In:Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts: In honor of Merja Kytö
Edited by Ewa Jonsson and Tove Larsson
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 97] 2020
► pp. 31–46
Chapter 3Keywords that characterise Shakespeare’s (anti)heroes and villains
Published online: 5 October 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.03arc
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.03arc
This chapter undertakes a keyword analysis of seven Shakespearean characters: Titus, Tamora, Aaron, Lear, Edmund, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The chapter discusses how, once contextualised, these keywords provide useful insights into their feelings/thoughts towards others, events, motivations to act, etc. In terms of findings, only Aaron denotes his “villainy” directly. Tamora, in contrast, draws upon a keyword that is denotatively positive; in context, though, “sweet” reveals her womanly wiles. “Weep”, for Lear, and “legitimate” and “base”, for Edmund, problematize their status as (one-dimensional) villains. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth draw upon grammatical keywords, “if” and “would” in ways that signal something about their (deteriorating) emotional and social positions as much as their villainous intentions.
Keywords: context, keywords, log ratio, Shakespeare and villainy
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 3.Resource drawn upon
- 4.Keyword approach adopted
- 5.Keyword results for the seven characters
- 6.Discussion of the Titus Andronicus characters
- 6.1Aaron
- 6.2Tamora
- 6.3Titus
- 7.Discussion of the King Lear characters
- 7.1Lear
- 7.2Edmund
- 8.Discussion of the Macbeth characters
- 8.1Macbeth
- 8.2Lady Macbeth
- 9.The seven Shakespearean characters: Hero, anti-hero or villain?
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