Literature Shakespeare Term Paper

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Measure for Measure," and "As You Like it," by Shakespeare. Specifically, it will explain how Shakespeare developed the three themes of love, the stages of human life, and the city vs. The country in these two plays.

THEMES IN TWO PLAYS

Love is a common theme in many of Shakespeare's plays, and these two are no exception. "As You Like It" is a romantic comedy filled with love and romance, and Shakespeare seems to be saying that love is not always courtly and refined, that it can be bawdy, and bring happiness to everyone involved. In fact, at the play's end, Rosalind has shown that love is really a source of absolute happiness, because she has successfully arranged four happy marriages and made sure the government will be more just. In fact, she says at the end of the play, "My way is to conjure you and I begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of the play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women... that between you and the women the play may please" (Shakespeare, V, iv). She is saying love pleases everyone when they let it into their lives, and that love is one of the most important things in life.

In a similar theme, "Measure for Measure" tells the story of love from two sides, the side of the lovers, and the family love that lives between brothers and sisters, and other family members. Shakespeare develops this theme by expressing love between the four main characters, in all of love's many different forms. Isabella dearly loves her brother Claudio, and will do almost anything to save him from his sentence of death.

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At the beginning of the play, Isabella plans to enter a nunnery, which shows how good and religious she is. She does not approve of what her brother did, but she will stand beside him because of her love. She really shows how a person can still love someone, while not agreeing with their lifestyle or morals, and this is very important to the theme of this play, and how Shakespeare develops it. Love is not as light and funny in this play as it is in "As You Like It," because love is serious too, and to be successful at love, people must take it seriously. Love is probably the most important theme in these two plays because love is universal, and everyone watching the play can understand love, even if they have not experienced it first hand. Love is an important part of life, and so Shakespeare makes it an important part of many of his plays.

Another theme in these two plays is how people change as they mature. Jaques very famous "All the world's a stage" speech tells a lot about the theme of the stages of a human life, and this is how Shakespeare develops this theme, through this well-known speech. Jaques describes the seven stages in a man's life. He says they are stages based on age, but he also means that we play out our lives on the stage of life. We enter our first stage with nothing, and leave our seventh stage "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything" (Shakespeare II, vii). Throughout the play,….....

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