Tracing Motifs and Figurative Devices – Much Ado About Nothing
“Note”Book: You will keep a notebook with information, notes, and references for each insight and observation that you have for the reading selections. You will be tracing motifs/stylistic devices to trace throughout the play. You will create a “booklet” and share your findings with the class during class discussions. You will turn in throughout the unit as homework assignments and the completed booklet at the end of the unit.
The Booklet will contain the following for each reading assignment:
1. Write a brief plot synopsis for each reading assignment.
o Reference each act and scene.
2. Write down unfamiliar words with definition. This will help immensely with understanding Shakespearean language.
3. Motif/Stylistic Device Tracing (listed on the reverse of this document): Know these motifs (recurring images/ideas) and stylistic devices/figures of speech in Much Ado About Nothing.
Tracing Technique:
ü Write the name of the motif/stylistic device(s)
ü Write down (or type) the actual lines (do not merely reference where they are found)
ü Write a specific reference for the lines (i.e. Act, scene, and line #’s). Do this throughout the play.
ü “Dissect” the lines in your booklet (see example)
ü Write an explanation
For Example:
Ø Stylistic Device: Metaphor of fire and parallel structure
Ø “That I neither feel how she should be loved nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake” (Act 1, sc i, 226-229).
Ø Explanation: Spoken by Benedick to Don Pedro and Claudio. In spite of Benedick’s flippant language that indicates his outward disdain for Beatrice, Benedick inwardly burns with love for her. Recurring motifs: fire, melt, stake
Your Booklet must be extremely organized (type if possible or print legibly).
Examples of Motifs/Figurative Devices (not a complete list – please refer to your literary terms list!):
· Disguise
· Gender Roles
· Trickery/Deception
· Fraud/dishonesty
· Attraction
· Eating/Food
· Drinking
· Fire
· Identity
· domestication
· sexism
· clothing/costumes
· social roles
· occupations
· marriage
· appearance
· Flowers/plants
· happiness
· Hot/Cold
· Animal Imagery
· Time (also haste)
· Night (Blackness/Darkness)
· Day (light)
· Extremes
· Stars (also planets, moon, the sun)
· Fate/Religion
· Innocence
· Age (experience)
· Love (also passion)
· Grief (Sorrow)
· Water (also tears)
· Death
· Power of Words
Rhetorical, Figurative, Literary Devices:
· malapropism
· Similes
· Metaphors
· Personification
· Apostrophes
· Foreshadowing
· Dramatic Irony
· Puns
· Oxymorons
· Hyperbole
· Chiasmus
· Synecdoche
· Metonymy
· Alliteration
· Anaphora
· Antithesis
· Epistrophe
· Parallelism