The moral question of the play is whether Shylock and Antonio -- and by extension those who close ranks around Antonio -- are truly different. Antonio and his friends are just as capable of the same "evil" which Shylock attempts to perpetrate -- ju Continue Reading...
Hamlet lives vicariously through the devices that he uses to capture or replay reality. However, those devices actually serve to separate Hamlet from the very world he is seeking to capture. This concept is dramatically displayed by Hamlet's use of Continue Reading...
Twelfth Night Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night is an Elizabethan situation comedy. Each character has a problem to solve, and each one finds a different way to attempt to solve it. For most of the characters their difficulties revolve around members Continue Reading...
King Lear by Shakespeare, like his other plays, is a truly timeless work. The tragedy with which the play ends, together with the growth and pain experienced by the characters throughout the play continues to evoke pity even today. This, according to Continue Reading...
Othello: The Moor of Venice Did Shakespeare intend for the character Othello to be a dark-skinned African or did he intend for Othello to actually be a Moor, with swarthy skin color? It is clear from the title of the play that the Bard intended Othe 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...
But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!" (Carroll, 8) Carroll uses Alice's experiences as a means to persuading his readers to demand similar questions of themselves. At this juncture, we Continue Reading...
373-4, 376-9). Iago does not want to be good nor does he want to do good things. He has not faith in man and he is about to embark upon a journey that destroys any faith that Othello might have in man and in life itself. Iago's involvement in his sc Continue Reading...
Greenblatt also provides us with some thought into what be hidden in Shakespeare's strange epitaph. Perspective is also gleaned on many of Shakespeare's works, including the Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear IV. He also goes into h Continue Reading...
He even looks as though he is going to stay, and make sure that Mercutio is alright, but he is rushed away by the tide of his fleeing and insistent friends. The repeated suggestion that these characters, many of whom are little more than children an 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...
Jack proceeds to let the audience know "…the vital importance of Being Earnest." Distortion, Moral Conduct, and Restoration Comedy Of course, deception and frivolity are part of a farce, and the way that Wilde has written the play characters Continue Reading...
Students do not want to write because it is boring or tedious to them. But most of all, students do not want to write because they are afraid that they cannot do it. They have been given years worth of papers marked up in red where the teacher was t Continue Reading...
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 Continue Reading...
After Hamlet has killed Polonius and Laertes has returned from Paris demanding satisfaction, Hamlet justly observes "by the image of my cause, I see the portraiture of his." It is the contrasts between these three characters which give significance Continue Reading...
Tempest In the epilogue of A Midsummer's Night Dream, Puck speaks to the audience directly not as an actor or a character in a play, while in The Tempest, Prospero is still in character but begs the audience to set him free so he can return to Naple Continue Reading...
Mulligan keenly notices features of Stephen's obsession when he mockingly calls him "O, shade of Kinch the elder! Japhet in search of father!" Partially, his argument for Shakespeare's autobiographical tendencies is seeded by his own frustration in Continue Reading...
Midsummer and Elizabeth A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedic drama that centers on marriage. Indeed, it is traditionally held that Shakespeare penned the play for a friend's wedding; therefore, it should be no surprise to find that the theme of ma Continue Reading...
Grounded in the belief that everything a reader needs to know to understand a piece of literature, such as a poem, Formalism dictates that a reader look no further than the poem itself to understand it. A formalist reading requires a careful consider Continue Reading...
Jealousy in Othello Othello, by William Shakespeare, is a play demonstrating that we all have strengths and weaknesses and that while the best of us will focus on people's strengths, the worst of us will not only not weaknesses but use them in destr Continue Reading...
Thesis Statement: Numerous researchers and individuals following up on Shakespearean plays will concur that the playwright develops his characters by employing elements from religion, particularly Christianity. In his famous tragedy, Hamlet, the conf Continue Reading...
