Shakespeare

Your work:

·         Create a post for each speech.

·         Copy the speech and the questions into your post.

·         Highlight the important techniques and answer the questions in your own post.

·         When you have finished all the work for the speech - Publish it.

Portia

Summary: In this scene Portia is pleading to Shylock for the life of Antonio. Antonio is responsible for the debt that Bassanio owes Shylock. Bassanio is Portia's partner and needed money to be with Portia. When Bassanio borrowed the money the punishment for failure to pay back the money on time was 'a pound of flesh' which would cause certain death. Bassanio didn't pay the debt back in time and now Shylock wants his 'pound of flesh' from Antonio. Portia is trying to get Shylock to change his mind and see the virtue of being merciful.

o   Find and highlight these techniques in the speech:

§  metaphor

§  alliteration

§  repetition

o   Answer the following questions using quotes where applicable:

§  How does Portia describe mercy? How important and powerful is it?

·         He describes it as it is not strained and it falls from the sky like rain.  He describes the power as ‘The throned monarch better than his crown’
Easy to be merciful
Mercy   --> Christianity

§  What can one achieve through mercy?

·         Blest or blesseth

§  How is religion part of this speech? (You need to do some thinking on this one.)

·         By stating “therefore, Jew,” he is implying that the audience he is speaking to are Jews or he is relating them to acting like them.

·         PORTIA

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;                         MERCY = GOD

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,          sceptred = symbolism

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;     ----------------------->   THEME

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,

Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea;

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

Othello (Act I sc iii) - Iago

Summary: In this section of the play, the villain Iago is motivating Rodrigo to act upon his feelings for Desdemona and even though she is committed to Othello ('the Moor'). Iago wants to take down Othello without actually doing it himself.

·         Summary: In this section of the play, the villain Iago is motivating Rodrigo to act upon his feelings for Desdemona and even though she is committed to Othello ('the Moor'). Iago wants to take down Othello without actually doing it himself.

·         Highlight where the following persuasive techniques are used:

o   Repetition

o   Alliteration

o   Extended metaphor

·         Answer the following questions using quotes where applicable:

o   What extended metaphor is used in this speech? Is this metaphor positive or negative towards women? Explain.

§  Not sure

o   How does the metaphor related to Rodrigo becoming more proactive in his pursuit of Desdemona?

§  Not sure – relates to above – ask in class

o   How does Othello characterise Othello ('the moor')?

§  Old – “She must change for youth:”

o   How does Iago describe Rodrigo being passive? What will he do to himself if he doesn't act?

§  Confused – ask in class

·         IAGO

It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of

the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown

cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy

friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with

cables of perdurable toughness; I could never

better stead thee than now. Put money in thy

purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with

an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It

cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her

love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he

his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou

shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but

money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in

their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food

that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be

to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must

change for youth: when she is sated with his body,

she will find the error of her choice: she must

have change, she must: therefore put money in thy

purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a

more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money

thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt

an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not

too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou

shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of

drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek

thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than

to be drowned and go without her.

Henry V 'once more unto the breach'

·         Find and Highlight where these techniques are used:

o   repetition

o   inclusive language

o   alliteration

o   metaphor

·         Answer the following Questions (use quotes where applicable):

o   What characteristics does King Henry say are best for men in times of PEACE?

§  Modest, stillness and humility

o   What should men be like in war?

§  Imitate the actions of a tiger

o   What does Henry say about the English and their ancestors?

§  “And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.  Dishonour not your mothers; now attest that those whom you called fathers did beget you.”

o   What does he mean when he says 'Be copy now to men of grosser blood.'?

§  Copy your ancestors

o   What is Henry saying you have to become in order to be successful in war?

§  Have limbs made in England

KING HARRY:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility,

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger.

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage.

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon, let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof,

Fathers that like so many Alexanders

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you called fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding- which I doubt not,

For there is none of you so mean and base

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot.

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

By William Shakespeare.