Repeated Words
When a word is repeated in a short text passage, don't stress it the second time. Almost invariably, the second time it appears it has been modified by some other word, and the modifying word is the one you want to stress:
To BE or NOT to be, that is the question.
In this case we're stressing the word that concludes the antithesis--which makes sense.
If you stress the same word twice, the audience won't understand you. The effect will be as if you said:
Would you like the cake? Or would you rather have the cake?
If the above line looks like nonsense, that's because it is nonsense.
© Deloss Brown 1999