‘The quality of mercy is not strained’: this memorable speech from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is spoken by Portia, who has disguised herself as a male lawyer in order to defend Antonio – the title character of the play – from Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who has demanded a […]
Tag: Shakespeare Speeches
A Short Analysis of Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ Speech
Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a masterclass of irony and the way rhetoric can be used to say one thing but imply something quite different without ever naming it. Mark Antony delivers a funeral speech for Julius Caesar following Caesar’s assassination at the hands […]
A Short Analysis of Romeo’s ‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ Speech
‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright’ is a famous speech spoken by Romeo in Act I Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But what does he mean by this speech? Although the meaning may appear to be straightforward, when viewed in the context of the play […]
A Short Analysis of Jaques’ ‘All the world’s a stage / seven ages of man’ Speech
How to reduce the whole span of an average human life into just a few lines of verse? Shakespeare managed it, in this famous speech from As You Like It, which begins with the famous declaration that ‘All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely […]
A Short Analysis of Hamlet’s ‘Alas, Poor Yorick’ Speech
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The ‘Alas, poor Yorick’ speech from Shakespeare’s Hamlet has become one of the most famous and instantly recognisably theatre tropes – or, at least, those three words, ‘Alas, poor Yorick’, have. Perhaps the rest of Hamlet’s speech is less famous, and certainly many people […]