Unlocking Shakespeare's language
Shakespeare is not a code to crack. Once you know how his lines are built, the meaning arrives quickly — and the pleasure arrives with it.
Part of your national curriculum
- Reading: Read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, including whole books and plays, and texts from the English literary heritage
- Reading: Read and appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage through the study of Shakespeare, seminal world literature and poetry since 1789
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Read and appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage through the study of Shakespeare, seminal world literature and poetry since 1789
Key learning points
- • Start with the sentence, not the word
- • Blank verse and its heartbeat
- • Imagery does the arguing
- • Soliloquy: thinking out loud
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 25 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 25
Watch first
Unlocking Shakespeare's language
Hear how blank verse, imagery and soliloquy carry a character's thinking.
In a nutshell
Read and appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage through the study of Shakespeare, seminal world literature and poetry since 1789
What you already know
Part 2 of 25
Before we start
What you already know
You should already be able to pick out a quotation and comment on the effect of a word choice.
Key words
Part 3 of 25
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Blank verse
- Unrhymed lines with a five-beat rhythm.
- Iambic pentameter
- Ten syllables, alternating unstressed and stressed.
- Soliloquy
- A speech where a character thinks aloud, alone on stage.
- Imagery
- Language that builds a picture and carries an idea.
- Inversion
- Word order shifted for rhythm or emphasis.
Reset break
Part 4 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 5 of 25
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Making sense of the lines
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 25
Learn
Start with the sentence, not the word
Shakespeare often delays the verb or puts the object first: ‘This sword, unbidden, to my hand returns.’ Rearranged into modern order it means ‘This sword returns to my hand without being asked.’ Find the subject, the verb and the object before worrying about any single unfamiliar word.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 25
Learn
Blank verse and its heartbeat
Most speeches are written in blank verse: unrhymed lines of ten syllables with a light-heavy pulse (de-DUM × 5), called iambic pentameter. When a line breaks that pulse — an extra syllable, a hard stop halfway through — the character is usually under pressure. Prose, with no line breaks, often signals lower status, comedy or plain speaking.
Reset break
Part 8 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 2 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 25
Quick check
Part 10 of 25
Quick check
A character switches from verse into prose in a tense scene. What might this signal?
Learning cycle
Part 11 of 25
Learning cycle 2 of 2
How meaning is built
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 12 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 25
Learn
Imagery does the arguing
Characters persuade through pictures. A ruler described as ‘a lantern set upon a cliff’ is being praised as a guide and warned that everyone can see him. Ask what field the image comes from — light, disease, animals, weather — and what that field suggests about the speaker's mind.
Explore the idea
Part 14 of 25
Learn
Soliloquy: thinking out loud
In a soliloquy the character is alone and honest, so the audience learns what other characters do not. Watch for a question, a swing of feeling and a decision. That three-part shape is what examiners mean by ‘the development of a character's thought’.
Quick check
Part 15 of 25
Reset break
Part 16 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 17 of 25
Explore the idea
Part 18 of 25
Worked example
Model analysis
Shakespeare places the verb last in ‘to my hand returns’, holding back the action so the sword seems to move by its own will. The inverted syntax makes the speaker sound as if he is watching fate arrive rather than choosing it.
Common mix-ups
Part 19 of 25
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- People often think Shakespeare's English is a different language. The grammar is the same; the word order and vocabulary shift.
- People often treat a soliloquy as speech to another character. Nobody else hears it, which is why it is honest.
Reset break
Part 20 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 5 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 21 of 25
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 22 of 25
Game · Recall cards
What is iambic pentameter?
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 23 of 25
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. Blank verse is...
2. Iambic pentameter has how many beats per line?
3. A soliloquy is delivered...
4. The first useful step with a hard line is to...
5. Imagery in a speech mainly works by...
6. A shift from verse into prose often signals...
Mastery quiz
Part 24 of 25
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Unlocking Shakespeare's language
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. What is iambic pentameter?
2. A character switches from verse into prose in a tense scene. What might this signal?
3. Which is the best reading of ‘a lantern set upon a cliff’ used of a ruler?
4. Why does a soliloquy matter to an audience?
Lesson round-up
Part 25 of 25
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaPart 1 of 25 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, including whole books and plays, and texts from the English literary heritage
- Not looked at yet
Read and appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage through the study of Shakespeare, seminal world literature and poetry since 1789