Word Overkill!

One thing that I have noticed over and over and over and over and over, in this text is that Shakespeare likes to beat ideas to death when he tries to convey anger of his characters. This is something that pops out from the very beginning, I mean we see it in Act I scene 2 when Edmund comes out.

Now we talked about this is class a little bit, but I just want to quickly hit it. Edmund is upset about his illegitimate birth and he rants and rants about it.

"Why brand they us/With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?"

(notice the alliteration as well) and then.....

"As to the legitimate: a fine word, 'legitimate'!/Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed/And my invention thrive, Edmund the base/Shall top the legitimate."

Look at that! In just a few lines he repeats base and its synonym bastardy six times! Along with this legitimate is repeated four times! Edmund is driving the point home and basically killing it with words!

But this is not the only case! If we skip ahead to Act II scene 2 we are again confronted right off with word overkill when Kent becomes enraged with Oswald. All Kent does is call Oswald many names over and over again. He can't just use one word, he has to go overkill!

"A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave, a lily-livered action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunkinheriting slave; one that woldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch."

Talk about loaded words! He seems to throw in every possible insult he can think of in one breath! On top of this he is using those words to describe Oswald as a knave. In some ways I guess this could be viewed as a conceit, that is the running an idea over and over and basically killing it with words.

I think that Lear actually does one of the best jobs of running with a conceit. He seems to be drawn to using disease as an analogy to how his family is treating him. Here is one that I think is one of the best examples (Act II scene 4) of how Lear uses this conceit, I've noticed this throughout the play.

"But thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;/Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,/Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,/A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,/In my corrupted blood."

Talk about powerful! This is why Shakespeare is such a powerful writer. He knows how to capture an idea, especially that of hate and anger by running over an idea until it is almost killed. But the audience gets the idea and they can feel the passion that the character feels. The passion of

Shakespeare's characters is what gives them life, and what helps us connect to the plays and understand human nature.