Literary Strategies that Revealed the Purpose of Clarence’s Speech William Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, is an example of literature where different writing styles and forms of rhetoric told tell a story with many meanings. The play involved numerous characters with their own speeches, that all had different purposes. Shakespeare utilized various literary strategies that allowed the speaker to convey the meaning of their own speech. The most effective strategies used by Clarence, in his dream speech, were dramatic irony and foreshadowing, imagery, and tone. Shakespeare used dramatic irony and foreshadowing jointly to make Clarence reveal the purpose of his speech. Dramatic irony was used to enhance the naive temperment of Clarence’s character.
