Imagery,Style,and Content in Thirty-Seven Shakespeare Plays

Abstract

Using the Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID), Derks [1] assessed the thirty-seven plays of Shakespeare on three content analytical variables: primordial content, conceptual content, and incongruous juxtapositions. In the current study, these three RID measures were shown to correlate with style and content attributes not examined in the earlier article. For example, primordial content was found to be positively associated with the proportion of lines in rhymed verse and negatively associated with the proportion of lines in prose. Moreover, although this study replicated some of Derks' findings with respect to incongruous juxtapositions, it also discovered a negative relationship between this variable and the play's level of thematic richness. It is possible that some of these results are not idiosyncratic to Shakespeare, but rather they may characterize literary creativity in general.