Shakespeare’s work is very easy to recognize because of his clever and unique style. Throughout all of his plays we encounter the same refined diction, archaic language, poignant imagery, and innovative verse.

In his early years, Shakespeare wrote his plays in a stylized language, the conventional style of the day. Even though he completed some works in prose, his most used poetic form was blank verse, composed of iambic pentameter. Consequently, his verse was frequently lacked rhyme and consisted of ten syllables per line, with and stressed every other syllable. However, he changed his use of blank verse to some extent as his career progressed. Critics have confirmed that in his later plays, when he had completely mastered traditional blank verse, he chose to alter its flow.

In addition, his innovation in creating a flexible verse is astounding. His style became "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical", as literary critic Andrew Cecil Bradley said. Some passages exhibit added punctuation at the end of the iambic pentameter lines to fortify the rhythm. Most of the dialogues were composed of blank verse in other to raise the poetry in the drama.

Furthermore, his plays are often remembered for their splendid soliloquies. In most of them, it is the protagonist who makes an extended speech apart from the action of the story, which gives extensive insight into his/her inner emotions, thoughts and motives. In these occasions the character speaks to the audience, or as it is typical of Shakespeare, to him or herself. It can be argued the most famous of these is Hamlet's "to be or not to be". "What piece of work is man", and Macbeth's "All the world is a stage" are among his most famous as well.

Additionally, Shakespeare’s works are characterized by the abundant use of literary devices and stylistic figures. In most of his works he includes meaningful criticism through the magnificent use of these devices. For example, in Macbeth, Shakespeare defines the dark theme and atmosphere of the play form the very beginning, when he portrays three witches in the middle of a thunder and rain. What really makes this scene compelling, however, is that the witches speak in rhymed verse, which adds the touch of mysticism to the event.

Because Shakespeare loved to play with words and to make his criticisms implicit, a device that truly characterizes Shakespeare is paradox. One of his most renowned paradoxes is “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. In this line from Macbeth, the author cleverly foreshadows that the plot of the play will deal with the theme of false appearances. It is only at the end of the play, however, that the reader or viewer can finally understand the meaning of the words. At the end of the play it becomes clear how a good prophecy brought with it horrible events. The cleverness lies in the fact that this paradox is effective throughout the entire play.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s style can be distinguished by many characteristics. Nevertheless, what makes it stand out is no single literary device or verse form. It is rather the combination of archaic diction, poetic language, copious literary devices and insightful plots that gives the genius his mastery of the writing.