Introduction William Shakespeare and Robert Burns are both iconic figures in the UK. Also known as the Bard of Avon, Shakespeare is often regarded as England’s national poet. Shakespeare is also considered the world’s greatest English wr Continue Reading...
Of course, the studious scholar might point out that nearly every document produced since the time of Shakespeare must have been influenced by the writer because of the sheer number of vocabulary words he created, but the focus of this essay is lite Continue Reading...
Othello Aristotle's Poetics is the most informative piece of work on the nature of art. It is in the Poetics that Aristotle defines the fundamental nature of tragedy. For Aristotle, what defines tragedy (and all art, in general) is in the way that i Continue Reading...
Oedipus Rex was definitely one of Sophocles' best plays as well as one of the foremost of all the Greek tragedies. Oedipus, the King of Thebes, is a classical character for his mix of attributes; wise and courageous yet proud and sometimes ill-temper Continue Reading...
That is not it, at all." (Eliot, 875) In these lines the poet makes a play upon words with the word "all": it is either to know all, or else not to be able to render one's meaning in a work of art. Eliot finds it impossible to actually unveil the Continue Reading...
In the second transition the Hamlet could have murdered Claudius while he was pleading guilty in front of God. Had Hamlet resorted to revenge at this stage then Claudius would have reached heaven since he had admitted while the father of Hamlet was Continue Reading...
Children That Pay for Family Duty in Hamlet and Titus Andronicus External Forces Explored in Hamlet and Titus Andronicus Children often become casualties when they find themselves pulled into two different directions when it comes to family. Often Continue Reading...
revenged activates the actual action of revenge, as demonstrated in "Hamlet" and "The Revenger's Tragedy," however, we may be in doubt when cataloguing their actions as logical and premeditated (Vindice) or full of incertitude and hesitance. Indeed Continue Reading...
Hamlet's Character Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is a complex character full of intrigue and non-linear dispensation. He is well aware of it though, for he starts his quest by pretending to be confused, a cloak, he cannot always easily shed or eve Continue Reading...
When we consider the character of Hamlet, it is easy to assume we are in for serious contemplation. Hamlet is not one of the easiest characters to figure out. However, we do know that he is a broken man. Some of the ideals and impressions he once h Continue Reading...
'Both periods' she says 'are caught up the exhilaration and fearfulness of living inside a gap in history, whenthe paradigms that structured the past seem facile and new paradigms uncertain'. The alignment of the Renaissance reality with the existen Continue Reading...
Drama [...] how drama can capture the emotions of an audience and engage participants and audience to such an extent that they may experience feelings they forgot they had and thoughts they had not yet discovered. Drama can capture an audience and m Continue Reading...
searching for an example that follows Aristotle's principles for creating the perfect tragedy, we need look no further than William Shakespeare's play, Othello. According to Aristotle, a tragedy must possess certain characteristics. These include a Continue Reading...
Oedipal Hamlet Of all the great works of William Shakespeare, arguably his masterpiece is Hamlet. It is also perhaps his most famous work. People who have never seen a production or read it still have a vague understanding about the play's basic pl Continue Reading...
This suspicion becomes even more ironically clear as we read further. As we progress with the analysis of the protagonist's description of his love we find even more apparently negative comparisons. For example, he states that that in comparison to Continue Reading...
However, Hamlet possesses far more awareness about his own weaknesses, and despite his early doubts, he also doubts the ghost: "The spirit that I have seen/May be the devil: and the devil hath power/to assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps/Out o Continue Reading...
Some might interpret the parts of the scene involving smoke as being less interesting and as diminishing the scene's importance. However, alongside of the music, the smoke contributes to making the scene even more important and to enable viewers to Continue Reading...
Tragedy & Comedy One popular method of distinguishing between a comedy and a tragedy has always been by virtue of whether a play or film has a happy or tragic ending. Today, however, it is largely considered that a tragedy can be comic in parts, Continue Reading...
Hamlet out of Love When Hamlet arrives home from school, he finds his father dead and his mother remarried to his uncle. Hamlet caustically remarks that “the funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (1.2.87-88) Continue Reading...
Othello Of the alleged chief tragedies penned by Shakespeare, Othello has led to a certain degree of embarrassment. This 'domestic tragedy' lacks the dynastic and political consequences that characterize Macbeth, Hamlet, and Lear. The protagonist, O Continue Reading...
