Unseen text-King Lear (The passage is taken from Act 5,scene 3 and only Lear speaks throughout) The thing I find most interesting about the language used in this passage, is the dream like image it creates. I think the amount of contradictive language, used in the passage is also of some note as it creates ambiguity. The first language point that grabbed my attention about this passage is that it seems to contain lots of soft sounding words like ebb, flow and pray, which in tandem with the fact that the passage contains lots of single syllable words, allows it to flow easily when reading aloud thus adding to the dreamy tone it creates. Another language device I think Shakespeare uses to add to the dreamy tone of the passage is his use of repetition and in particularly Lears continuous repetition of the word And. Lear is telling his daughter Cordelia and who ever else will listen about his plans for him and her, and by continuously repeating the word and his plans seem less realistic and more dreamier. The ambiguity in the passage is created by the amount of contradictive language used.
The very first line alone emphasises this. It begins with Lear screaming No,no,no,no! but then his very next word is an imperative verb come. Without any word gaps Lear has immediately switched from the negative to the positive. The next line is just as ambiguous because again Shakespeare uses contradictive language this time in the form of an oxymoron, We two alone And a simile Will sing like birds in the cage. This simile seems to sum the attitude Lear shows throughout the extract because he is pleased to go to prison. He imagines being put in prison as a time of happiness away from Gonerill, Regan and the superficial cares of the court (gilded butterflies.).
The Essay on How does Ray Bradbury use language to create tension?
Ray Bradbury uses a lot of different techniques to create tension in his short story, “A Sound of Thunder”. The techniques used are adjectives, adverbs, verbs, metaphors, similes, short sentences and he varies the sentence structures to create tension. The first technique Ray Bradbury uses is Adjectives. He uses them in lists of three, “… great oiled, resilient, striding ...
I think Shakespeares indirectly maybe even directly uses these contradictions to add to the Irony this passage creates, in relation to Lears banishment of Cordelia earlier in the play. In relation to the rest of the play this passage is the beginning of the end. In this part of the play it seems like we see a complete change in Lear from earlier on in the play. Firstly he seems to have retreated into himself and is a lot less concerned with fairness and justice as he is earlier in the play. He is more relaxed and it his calmness that leads to his unrealistic optimism. This optimism is squashed later on as both Cordelia and Lear die, Shakespeare like in a lot of his other tragedies (Romeo and Juliet), has created a sense of hope for the characters only for it to all end in tears.
