A quick flick through any edition of a Shakespeare play is a visual reminder that all his drama is written using both prose and verse. On the page, the ... An iamb, or iambic foot – the rhythmic unit of Shakespeare's blank verse – contains two syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable ('de-DUM'). read more
But to compare the blank verse in this play with that, say, of the Henry VI plays and Richard III, all of which date several years earlier, is to realize how great has been the poet-dramatist's advance, how impressive the mastery of the medium. read more
The plays show complicated characters who don’t often simply sit on any moral landscape- Othello for example is a murderer but also the protagonist of the play, so is Macbeth. Shakespeare explores what it might mean to be moral- for example Mark Anthony gives a great speech in Julius Caesar about whether Caesar’s killer Brutus was an honourable man, a speech high in very political irony. read more
The Functions of Prose, Rhyme and Blank Verse in Shakespeare's Plays PROSE is used whenever verse would seem bizarre: in serious letters (Macbeth to Lady Macbeth; Hamlet to Horatio), in proclamations, and in the speeches of characters actually or pretending to be mad (Lady Macbeth; Hamlet and Ophelia; Edgar and King Lear) -- verse is apparently too regular and orderly for expressing madness. read more