Why did Shakespeare use elision so much?

Elision can refer to two different things. It can be the omission of a letter in a word to create a specified amount of syllables or it can be used to omit a scene, as on a stage during a play, from the audience; offstage events. The first type of elision may have been used to shorten the amount of speech each character had like 'tis instead of it is. The second type of elision is more understandable for us. He clearly lived in a time where technology and certain techniques were not invented to help carry his vision across easily. With this in mind, we can see why Shakespeare would leave out certain scenes from performances of his plays. For example, when Duncan is murdered offstage, this is because it would have been too grotesque to show so much blood in a play atmosphere, so Shakespeare made it an offstage event but allowed it's dramatic effect to last through the emotion of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

“The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?”

“Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.”

“Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.”