Data Mining
Shakespear
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English 1102:
Shakespeare
Fall, 2014
The History of Henry V
William Shakespeare
Data Mining
Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Twelfth Night, Or What You Will
William Shakespeare
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Viola, Twelfth Night:
Viola's word cloud demonstrates that her view
of love is based on building strong
relationships and companionship: “give,”
“dear,” “heart, “”Olivia,” “sweet.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Orsino, Twelfth Night:
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Orsino's word cloud reveals his fundamental entitlement to
Olivia’s love due to his high position: “house,” “lord,” “lady,”
“master”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Hamlet’s corpus:
Both visualizations show the
patriarchal importance and the
close ties between death and
fathers.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
The Gravediggers corpus, Hamlet:
We think of Hamlet as being the darkest and most profound
character. But by comparing the word clouds of Hamlet,
Ophelia, and the gravediggers, I was surprised to see that it is
the fools that use the darkest language: “drown,” “skull,”
“death,” “gallows,” “question,” and “mad.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Contemplating the skull:
One of the gravediggers’ most common words is “skull.” The
mind is so widely discussed in Hamlet: how can an empty
head – a skull– convey about the nature of identity?
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Good Madonna”:
In Twelfth Night, the fool used the word “Madonna” 10
times. This could be a reference to the characters’ obsession
with sexuality, or could just be a satire about Olivia’s vow of
abstinence.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Thou,” “Thy,” And “We” in Twelfth Night:
The relative frequencies of “thou,” “thy,” and “we” demonstrate something interesting: during the first “we” peak in act 2,
Viola actively expresses passion to Olivia, then they separate. The “we” slope falls to its lowest. But in
act 5, when all comedies reconcile, the word “you” falls, and “we” rises. Comedy ends in “we.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Relative Frequencies of “Viola” and “Sebastian” in Twelfth Night:
In Twelfth Night, a shipwreck initially separates twins Viola and Sebastian. Both
believe that the other is dead. Relative frequency of their names conveys an
interesting relationship between Viola and Sebastian: the initial gap after the
shipwreck, with increasingly closer encounters until the end of the play, when
they were reunited. This chart parallels the story throughout the play.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Relative Frequency of “Love” in Hamlet’s entire corpus:
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Relative Frequency of “Love” in the Entire Play
and in the character Hamlet’s specific corpus:
The word "love" is used 84 times in the play, which led me to analyze Hamlet
as a love story.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Possessives in Twelfth Night:
This word web depicts possession in Twelfth Night. Any
word ending with a “ ‘s “ is joined by an arrow to the item
showing possession. The word web highlights two names of
the highest ranking characters in the play: Olivia and Orsino,
the power leaders in the play.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“I am” Orsino:
While Orsino's word cloud reveals his belief that he deserves
love due to his high position in society: “house, lord, lady,
master”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Love” and “Lady” in Twelfth Night:
This relative frequency graph illustrates that Viola, disguised as
a servant, refrains from using the word "love" at the same time
as "lady" when addressing her “superior” Olivia; do class
differences inhibit the expression of love?
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Olivia in Twelfth Night:
Although Olivia has “sworn off men” for seven years when the
play begins, her Word Cloud reveals her preoccupation with
men (“man,” “sir,” “come” “lord,” Cesario,” “husband,” and
especially “Malvolio.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Heaven,” “God,” and “Father” in Hamlet’s speech corpus:
Hamlet becomes more confident and ready to accept
“heaven” (or death) towards the denouement, at which point
he also begins to associate “God” with “father.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“poison in the ear”: Hamlet’s corpus:
Shakespeare often uses the idea of poison entering our ears and destroying from within,
so I decided to plot the frequency of what Hamlet “hears” against what he says he
“knows” to depict Hamlet’s internal decay and ultimate death.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Hamlet Will Not
Hamlet “will not” grow, dare, suffer, or escape.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Voyant’s Bubble visualization of Twelfth Night:
The visualization reveals the prominence of the pronoun “I,” which implies a focus on self-centeredness.
