Shakespeare and the power of words.

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." -- Rudyard Kipling

The Renaissance was the rebirth of art, music, dance, theater, literature, poetry and so much more. There were many important figures during this time that helped make great advancements and discoveries in all of these areas. Men like Petrarch, Giotto, Botticelli, Donatello, Da Vinci, 

Machia-velli and Shakespeare. All of these men created wonderful masterpieces that we still enjoy today but I would like to focus on Shakespeare and his understanding and use language.

Language is the root of basic human communication and connection. Words can be used for good or for evil. They can express love or hatred. We use our words for everything, at school, at work, during recreation, in relationships and families. Without language or any type of communication we would all be cut off from one another. Now there are different types of language and communication. They are less formal occasions where formal language is not necessary. On the other hand there are formal occasions where one would want to be more aware of the words leaving his mouth. Learning about language and it's proper use can empower us.

Shakespeare most certainly had a way with words. We still study his eloquent words today. We may not understand completely his Shakespearean language but no one should ever deny the fact that he was a genius. He made great contributions to the world of theater and poetry. He even attributed a few words to the English language that we still use today, which Sara S. Drogin shares a few of those with us in her book Spare Me the Details, *"words such as 'bump,' 'lonely,' and 'assassination.'”

He is a man often respected as the greatest writer in the English language and we would do well to appreciate and respect his works. Even if we don't quite understand him, we should respect him for the genius he is and the wonderful contributions that he made to our native language.

*Sara Drogin (2008-05-13). Spare Me the Details!: A Short History of Western Civilization (Kindle Location 973). iUniverse. Kindle Edition. 

Power

What really is power? As Latter-day Saints, we believe that God is all powerful, that He is omnipotent and omniscient; however, He reserves one thing for us to have that He does not now possess nor control, our free agency. So, no matter how much He hurts when we make stupid decisions and I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating for Him to see us make so many mistakes He will not force us to do anything, even the most powerful being in the universe cannot control us. However, as Professor Burton has mentioned several times in class, we believe in a God that uses words and communicates to us with language, how He helps us make right decisions is through communication in scripture and Prophets, He also gives us the influence of the spirit, which we usually describe as a feeling. It isn't a normal feeling, like love or fear or even joy, sometimes those feelings come as a result of feeling the spirit, but feeling the spirit is different, yet for most who feel it they almost always describe it as a feeling.

The Greeks understood similar principles in their own way, as I watched Hecuba I was impressed, disturbed, and struck by the power that language had. Hecuba herself, as some have mentioned in previous posts, said that none of the other arts were as important as the art of persuasion, because it allows one to influence and control the actions of others. Hecuba's usage of persuasion came through language but almost always she utilized ethos by appealing to pathos. She used her grief and then her and her families position in an appeal to ethos in order to influence the feelings of those around her. It shows just how powerful our emotions have on others. When someone smiles at me, I smile back not because it's polite, but because I feel like doing it! When I heard Hecuba's moaning and screaming I felt the chills and was disturbed. Although I knew that the revenge that ended up occurring was totally wrong it didn't seem like such a bad thing after being influenced by Hecuba's grief, it was after all, justice. You see how powerful that is? An appeal to our emotions through dramatic language can change so much about us!

Words and Order

The Greeks definitely understood the power of language to represent tragedy in life. Euripides carefully wrote a script for his play, Hecuba. I imagine that he chose the words and the order for them because he knew that those things, words placed at certain points, are powerful and he wanted to represent tragedy in a powerful way.

For me, the play was tragic because of how Euripides used language in the script. I felt the tragedy

Here are some Greek words
placed at a certain point in this path.

the most right at the beginning, when Polydorus’ ghost opened and announced his murder, his sister’s doom, and the fact that his mother did not yet know. She was to “see two children dead at once” that day. For me, the most tragic part was that I knew that a lot of bad things were going to happen and neither I nor any other audience member or character could do anything to prepare or cope, not that I watched or heard the characters experience tragic events. Euripides used the powerful language of Polydorus’ ghost at a crucial time (the beginning) and to a crucial audience (just the audience, no other characters on stage) to create the tragedy.

From previous works we have studied, as well as Hecuba, we know that the Greeks also understood and used the power of language to persuade. Socrates used his language in his discourse with Gorgias to persuade him to keep discussing rhetoric and arts and break them down for further understanding. Additionally, at the end of the play, Euripides’ character Hecuba used her language to persuade the character Agamemnon to judge a murderer as guilty, even though Agamemnon was a friend to him.