Because justice is not administered according to moral arguments -- Lear also argues that since laws are made by the same people, they cannot be moral ones -- it is reduced to who holds power at a given moment in time. Similarly, the death of Lear's Continue Reading...
Shakespeare The Character and Relationship of Macbeth and his Lady In Act 1, Scene V of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband and then reflects on his character. Use this letter and speech as a focal point for analyzing their relati Continue Reading...
This is why Shakespeare included a character and plot of such low comedy in a play with such far-reaching and complex themes; in the end, all of the complexity boils down to a few very simple facts bout humanity. As Valerie Traub notes, "early mode Continue Reading...
Falstaff The Bard, William Shakespeare, is considered the most important playwright of the European Renaissance, if not the most important of all time. One of the reasons for his illustrious position in the world of literary studies is the character Continue Reading...
Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing" is a witty comedy. It subscribes to all the conventions of a Shakespeare comedy, being witty in language and plot. It also ends well for all who deserve it, and badly for all those who do not. In "Cressida and Continue Reading...
Women in Shakespeare In The Merchant of Venice, the life of Antonio is saved by Portia, who disguises herself as a male lawyer in order to confront the Jew Shylock and turn the tables on him in a witty and discerning exploitation of legalism. Simila Continue Reading...
fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Thy Fates open their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them; and, Continue Reading...
Rage in Shakespeare Of all the emotions, rage is one of the most unpredictable and often ends with unexpected consequences. William Shakespeare used rage as a major theme is many of his plays because of the unexpected consequences of the emotion. In Continue Reading...
Magic in a Midsummer Night's Dream and the Tempest By examining the use of magic in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest, one can see not only how magic functions within the context of the plays, but also how the use of ma Continue Reading...
There are many elements of Renaissance England seen in the play as well as some elements that refer to Ancient Greece that suggest a combining of worlds. The play, from a humanistic perspective, suggests that everyone is out for themselves and for Continue Reading...
When Othello marries the white Desdemona, he presses his luck, and the tide of public favor turns against him. One of his most trusted friends turns against him and convinces him that Desdemona is having an affair with another of his friends. Othell Continue Reading...
Olivier's philosophy of taking a body of work, molding it into an actor's own style and visual taste, and then regurgitating it in a way that incorporates both classical theater and modern dramatic actions and reactions, was something he was famous Continue Reading...
They believed in the idea of Wyrd, or the Nordic version of fate. This fate was based on past events of an individual's life. Their future would be adjusted accordingly by Wyrd, much like the Eastern idea of Karma, (Herbert 1995). It was the destiny Continue Reading...
Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" with Milton's "Paradise Lost" Comparison of the two works: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Milton's Paradise Lost are two examples of great works that seemingly have little in common. The differences in subject, appro Continue Reading...
Shakespeare's Hamlet and Herman Hesse's Siddhartha meet the words Eliot's "Little Gidding" One of T.S. Eliot's most famous poetic protagonists, that of J. Alfred Prufrock, may lament that he is not Prince Hamlet, only a fool like Yorick or Polonius Continue Reading...
Schikaneder was both an actor and a producer in Vienna for a playhouse that traditionally catered to "lowbrow" audiences (Loomis 2). Mozart's brand of comedy was just the thing for Schikaneder's theater. But "lowbrow" was merely one aspect of Mozart Continue Reading...
Man Who Was Not Shakespeare: The Comedic and Tragic Life of Christopher Marlowe One of the most famous and shadowy figures in the history of the Elizabethan stage is that of the playwright Christopher Marlowe. Unlike Shakespeare, whose plays tend Continue Reading...
Teaching Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" "Sometimes parents just don't understand.' What teenage student does not understand the importance of this truth in his or her daily life? And what phrase more succulently sums up the basic theme of "Romeo a Continue Reading...
They will go to far to hire a mercenary like Iago to pursue their goal for them. There are Othellos today as there was a shining one in Shakespeare's fiction or time. Military heroes like him have secret vulnerabilities, which reveal themselves in u Continue Reading...
