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Problem plays can be defined in two ways - and "Measure for Measure" fits both.
F.S. Boas (who coined the term) defines a problem play as using comedy to explore serious and dark social problems.
Neil Rhodes, however, suggests they are plays that present both sides of a contentious issue without offering a resolution.
Many literary scholars determine "Measure for Measure" is the only true problem play, whereas others also include "The Merchant of Venice", "All's Well That Ends Well", and "Troilus and Cressida".
The notion of a soliliquy was not invented and is not exclusive to Shakespeare's work. However, they are a notable feature which he utilises in all of his plays to aid his narrative.
A soliloquy is best described as a speech made by a key player that seemingly addresses the audience directly. It presents the character's innermost feelings and concerns, and remains inaccessible to the other characters on the stage at that time.
Soliloquies provide insight necessary for dramatic irony, and can assist with backfilling important information which is relevant to the plot.
Asides act in a similar way. Unlike a solilquy, an aside is usually a brief single comment directed to the audience, but like a soliloquy, the comment cannot be heard by other characters in the scene.
Much like soliloquies, sonnets were not invented by or exclusive to William Shakespeare. However, we often associate the two together.
Shakespeare published 160 sonnets (6 within his plays).
They each follow the same general structure:
* 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas)
* Finishing with a couplet
* Composed in iambic pentameter
* Following the rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
One other feature Shakespeare is famous for is inventing new language, and scholars believe he invented approximately 1700 words. Shakespeare's audience were able to understand what these new words meant by the context they were used in.
Many of the words he invented are commonplace today:
assassination obscene
bloody amazement
hurry aerial
gloomy road
suspicious bump
countless laughable
exposure lonely
dislocate submerge