Iambic pentameter and prose
Indhold
A character’s way of speaking tells us something about that character
Whether a character speaks in iambic pentameter or prose is important because it reflects the character’s social status or state of mind. The dominant style of language in Romeo and Juliet is verse and to a lesser extent prose. Whereas prose is what we would call ordinary language, verse is characterized by a specific rhythm called meter.
Verse: iambic pentameter
The dominant type of verse spoken in Romeo and Juliet is iambic pentameter, which is also called blank verse. It is a specific type of meter which consists of a line of verse written with a five-beat rhythm where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one. Each two-syllable unit is called an iamb.
When Romeo says h...