Miranda even says, "My father's of a better nature, sir,/Than he appears by speech" (I.ii.500-501). Shakespeare may have been writing Prospero like this only to juxtapose his warm nature at the end of the play, which gives the play a "and they lived Continue Reading...
Since he himself cannot directly accuse the King, he will use the actors to do so silently. Other critics argue that the King does not see the dumb-show. Because there is no text in the play which describes what Claudius is doing at the moment that Continue Reading...
Universal Truth in Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet's story is different from most of the stories of revenge and betrayal in a way that throughout the novel he was not sure about a lot of things. Thus, the way the story unfolded eventually really showed that Continue Reading...
William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton explore the depth and range of the human psyche in their plays, Hamlet and the Revenger's Tragedy. Through the characters of Hamlet and Vindici, we discover different motivations to their feelings of vengeance Continue Reading...
Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Why Does Death Prevail William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark begins and ends with death. The play begins with the ghost of Hamlet's dead father, haunting the battlements and urgi Continue Reading...
He kills his father as he flees his home and marries his mother after solving the riddle of the Sphinx. His end is inevitable, but Sophocles clearly shows the role negative character traits play in Oedipus' tragedy, while Hamlet's supposedly negativ Continue Reading...
room in the castle. Enter OTHELLO, LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, EMILIA and Attendants LODOVICO I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further. OTHELLO O, pardon me: 'twill do me good to walk. LODOVICO Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladysh Continue Reading...
(Hart & Hayman, p.177) Thus Joyce suggests that conventional national tales of origin, and national borders have become further and further collapsed in modernity. So long as people can envision a common, even familial bond between the two char Continue Reading...
Yes, the Oedipus complex aspect of Shakespeare it gives us and which in turn invites us to think about the issue of subjectivity, the myth and its relation to psychoanalytic theory. (Selfe, 1999, p292-322) Hemlet and Postcolonial theory Postcoloni Continue Reading...
Francis Bacon's Advancement Of Learning An Analysis of Bacon's Rationale for Writing the Advancement of Learning When one analyzes Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning, he does so by first entering into an era that was primarily dedicated to ove Continue Reading...
Adultery and any sort of infidelity turns out to be a different story for men as Rosenthal stresses: "prohibition against adultery is not about property, pregnancy, misdirected male desire, or bloodlines, as one might have thought, but about the pre Continue Reading...
Comedic Writing How does one describe the nature of comedy? Comedy is both simple and complicated. How comedy works is simple, but what is funny is complicated. Comedy describes the nature of the universe in universal terms. Every culture has a sens Continue Reading...
Crucible and What I Have Learned Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a dramatic, engaging work that challenges the reader/viewer to see beneath the "black and white" dichotomy by which the world is simplistically characterized via such "venerable" inst Continue Reading...
Simultaneously, he forces a man long upheld as honest in the highest Venetian circles into scheming and manipulations; these are roles which Iago takes on too readily, suggesting a certain familiarity, but it must be preserved that no earlier instan Continue Reading...
Othello as Tragic Hero Othello, the Moor of Venice is a Shakespearean tragedy that focuses on the great war hero Othello and the lengths to which Iago goes to in order to strip Othello of his power. Iago's thirst for power commences when he is passe Continue Reading...
) "Sonnet 130" by Shakespeare and "Sonnet 23" by Louis Labe both talk about love, as so many sonnets do. Their respective techniques however, differentiate them from each other. Shakespeare uses a rhyme scheme that became known as Shakespearean rhym Continue Reading...
This intellectual error thus prevents Othello from thinking clearly about his wife after Iago has planted the idea that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. Furthermore, "The Fall of Othello," John Arthos notes, "Othello fell into chaos before the Continue Reading...
We know from the text that Ophelia is innocent and there is no reason for Branagh to include this scene in his film. The two films depict the two leading female characters in a very different light. Both directors illuminated Hamlet in different wa Continue Reading...
The Oedipus complex suggests that every son wants to marry his mother and kill his father -- and that is precisely what Claudius does. "Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of Continue Reading...
Sexuality and Gender There are certain patterns in literature; themes which present themselves over and over again despite the time period in which they were written and the cultural background of the author who wrote it. One such theme is that of h Continue Reading...
