Power Of Language In Unfolding Love Relationship

As You Like It,Twelfth Night,and Much Ado About Nothing are generally deemed as a mark of the culmination of Shakespeare's mature comedies in the 1590 s.They are written about one particular motif,and in the same period,approximately from 1599 to 1601.The three plays have acquired sustained critical attention from their initial publication through sedimented layers of love's moods,and demonstrated Shakespeare's multifarious artistry.They have invited explorations in length through generations of scholars,proliferating a vast body of theoretical works covering such fields diverse as rhetoric,symbolism,morality,political aesthetics,and new kinds of inter-disciplinarity.However,there do exist some deficiencies of these studies of the moment,which are chiefly grouped under two heads,one being too much value attached to one or only a few works by deeply exploring into plotting,motifs,and language only,the other being too much value attached to anatomizing the works with strong theoretical orientation.Recent years have witnessed an emerging trend in the academic theories which not only belonging to language ontology,but also to cognitive linguistics,among other overlapping areas such as sociology and psychological analysis,striving to make a wholesale assessments of significations of Shakespeare's works and finally attempt to reinterpret his artistic richness embedded in textures.This dissertation is a close examination of the language in the plays concerned ontologically and advances a socio-psychological diagram,coupled with an insight into dramas,for the rhetorical communication study —with particular reference to the work by Robert J.Sternberg on triangularity theory of love and by Kenneth Burke on form theory in an attempt to gain a new way of the understanding of how language,through varied palette of traditional figures,affecs the performance,identification of characters in the snares of love,and finally exerts immense impact on their fulfillments and frustrations in pursuit of love.A close reading is advanced to help us to drive home to the power of language to shape the fluctuations of love's moods.It's only through scrutinizing the texts could writer's complexity of art and richness could be discerned,analyzed and interpreted.The dissertation is divided into five parts,namely,introduction,three chapters(one chapter being one part)and conclusion.The first part is devoted to the discussion of the justification,theory,methodology of the research,and literature reviews.Although what constitutes love and pushes it forward is too complex a story to tell in a most lucid manner here,success of love,more or less,has certain characteristic elements shared by all,more or less.Robert J.Sternberg studies love in terms of socio-psychology,supported with substantial case studies and literary interpretations.He advances triangularity theory of love in which he believes,passion,intimacy,and commitment form the prerequisites of love that permute and combine the tortuous plots of love,and have great application ranging from common life to the stage.Kenneth Burke's theory of form is also outlined here as the other key concept I hope to utilize for analyzing layered language change.Burke holds firmly that besides reinforcing dramatic movement,every single line of the play should also serve the purpose of checking,or accelerating the impulse of emotions of readers unknowingly that he breaks free from the accustomed category of rhetorical skills and re-class them under the headings of conventional revelation,repetitive revelation,and progressive revelation.Resting on his assumption of form as ‘the arousal and satisfaction of desires',correctness of a form is totally deduced from whether it fulfills the requirements the work functions.Now that forms are compelled to fit,and satisfy the individual expectations in reading or play watching,it is imperative that the concept of foregrounding should be presented in this part.The first chapter largely discusses the use of language by the characters under the charge of passion.Infatuation,as a psychological phenomenon,bears strong affinity with expressive functions of imitation and repetition.Driven by gratification of sensory perception,repetitive uses of language serve the requirements for their acoustic effect that anaphora,rhyming couplet is especially tantalizing for Orsino,Olivia,and Malvolio.Hugging the delusive phantom of love weaved heavenly by repetition in sounds,words,and length,among these wishful lovers,some are beginning to realize that fiction is antithesis to fact.The repetitive expression in length yet with reverse order,contrary meaning,or on the planes of actions,plots,and structures are discussed in the chapter,which aims to rivet the commonalities and conflicting forces underlying one-sided passion.The second chapter is mainly devoted to analyzing the uses of language for those lovers in the transitory phase in the light of Burke's notion of progressive revelation.As the recurring rhetorical regularities fail to evoke the impulses of emotion,they must seek for new stimuli.Linguistic shifts at the semantic level such as simile,symbolism,hyperbole,and image are the variants of standard English after being aggrandized or diminished.Fluctuations of love's mood,more than wavering back and forth,are similar to the shape of water in that they hardly remain fixed at a specific point.They're highly vulnerable and fleeting,and forever unaccountable.The images of surfeit,tears,waters in Twelfth Night indicate the disparity of love that it can ravish,overwhelm,or even drown the passive lover and at the same time can raise the dead,perform a new part,and start off a new journey.Because love never wants impetuosity and deaths,the images of blood in As You Like can be well understood.The images of other ineffable matters,such as music,and air would be also instantiated in this part.Whether it is in the form of syllepsis(double meaning uttered by a single speaker),or in the form of asteismus(double meaning shared between interlocutors),wordplay encapsulates the differences in a single word that it reinforces the meaning,and simultaneously draws two hearts closer.The second half of the chapter elaborates the linguistic features on grammatical and argumentative level.Although a brief introduction of second-person pronouns usages during Elizabethan reign has validated that ‘you/ thou' works as the maker of one's social standing,recent findings have justified that shifts between ‘you' and ‘thou' could exercise more general application in oscillation of moods.Frequent interactions lead persons to realize that getting close to the object of love in a tentative,less offensive form is more effective than taking self-opinioned hardline stance in love.Subjective mood and rhetorical syllogism contribute a lot to decreasing distance between both sides,accelerating their understanding of each other and themselves.These studies provide good reference for understanding the roles language plays in cognitive formation.The third chapter aims at analyzing language uses in dialogue on stylistic level.Compared with argumentative persuasion,repartee and shared-lines are more concise,direct and in high need of integrity between interlocutors laden with ideas.The difference lies in that the former refers mostly to prose while the later usually lends itself perfectly in wit dialogues in verse.A brief introduction of features of blank verse is included to explain the reason shared-lines combine effortlessly in verse.Shifts in styles,between prose and verse,can signal shifts from one emotional state to another.A number of examples will be illustrated to testify the claim.Orlando in As You Like It gains a better insight into love's nature and himself from tumbling verses to impassioned speeches free from lamb meter.Silvis' s endeavor of verse attests to his allegiance to Phoebe.As for Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing,frequent changes between styles shows his ambivalent feeling when choosing between love and friendship.Prose and verse squabbles over in the endless dialogue between Rosalind and Touchstone on nature of love symbolizes the fact that the age-old issue would last.The research broadens the cognitive functions styles work and at the same time carves out place in stylistic study in the future.In conclusion,through examining uses of language deployed in Shakespeare's three love comedies,the dissertation is to ferret out the deeper order beneath multifarious,yet random forms—regularly recurring relationship between formal types and ways people process thoughts,and imbue these regularities with a broader social,cultural,psychological understanding of language in use.