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How Did Shakespeare Influence The English Language

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From Bedazzled to Zany- Changes Shakespeare Made in English From A to Z Jessica has a heart of gold. It is fashionable to gossip. That girl was green with envy. All of these sentences seem very common. One would never guess that Shakespeare was the reason behind all of them. He created a wide variety of phrases and words, many of which are still heavily prevalent today. So prevalent that, in the 1990s, the name he created, Jessica, was the most popular girls’ name in the United States of America. In fact, Shakespeare has influenced the English language in countless ways. He even invented the knock knock joke in order to insert some comic relief into the tragedy that is Macbeth. From names to cliches to overused jokes, there is not a part of …show more content…

If one has ever heard of a witch saying the phrase “double, double, toil and trouble” or seen someone proclaim that “the world is their oyster”, they have heard a Shakespearean iodom. With around 200 sayings ranging from profound metaphors to painfully overused cliches, he never ran out of expressions to use at any given moment. A sampling of phrases that he created that are still widely used in this day and age are “fair play”, “break the ice”, and “all’s well that ends well”. That is not to say that all of his phrases kept their original intended meaning. When the phrase “in a pickle” is used in conversation nowadays, it is used as a way to say that someone is stuck in a difficult situation, whereas when Shakespeare used the phrase he used it to describe how a character in “The Tempest” was intoxicated. Similarly, while the phrase “the world is my oyster” is used in modern English to mean that one is in a position where they can take all of the opportunities that life has to offer, Shakespeare used it in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in a more aggressive way when one of the characters is threatening to steal something and using the oyster as a metaphor for something to be broken into. Above all, this shows how Shakespeare’s expressions have stayed present in the English language, even though they may not mean the same things now which they meant in the original

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout history, the realities of contemporary cultural climates have always been subject to the analysis of the writers and artists of the day. This is no less true in the context of Elizabethan England; as Louis Montrose puts it, “the ruler and the ruled are construable as subjects … shaped within a shared conjuncture of cultural forms and social relations, who jointly reshaped that conjuncture in the continuous process of performing, speaking, picturing, and writing” (3). Arguably the most famous of all of Elizabethan creatives, Shakespeare, contributed vastly to this reshaping of the relationship between ruler and subject. Henry IV Part 1 in particular was a commentary on modern times, relating to and helping affect and shape perceptions

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Two fathers together, for the first time, wept for the deaths of their children as their grief-stricken faces shone in the dusty light inside the tomb. Pain seared equally through all hearts of the Capulets and Montagues, both distraught by the unexpected death of their beloved children. The star-crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, recklessly fall in love despite their families’ raging feud. The couple’s newlywed lustful attitudes get them both, and many others, wistfully killed in William Shakespeare's incredible 16th century play, Romeo and Juliet. Due to the brilliant script of the play many question who is truly to blame for these abominable deaths.

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Hamlet feels as if everything is against him no matter what he chooses to do. This goes even more into it by the metaphor “sea of troubles” which compares his problems with the sea and its power. Hamlet's problems are even more revealed by “thousand natural shocks that flesh on heir to”. This is referring to his mother's shocking marriage with Claudius that upset Hamlet, but also the effects of being hurt and aging. Hamlet calls life a “mortal coil” and “calamity”.

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126 Words | 1 Pages

In the selected passage Shakespeare uses a rhyming pattern, ABAB CDCD EE. Rhyme is the correspondence between words of similar sounds; this literary device is often used in poetry as well as prose to produce sounds that are appealing to the reader’s senses. Shakespeare used rhyme to highlight Orlando’s feelings; it can also be received by an audience as a kind of “song” therefore reiterating that he is a hopeless romantic as he was so excited and in love that he could not help but “sing”. Throughout the play Shakespeare used hyperboles in order to strongly emphasise a point, emotion or feeling.

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534 Words | 3 Pages

Shakespeare - Man, Myth, or Legend? Thousands of kids learn about Shakespeare and his stories everyday, but is Shakespeare just one man? Growing up, teachers taught kids hundreds of facts about Shakespeare, but hearing that only 5 or 6 facts about Shakespeare are factual is surprising. Curiosity peaked, the search for truth about Shakespeare began.