The characters seem to be preoccupied with fulfilling their own desires and wants. From this
perspective, the plot/play seems to be focused on the individual, advanced through first-person directive.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Voyant’s Links visualization of Twelfth Night:
This “Links” visualization shows the tight yet dynamic relationship between “I” and “You” Focus on self
and focus on others are contrasting yet codependent, because many characters’ sense of identity depend
on the perceptions of others. There is no “I” without “You” as Shakespeare intertwines identity between
all the characters… a true web.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“I know not”
All the Twelfth Night characters exhibit the ignorance of “I know not,” which runs
rampant through the play (nobody knows what is really going on). Viola exhibits
empowerment in her subtle manipulation of others through her disguises, yet she is
ignorant of her effect on Orsino and Olivia.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“I do not” / “I would not”
The prominent presence of “not” following most action verbs in the play also suggests that most of
the characters are reactionary; the comedy’s plot advances through conflict and tension. Doubt
and hesitation color their actions, compromising characters’ personal integrity. Self-actualization
involves taking action, yet this visualization shows the prominence of inaction.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“I do,” “I will,” “I am”
Following “I” are active, empowering verbs such as “do,” “will,” and “am”. “Am” in
particular is significant in demonstrating a strong sense of self-identity (yet… Viola doesn’t
really know who she is). Throughout the play Shakespeare tinkers with the characters’,
especially Viola’s, sense of personal identity.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Viola” and “House”:
Viola uses the word 'house' a total of seven times
throughout Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, but when
investigating the actual instances in which she uses the
word, it becomes readily apparent that she never refers
back to having a true place where she belongs in the
world.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Viola” and “Wife”:
Viola only uses the word 'wife' twice throughout
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (once near the very beginning
and end), highlighting her steadfast romantic dedication to
Orsino despite her constantly changing identity in the play.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Viola’s speech corpus:
“Cesario,” “gentleman,” “fellow,” or “lady”? Viola’s flexible identity.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Something Rotten in the state of Denmark:
The predominance of “king” and “lord” illustrates that the play is heavily focused on
the aristocracy and its culture. If one looks closer, he or she can notice words such as
“ghost,” “mad,” and “death.” These words signify that while the setting is in a palace,
there are murder, supernatural events, and craziness involved.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
The Socratic Horatio:
Informant and the interrogator at the same time. Through
Horatio and his questions, the readers can learn much more
about the background stories and culture that involves the play
Hamlet.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Love and Death in Hamlet:
Hamlet’s love for his father and for Ophelia develop the tragedy by layering it
with burning desires and cunning deceptions. The relative frequencies of
“death” and “love” illustrate that the tragedy culminates with death and love.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Hamlet’s volition (“I am,” “I will,” “I would”):
Hamlet promises action but “dares not.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Inverse Relationship between “knowing” and “thinking”:
One of the main themes of Twelfth Night is the disparity between what
the characters know versus what others think, as illustrated by the inverse
relationship in the graph. Note a major shift at x=6 (Act 3 Scene 1)
during Viola’s second visit to Olivia’s house in which she starts to jab at
Viola’s guise. Coincidentally, the play ends with the exact same frequency
of knowing and thinking .
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Hamlet
Hamlet’s three most frequent words:
“mother,” “good,” and “play”
verses
Macbeth:
Macbeth’s three most frequent words:
“blood,” “fear,” and “time”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
King Henry V:
Shakespeare’s history, Henry V, tells the story of Henry transitioning from
“boy” to “King,” “Captain,” “soldier,” “majesty,” and “man.”
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Verbs in Hamlet:
The verbs “come,” “go,” “speak,” “know,” “follow,” “believe,” “see,” “look” and many
more reveal the rush of action in Hamlet., a play many think of as lacking action.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Love and Self in Twelfth Night:
For a play seeming to be all about love, the word “love” only occurs 81 times in Twelfth
Night.
Contrast with “I,” occurring 596 times. The play seems to be about romantic love, with the
plot revolving around the tangled love relationships between the main characters, but the
emphasis is really on self-love and and discovering true identities.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
The irony of “good” in Hamlet:
107 instances of “good” in this dark tragedy? Many times “good” in “my good
friend” is ironic because most of the characters oppose each other.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Alignment of “heaven” and “heart” in Henry V:
Despite Henry’s conflicted inner feelings about the war and his
own kingship, “heaven” and “heart” follow the same usage trend
line throughout the play.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Malvolio’s volition in Twelfth Night: “I will…”
Malvolio’s speech corpus indicates his plans to woo Lady
Olivia, despite their social differences.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Orsino-Centric Twelfth Night:
The software attempts to link characters and locations,
illustrating that Orsino tends to intersect with most of the other
characters. This is similar to the exercise we attempted in class.
The diagram illustrates why Orsino is self-absorbed at the start
of the play, everyone and everything reports to and revolves
around him.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Act 5 of Twelfth Night – Orsino shares the spotlight:
By Act 5, the play is less Orsino-centric. What this
remarkable contrast exemplifies is the character
change of Orsino and the equality that is attained by
the end of the play through the numerous marriages
and disappearance of words like, “lady,” “sir” and
“lord,” as shown by the first three graphs.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“Death” in Hamlet:
This is a graph of the frequency of the word “death” in
Hamlet. According to the graph, death is an integral part of
the tragedy, as opposed to “love” which only appears toward
the end.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
“My” in Malvolio’s speech:
In Twelfth Night, the words "my" and "I" peak significantly
when Malvolio is speaking; this distance reading reveals that
despite the play seeming to be about romantic love, the
underlying themes of self love and arrogance prevail.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Viola’s speech corpus:
Positive words predominate Viola’s speech, such as “good,”
“smile,” “heart,” “love,” and “brother” which reflect her good
intentions despite her grief and her use of a false identity.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
Maria’s speech corpus in Twelfth Night:
Maria’s speech corpus features more words with negative
connotations such as “ass” “devil,” “puritan,” and “yellow
stockings” which reflect the many evil schemes she devises
throughout Twelfth Night.
Data Mining
Shakespeare
In Fall 2014, Georgia Tech students explored Shakespeare’s plays
through close reading, book art, and data-mining. Data-mining reduces
and abstracts Shakespeare’s plays in order to step back or “distant
read,” often giving a different perspective.
Data Mining
Shakespeare