Finding Ourselves in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet
Who are we? Paul Simon said, "I am a rock." John Lennon said, "I am the walrus." Steve Miller said, "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker." Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook." Basically, it boils down to this: people naturally don't really know who they are, or really are. These metaphorical song lyrics (excluding Tricky Dick) seem to be searches at an explanation of the self. People have been attempting to secure their identities forever. At first this search seemed synonymous with a search of an origin. Religious doctrines were devised to explain who people are and if not, how they should be. However, one's identity or soul or true self is not a stagnant or secure identity. One's character or self is always apt to evolve with age and experience, or quicker, depending on situations like if one is drunk (Cassio), etc. The ambiguity of people's personage is a theme Shakespeare explores in most of his works. He does so with many means: the use of costumes, magic, dishonesty, and most often with confusion. Characters in Shakespeare are never what they seem. Hamlet says, "I know not 'seems.'" Iago says, "I'm not what I am." Henry V says, "Presume not that I am the thing I was."
What Shakespeare seems to be doing is breaking down identities. We develop a discourse of pattern-based predictions about who people are and how they will behave. When people act differently or out of our perception of their character we assume something is wrong. We all fester a natural tendency to seek black and white or at least know where people stand. Trust and honesty, declared and respected virtues, are based on this inherent need. Shakespeare again and again breaks these beliefs down by basing all significant action in his plays on people acting out of their perceived characters. Examples include the love quadrangle in A Midsummer Night's Dream; the rejection of Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 2; Othello's struggle with Desdemona's potential promiscuity; Claudio and Prince John's assumption of Hero's whorishness; the Archbishop, Mowbray, and Hastings' belief in the honor of Lancaster's inferred intentions; etc. So often in Shakespeare's plays, characters put on disguises and wear masks to hide who they truly are for some purpose or another. So much of his story lines depend on instances where people's assumptions are false perceptions of who someone really is.
Shakespeare’s Personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116. - 134.
1.There will be two groups, the control and experimental groups. Each group will have the same amount of participants with equal numbers of boys and girls. The first group will be the control group(rest). The second group will be the experimental group(exercise).
Shakespeare's comedies A Midsummers Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing have many parallels while Measure for Measure is a problem play with a completely different tone. Comparing and contrasting these three plays provides insights into the views of Shakespeare concerning comedy.
A sample of children ranging from 4 to 13 years old are going to be asked to watch a Rainbow Brite video. The children will be randomly picked from a childcare center. To ensure that the children are going to be randomly assigned, the children will range in different age groups. The first group will consist of 4, 6, and 8 year olds. The second group will consist of 10,12, and 14 year olds. It would have to be a field experiment because you have to go out and collect the data.
William Shakespeare was a Stratford Grammar School boy, who was a member of the Church of England, similar to just about everyone else in Stratford. However, due to some events that occurred in the Shakespeare family home, there is some evidence that could prove that the family may have had some Roman Catholic connections. When William Shakespeare was 10 years old, legal issues and debt took a toll on his family’s life. Shakespeare’s father’s stopped attending alderman meetings which resulted in the removal of his name to become an alderman, and he was also forced to sell his beautiful home. The cause of this crisis is unknown, however the records can be used to throw together the idea that there were peculiar religious events going on (Fox). Due to these mishaps, William Shakespeare’s religion is a bit of a mystery. The play, Hamlet, was written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, which happened to be a time when religious conflicts were a big deal (Alsaif). The protagonist in the story, Hamlet, is a character who seems to make his choices through his religious beliefs. Hamlet is a very indecisive person, but his thoughts on religion tend to persuade him. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the character of Hamlet to show the flaws in all religions. Hamlet does his best to follow the rules of Christianity, but he often questions the morality involved. Although Shakespeare belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t find any particular religion to be perfect.
Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 explore these concepts in various ways. Shakespeare’s plays show that people are not black and white. They react and act differently to situations. Their motives can either be transparent or ambiguous. Their masks may hide the truth for a time, but reality has a way of coming back around. The complexity of humans seemed to greatly intrigue Shakespeare, yet with characters like Iago, Hamlet, and Hal, Shakespeare realized that he could never fully figure out the human puzzle; so he created his own puzzles of the will, motive, and
An understanding of William Shakespeare’s philosophies reinforces the meaning of the human condition found in the play Hamlet. The revenge tragedy is an example in the exploration of good versus evil, deceit, madness, inter-turmoil, and utter existence. Shakespeare, fascinated by the human mind and human nature, clearly and completely illustrates the meaning of “self.” Hamlet is a drama that examines one’s personal identity. From the beginning of the story atop the castle when the guards enter the platform to the conclusion of the performance as Hamlet lies, dying in Horatio’s arms every characters’ psychological type is
Shakespeare writes with purpose in this play, he is showing that our ideals are not always what they seem. That in the end the truth wins. As in the case of his main characters in the play they needed to think about their ideals and see what the truth would be before they moved forward with their plans. These characters needed guidance and should have allowed life to happen instead of forcing situations; maybe then they would have survived.
William Shakespeare wrote in a way in which he could create interesting characters that are complex whose inner selves differ from their outward appearance. William Shakespeare allows Hamlet to appear mad and insane, but he is actually using his madness to hide his intentions of seeking revenge for his father’s murder by King Claudius. Claudius has killed his own brother, taking his crown using deception, causing Hamlet to be driven mad by aiming to get revenge for what he had done to his father. Are the characters within this work the same both on the inside as they appear on the outside? Appearance versus reality is one of the more significant philosophies portrayed through Shakespeare’s work. The theme remains consistent throughout the
In my opinion Act 1 Scene 1 is the most important scene of the play
In this essay I will discuss Act 1 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene 1, Act 3 Scene
The façades that the individual characters assume are all essential to the complex deception and insanity that follow. Shakespeare's characters, it would seem, all have `multi-faceted' personalities (with the exception of Horatio). The true thoughts of these characters are seen only as asides, soliloquies or, in Hamlet's case, through the manipulation of language.
Internal and external struggles influence people to action, be it swift and daring or cunning and low. In Shakespeare's plays, the events around and within a character often combine to cause a character to act in a manner that would be considered out of character or unnatural for the person. Shakespeare uses these characters to provide the audience with a lesson or theme; to give them something they can apply to life and see learn from. In Othello, the character he uses as an example is, in fact, Othello. Shakespeare informs his readers of how doubts caused by rumors and lies can lead to the breakdown of even a once noble person.
...disguise to add comic effect by encouraging humour of an audience via the ‘theories of laughter’. Comic effect is accurately demonstrated by Shakespeare’s incorporation of confusion, disorder and farce. However, it can be concluded that Shakespeare’s use of mistaken identity and disguise was for the purpose of more than just for comic effect, but to highlight the audience more serious topics and challenge social norms and values of the period. Ironically, it can be inferred that Shakespeare has masked his underlying purpose of mistaken identity and disguise with comedy.
Shakespeare's comedies can be recognized in terms of plot, structure and characters. We can see that Shakespearean comedies follow the same structural pattern, a basic plot on which the play is based. For example, a key feature of all comedies is that they depend upon the resolution of their plots. However, Shakespeare's comedies are distinguishable, as some are classed as comic dramas and others as romantic comedies. In comic drama, there is usually a motif of a place where reality and the unreal merge, the roles of characters are reversed and identities are mistaken or lost. This place may take on the form of a feast or celebration, or it may be presented as a place segregated from the normal society, such as the wood in A Midsummer Night's Dream. When scenes are set in this place, the ordinary rules of life and society do not apply. There is always an experience of chaos, which must be resolved in order for the play to become a true comedy.