Dividing Lines: Shakespeare’s Division

This idea of “division” as one thing broken into many appears throughout Shakespeare’s extensive catalogue, even beyond explicit musical references.

Firstly, there is metrical variation. Shakespeare rarely ever sticks to a single rhythmic pattern for a long time, as his usual Iambic pentameter splinters into fragments of stressed and unstressed syllables when emotion spikes, just as a musical line fractures into divisions to achieve greater effect on the listener. 

Secondly, there is a choral structure in much of Shakespeare’s work. In plays such as Romeo and Juliet or Henry V, choruses speak for the masses, while characters answer as individuals. This call-and-response format resembles musical division, as multiple voices, with different emotional angles, work through a common theme.

Thirdly, there is thematic variation. Shakespeare often takes a specific idea, such as love, ambition, or time, and refracts it through the lens of multiple characters, with differing perspectives. In this way, the play itself performs a kind of division, one continuous story that is subdivided into contrasting voices.