pentameter, as do the Montagues, the Prince, and Romeo. The Capulets and Paris also speak in iambic pentameter. When Romeo speaks to the Servingman, he switches to prose—it would be pretty strange to have one character speaking in verse while the other does not. The Nurse also speaks in verse, though this is most likely because she is always talking to someone else who speaks in verse.
Shakespeare mixes verse and prose in his writings. He uses verse mostly to express emotions, to make wise comments on the nature of man, to interject irony and when juxtaposed with prose, to focus on the action that is taking place.
For example, in Act 1, Scene 1, many characters of the house of Capulet and Montague appear in the street and have various arguments and fights, but then the prince enters, and his first speech stands out in very precise iambic pentameter. It gets your attention when you hear these words spoken because they are regular and rhythmic as opposed to the dialogue that precedes it. Remember, this is a play, intended to be viewed and listened to, not read. So the sound of the regular iambic pentameter is very important in Shakespear's plays. Language, its sounds and rhythms, were his only "sound track" so to speak.
As you read the rest of Act 1, look for examples of iambic pentameter and then ask what Shakespeare is trying to accomplish in that particular section - emotion, action, wisdom - and you will be able to answer this question for yourself. Hope this helps!
Why is iambic pentameter used in the Romeo and Juliet prologue?
Shakespeare left no written explanations as to why he did what he did in his plays, but we can use what we know from his work as a whole and from the conventions of Elizabethan theater to analyze what he was doing.
In Shakespeare's plays, as was common in theater at the time, the most important speeches in a play are almost always put into rhyming verses with a set rhythm. Both the rhythm (such as iambic pentameter) and the rhyme scheme would help audiences remember the words, and both would signal the importance of paying close attention to what was being said at that moment.
Iambic pentameter is a rhythm or meter that consists of ten syllables or five beats (two syllables each) with the emphasis or stress falling on the second syllable, as in da DUM, da DUM. This rhythm is comforting because it mimics a heart beat, which is why it is often used in verse. Shakespeare employs it to catch the audience's attention and to place extra weight on the most important words of the prologue. We can hear this in the following line:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes.
The stress on the second syllable in each beat causes the most important words to pop out: forth, fate (a pun on fatal and fate), loins, these, and foes. Along with the alliterative f sounds in forth, fatal, and foes, it is more likely that these significant words will stick with an audience because of the steady, predictable meter of the iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare constructs the prologue as if it is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem consisting, in this case, of three quatrains (units of four lines) and ending in a couplet.
The final couplet gives us perhaps our biggest hint as to why Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter:
The which, if you with patient ears attend,Once again, we can see that the iambic pentameter allows the stress to fall on the most important words or parts of words the audience needs to remember. On top of that, the content of the couplet shows that audiences often did not pay full attention to what was being said. The ending of the prologue acknowledges that already—thirty seconds into the play!—people may have missed some of what was spoken, even with all that Shakespeare has done to rivet our attention. Therefore, Shakespeare will flesh out this summary more fully in the play that unfolds.
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Why does Romeo use iambic pentameter in Romeo and Juliet?
Romeo is a member of the aristocracy, and thus has more formal language than members of the lower class (the servants, for example). Shakespeare regularly used this convention to further distinguish royalty and aristocrats from the common folk (obviously, they were already distinguished by their costumes to some extent).
Romeo primarily uses heroic couplets, though, which is unusual for Shakespeare, who usually satisfied himself with blank verse. (Heroic couplets are two lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme; blank verse is iambic pentameter that doesn't rhyme.) Just like each scene is opened with a sonnet--a poetry form used primarily for pastoral and love themes--heroic couplets were primarily used for heroes.
Iambic pentameter, by the way, is said to have been the meter of choice because it so closely mimics the rhythm and length of a standard English sentence. Putting dialogue into iambic pentameter gave the lines a pleasing rhythm, making them more memorable, and had the added benefit of making them easier for actors to memorize.