Students who know Star Wars but don’t know Shakespeare will recognize the familiar characters and plots of the movies and then see how Shakespeare’s language tells the story anew. The biggest appeal of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is the fact that it is a parody, and I’ve said for many years that parody and gentle riffing on Shakespeare is a great way to get students to overcome their fear of Shakespeare and engage with him. Thus Doescher cleverly mimics Shakespeare’s use of stichomythia to convey Vader and Luke’s physical distance, and complementary feelings at the same time. This creates an effect of organized chaos where the actors seem to be wailing and ranting, but are actually speaking a carefully composed quartet of grief.
I realized by looking at the similar lines, the similar words (especially at the ends of lines), and the fact that Friar Laurence interrupts them at the end, led me to believe that these lines are meant to be spoken AT THE SAME TIME.
When I played Friar Laurence and the cast and I rehearsed this scene, the actors playing the Nurse and Juliet’s parents were struck by how similar the lines are and worried that these long passages of laments would get tedious to an audience. Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene v lines 2702- 2723. O child! O child! my soul, and not my child! O love! O life! not life, but love in death!Ĭapulet. Despised, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d! Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d, 2715 Paris. Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! Lady Capulet. Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! 2702īut one, poor one, one poor and loving child,Īnd cruel death hath catch’d it from my sight! There is a long series of laments by her parents and nurse where they are shocked and horrified at her sudden death:
In Romeo and Juliet, there’s an excellent example of stichomythia in Act IV, Scene iv, right after Juliet’s parents and Nurse discovers her, apparently dead. These similar lines highlight the connection these two have (no spoilers), and also emphasize that, though the actors might be physically close onstage, their characters are meant to be far apart they wouldn’t be saying this to each other. Doescher uses this well as a staging device by having Vader and Luke speak similar lines as Luke plummets down the shaft after losing his lightsaber duel: The literary technique of stichomythia has characters who speak at more or less the same time, using slightly different forms of dialogue. Below is a link to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Learning Zone, where you can learn about the language of the Henry V chorus.
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