Ibby's English Journal

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Characters: Benvolio, Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo

Setting: streets of Verona

Events: Benvolio and Mercutio walk the streets and Benvolio suggests that they go indoors because he thought a fight would be unavoidable if they came face to face with Capulet men.

Later on, they bump into Tybalt, and speak to him. Mercutio starts to provoke Tybalt. Romeo enters and refuses to fight Tybalt after all of the contreversy they’ve been through so Mercutio steps up, as the fight commences, Romeo steps in between them and tries to stop it. In a quick flash, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm and kills him. While Mercutio is dying he curses both the Capulet and Montague households.

After Mercutio’s death, Romeo fights and kills Tybalt.

Quote: ” A plague o’both your houses” Mercutio

Scene 4

Characters: Benvolio, Mercutio, Nurse, Romeo

Setting: street in Verona

Events: Benvolio and Mercutio are discussing the challenge that Tybalt had given them. Romeo joins them… Until the nurse finds him. Tybalt sends Romeo a message ” I’ll beat you up with my sword” When the nurse arrives… They take the mick out of her appearance… Flirting and talking dirty. Romeo tells The Nurs that Juliet needs to find an excuse to come to the church where she will marry Romeo.

Quote: These violent delights have violent ends.

Scene 5

Characters: Nurse and Juliet

setting: Orchard

events: Juliet awaits for her nurse for news of Romeo. The nurse plays about with her. Not telling her anything. The nurse cannot hold it in anymore and tells Juliet that Romeo is with friar Lawrence ready to get married. The nurse says that she will fetch a ladder forRomeo to go up on the balcony and spend time with Juliet.

Quote:” Oh my god here she comes! Oh sw?eet nurse, what news do you bring? Have you spoken to him?”

Character: Romeo, Friar Laurence.

setting: Friar Laurence’s cell

Events: Friar laurence is persuaded to  marry Romeo and Juliet. Friar says that romeo was probably having fun with rosalind the night before… Romeo states that he was with another girl from the foes side; Juliet.  Friar delivers a speech about how plants and herbs have potential to be healing.

Quote: ” thy love did read by rote, that could not spell. But come, young waverer, come go with me, in one respect I’ll thy assistant be:

for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” Friar Laurence.

This is a short scene… But it has some key points.  Romeo seems to let out a lot of enotion when he is alone with Friar. This is probably because the Friar is closest to God from all of the characters…

Romeo is leaded by God, which makes God the creator or controller of the story. This is a factor of Romeo and Juliet which is shown through Romeo’s soliliquiys.

Shakespeare uses many metaphors in Romeo and Juliet. Metaphors are used to make the images described by the author (in this case Shakespeare) more creative and interesting. In Romeo and Juliet metaphors are seen especially when  Romeo talks about the future.

Example:  An example of a metaphor is when Lady Capulet compares Paris to a book. The metaphor here is Lady Capulet describing Paris as a book for Juliet to read.

“This precious book of love, this unbound lover,  to beautify him only lacks a cover.”

Shakespeare is very good at engaging the audience … This is where the language devices come in.  Although his plays  are not in modern day English, he can still create a picture in your mind of the situation.

It’s dark, it’s gloomy… Pitch black. What do I do?! My phone is out of battery. No electricity. No light. No signal. I try to find my way around. I trip, grazing my knee against the wet concrete. I feel no pain. I feel scared. In the corner of my eye, I manage to capture a tiny little light, I follow it. Can’t keep my hopes too high though. I don’t even know if I’m hallucinating, I feel ill. As I approach the light, I realise that it’s actually a lamppost. I’m outdoors, that helps, at least I’m not in an enclosed space. I shout for help, but all I can hear is my echo. No sign of any living thing. I feel my pulse rebounding around my head, and the thunder bolts running through my chest. I have no hope, neither happiness. I drop to the floor, I cry, I sigh. I must make it…

I get to my feet, wipe my tears and I’m off! Still no signal, daylight soon. Can’t wait, I can’t be too far from home.

Relative Clauses

The street was totally deserted
The ground was strewn with litter

The street, that was strewn with litter, was totally deserted.

One of my own.

Joe is a naughty student.
Joe was flicking his pen at people.

