Puns and Wordplay Flashcards
Shakespeare's Techniques
In Act 1, Scene 4, Romeo says that Mercutio has “nimble soles” but Romeo has a “soul of lead”. Explain how the pun works here.
The pun plays on the words ‘sole’ and ‘soul’, which are homophones — they sound the same but have different meanings. When Romeo says he has a “soul of lead”, this means both that he is sad, and that his sadness means his feet (soles) feel too heavy to dance.
Give another example of Romeo and Mercutio’s wordplay.
In Act 1, Scene 4, Mercutio says that Romeo should “soar” (Fly) with “Cupid’s wings” but Romeo tells him he is too “sore” (upset) to do this.
What pun does Mercutio makes as he is dying?
What effect does this have on the audience?
Mercutio says, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” He is making a pun on the double meaning of “grave”, meaning ‘serious’ and ‘a place to put dead bodies’. Although this is a joke, it might make the audience feel sad about Mercutio’s death, because the pun reminds them that Mercutio is a humorous, likeable character who has just been killed.
At the end of Act 4, Scene 5, after Juliet’s ‘death’, a servant and a group of musicians use wordplay to insult each other. How does this affect the mood of the scene and why do you think Shakespeare includes this moment?
This lightens the mood of the scene, because the musicians’ wordplay provides some comic relief and entertain the audience. Shakespeare might have included this moment so that it would provide a greater contrast with the sad moments that are immediately before and after it, when the Capulets and the Nurse, then Romeo, learn that Juliet is ‘dead’.
