Why does Shakespeare write verse and prose?

Answer 1

Shakespeare wrote in verse because, in his day, it was a sign of literary excellence. In plays like 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,', the verse gives the play a sense of an unrealistic world. Using verse suggests a natural affinity between the people speaking, and also gives the impression of a predetermined script. Actors found it easier to memories lines in verse, as well.

However, he wrote in prose for some parts of the plays, because this gave the play a sense of informality.

Answer 2

All speech has rhythm, but the regular and measured rhythm of blank verse gives a sense of nobility which ordinary prose does not. Shakespeare in his later works made the verse more irregular and more approximate to the rhythm of natural speech, thus closing the gap between the diction of the aristocrats and that of the peons.

Consider the difference between these four passages, all of which mean the same, and all of which are in ordinary english.

Broken prose: "Sure. Ok. If you want. You want me to go, so Ok. I'll go, alright?"

Ordinary Prose: Very well, if you want me to go I'll go.

Blank Verse: I know that you want me to go and I / Will go if that is what you really want

Rhymed Verse: If you do ask that I should go away / I'll go though I would wish you ask me stay.

Answer 3

All kinds of characters speak in prose. The play Much Ado About Nothing is almost all in prose. Where some speak in prose and some in verse, the people of higher social status are more likely to speak in verse.

Answer 4

The dialogue in Shakespeare's plays is either in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) or prose. When people speak in verse it sounds more profound, more serious, and more meaningful. But sometimes those were not qualities Shakespeare wanted in his dialogue. Sometimes he wanted people to sound flippant, or funny, or stupid, or banal, or distracted, or insane. For these purposes, he would put the dialogue in prose.

Answer 5

Not all of Shakespeare's plays are in verse: Much Ado About Nothing is mostly in prose. Verse provides a rhythm and stateliness to the language which can make it sound impressive. It is also easier to remember, a useful factor when actors sometimes had a couple of days to learn a new play. The earliest play in verse was Gorbudoc, which premiered two years before Shakespeare was born. There was a tradition of plays in verse and the audience would have been accustomed to that convention.

Answer 6

Prose never rhymes.
Poetry's stanzas' formation is chosen by the poet. Proses' stanzas go all the way to the margin.

Answer 7

Shakespeare writes in prose when the character speaking is either:

a) Lying

b) Joking

or c) Drunk

Answer 8

Yes, some of the characters in Shakespeare's plays speak in prose. The play Much Ado About Nothing is almost all in prose.