Joe, who is a naughty student, was flicking his pen at people

Relative clauses make writing a lot more interesting, they give you as much information in one sentence as they do in two block sentences, they make the writing flow which makes the reader feel more engaged. Personally, I am going to use a lot more relative clauses then I used to. As a reader I feel that the more language devices, the better. When I do read, (which isn’t very often :P) i feel inspired by the author, I want to use devices that they use in order to make my readers feel what i feel when I read.

When i read, I have to stop at a certain point, when I write, it’s the opposite…

A car is parked on the bridge before the power station. Soldiers, who patrol the bridge spot the car, surround it, and await to see who comes out. There is a loud silence… Who is in the vehicle, and what are they here for.

The enormous building gazes upon the bridge while the mysterious being steps out of the car. All that can be heard is the waves colliding into each other down below. The soldiers approach the car from all directions. The dogs bark and growl at the car, intimidating the frightened being.

The atmosphere is shallow. The tension is deep.

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air.” W.S

Shakespeare uses extremely clever language in his plays and texts. He uses it in order to capture his audiences attention and to make them think deeper about what they are reading or watching. He leaves the audience with a cliffhanger after every scene, which makes them want to find out whats going to happen next. Shakespeare was amazing at keeping his audiences anxious and excited during his plays. He was a man that changed the history of literature, and a man who played a big part in the English language that we use today.

A device that Shakespeare uses a lot is dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is the scenario where the audience and a character know something that the other characters don’t. It makes the audience feel more engaged in the play. An example of this is Macbeth’s soliloquy at the near beginning of the play. A quote from this soliloquy is; “Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward my hand.” In this soliloquy, he talks about him having visions of a dagger just floating in front of him. He tries to grab it but he cannot. Only he and the audience know that he is hallucinating. Throughout the whole play Macbeth has visions and gets scared of illusions that he comes across.

Shakespeare challenges his audience and readers intellectually. He leaves the audience with a chance to figure out what’s going to happen for themselves. This makes the play a lot more interesting as you can’t be sure about what’s going to happen next. Macbeth is full of complex stories. When I just started reading the play, I made predictions about what was going to happen in the next scene, and if I’m honest, not many of them were correct.

Another device that Shakespeare uses often is personification. Personification is where an object or thing is described as if it was human. Shakespeare uses this in his own special way. For example “Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak.” Stones can’t move, trees can’t speak, so what does Shakespeare mean by this? It leaves you with a thought. It persuades you to go further back in the play and it makes you want to discover what it could possibly relate to, or even to read on, to see if your answer is revealed further into the play. Reading Shakespeare can be tiring but come to think of it, it’s actually quite good brain exercise. Shakespeare plays mind games with his readers and his audience. What’s unique about him is that he uses devices to put something obvious across to you, in a way where you will need to think hard about it. Here’s another famous personification quote by Shakespeare that i like; “Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. Here, Heaven is described as if it was a human being scared of the dark. However, this personification gives away so much about the atmosphere in the play.The energy is dark and scary, that EVEN Heaven is effected.

An additional example of Shakespeare’s use of clever devices is also shown through use of pathetic fallacy. When King Duncan’s death is discovered, Lennox describes; “Some say,the Earth was feverous and did shake” This clearly demonstrates how the natural world reacted to the King’s death.The pathetic fallacy adds to the audiences enjoyment of the drama and therefore encourages them to engage more with the events of the play.

At times Shakespeare brings a rather super natural feel to his plays and texts. He sometimes even puts the story into a whole new context but still describes the Same situation. He does this in order to keep his audience interested and to maintain his originality.

Throughout the entire play, Macbeth had many visions, hallucinations and illusions. One that particularly made me feel uncomfortable was the apparition. The apparition appeared in front of Macbeth eyes, while telling him stuff like “beware Macduff”, “Macbeth shall not come of the throne until the forest moves to Dunsinaine Hill.” One of the worst and most disturbing apparitions was that of a toddler wearing blood-stained robes.

Shakespeare was an extraordinary writer. His importance in the world of literature and in the English language in general is paramount. When I read Macbeth, I realized how even though it was written in Shakespearian English, I still managed to understand everything that was going on. Macbeth was probably the most challenging play i ever encountered and it has tickled my imagination on many levels. I admire the fact that William Shakespeare wrote so many plays during his lifetime and has left such an enormous legacy in terms of the English language as we know it and use it today.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading Macbeth. I’d like to believe that it has improved my English, both verbally and on paper and has definitely encouraged me to read more Plays by William Shakespeare.

” Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
Macbeth, Scene III

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Righto!

Mr Waugh