Diction In King Henry's Code Of Sleep

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Through the use of strong diction choices, turbulent imagery, and formal syntax, Shakespeare portrays King Henry’s fraught emotional state and disorganized thoughts in an effective manner. In the play at the time of this monologue, the king has been forced into madness by many sleepless nights, and begs mercy of sleep. As far as the monarch is concerned, he deserves to sleep more than the common people over whom he rules. To continue the personification of sleep, he addresses sleep formally; in an example of apostrophe , he inquires what he has done to offend sleep: “...how have I frighted thee, /that thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down . . . .” (lines 3–4) which is also a rhetorical question. Shakespeare uses diction which emphasizes

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