Morgan W. answered • 05/06/19
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I have a Secondary English Teaching Credential
Hello Nate,
Generally, when Skakespeare breaks iambic pentameter, it must be for some important reason. He is signaling something to the reader. Perhaps the character has something malicious in mind, or perhaps the character saying the line is troubled or broken down for some reason. Pay attention when this happens! Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks,
Morgan
Morgan W.
Something else I was thinking about is how Shakespeare also changes his iambic pentameter to a more uneven meter for characters that are of lower class. For example: Falstaff in Henry IV. The effect for the reader is a visual and auditory one. The royalty get the music and the pretty poetry while the low class hooligans and misfits get bloody uneven meter and lines that extend further across the page...just like patrons at a pub slurring their words long into the night.05/10/19