What is blank verse and how does Shakespeare use it?

Blank verse is a type of verse made up of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter. Let's break this down:Iambic pentameter refers to how many syllables there are in a line and the way that they are stressed. An iamb is a pair of syllables - the first unstressed and the second stressed. 'Pent' means five so pentameter means there are five iambs (ten syllables) in the line. A good example of this in Shakespeare's sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?So blank verse is a verse comprised of lines of iambic pentameter that don't rhyme with each other - hence the 'blank'. Typically in Shakespeare, blank verse is used to indicate the status of a character, as usually only higher status characters will speak in blank verse, while lower status characters speak in prose.