When reading William Shakespeare's plays, it's important to remember that these plays are meant to be watched. His audiences may
have contained and appealed to both royalty and commoners alike. Shakespeare used various tools to engage his audience into the play. How do you think the tools he uses, such as iambic pentameter and insults, are important for a play? How do you think these tools help Shakespeare emphasize the themes of his plays on stage?
Shakespeare used literary devices such as iambic pentameter, rhyme, and puns to appeal to his diverse audience. During the Elizabethan Era, yeomen or laborers (people at the bottom of the social class) may have not necessarily understood how stressed and unstressed syllables work, but they would hear the emphasis and pay attention to the stressed words. Shakespeare purposefully highlighted words that would create a theme, ensuring that both levels of his audience would see the message in his plays. Therefore, these tools show Shakespeare's creativity and skill, but they also help to establish themes.