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When looking through the many articles, I came across the repetition of Shakespeare’s invention of words, quotes, and “pearls of wisdom” according to Why is Shakespeare Still Important today? by Celtic English Academy. Celtic English academy says, “Not only did Shakespeare teach us about ourselves and humanity, but he also invented around 1700 words which we still use in everyday English today. He often changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, connecting words together and coming up with wholly original ones too. Here are just a few to which we owe Shakespeare a thank you: generous, birthplace, negotiate, gossip, bedroom, and amazement.”

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407 Words | 2 Pages

Shakespeare’s use of language helps to portray the major theme of deception in the play Hamlet. The utilization of diction helps to equate Claudius to an evil person, while metaphors help to make the comparison between Claudius and a deathly animal. By making comparisons and using specific word choice that help support the theme, Shakespeare is able to portray the deceitful antics of King

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Works written by William Shakespeare are considered works that are still relevant to the education of students in the twenty-first century, and as an effect, his works are still incorporated in the high school curriculum, particularly Mississippi College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS). Problems arise from the teaching of Shakespeare in today’s classrooms because students find it difficult to understand the language that Shakespeare uses in his works. This difficulty is the effect of the changes in the spoken language over time. Words specifically change in the ways they are pronounced and the understood meaning. For example, in Act III of "Hamlet" when Ophelia tells Hamlet, "You are naught, you are naught," she means more than what one

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192 Words | 1 Pages

While the English language has evolved greatly over the last 4 centuries, for better or for worse, we have still managed to retain some features such as the common phrases and words invented in the 16th century by William Shakespeare. The common phrases, or adages, invented by William Shakespeare are still seen commonly today, even though they were used more than 400 years ago. While some adages such as, “Salad days,” used to refer to immature people, aren’t seen hardly at all, a few phrases such as, “Break the ice,” used in The Taming of the Shrew, and, “What’s done is done,” used in Macbeth, are used daily. Some of the words invented by William Shakespeare, such as, “Assassination,” used in Macbeth, and, “Addiction,” used in Henry V/ Othello,

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Shakespeare uses

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Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” (II.iii.71-72). Shakespeare shows how all that mattered was how people looked and how it did not matter about what was in the inside. This

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Shakespeare’s puns are often an important factor in his plays and sonnets. One of the most distinctive characteristics Shakespeare gave Hamlet is his humor. His humor begins with being a playful tone, however, he also uses puns as a way to convey his madness. Shakespeare uses puns and paradoxes most of the time in Hamlets dialogue. His first words in the play are towards King Claudius and are in the form of a pun, “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Shakespeare was a famous author and poet that wrote extremely well-known texts, such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet.” Shakespeare lived during the Renaissance when art and science advanced and he was one of the major contributors to this historical period. “Shakespeare Influences the way we speak now” by Hephzibah Anderson, “William Shakespeare’s Impact on Theatre” by Octane, and “How Outrage Built Over a Shakespearean Depiction of Trump” by Sara Krulwich suggest that Shakespeare had a great influence on many aspects of society, such as the phrases we use, style of theater, and is a figure of inspiration to many people. Shakespeare has contributed to many well-known phrases that are still used to this day, showing his significance in history.

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In the essay “Shakespeare Meets The 21st Century” (297), Michael Kahn believes that all renditions of Shakespeare’s plays are “interpretations” that reflect the approach to acting and producing at the time of production. In recent times the productions of Shakespeare’s plays have undergone changes to the manner of speaking to be more “conversational” while attempting to retain the rhythm and tone of the play. He explains that Shakespeare’s plays were themselves adapted from those of other playwrights. He marvels at the experience of those who originally witnessed and had no prior knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays must have had. Kahn states “I believe all theater artists who approach these plays envy that encounter and explore strategies to re-create

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738 Words | 3 Pages

Additionally, according to Source B, “Most of what we know about modern storytelling and language can be traced back to Shakespeare” (Octane 1). Therefore, the effects of Shakespeare on language and literature are still as recognizable today as they were in his

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