Suffering In Shakespeare's Plays
How does suffering affect one's actions? Do different types of suffering affect one in different ways? This paper seeks to determine how William
Shakespeare's character's respond to various types of suffering. Suffering can be defined in two ways; physical suffering, in which the character is inflicted with physical pain and trauma, and emotional suffering, where the character suffers an emotional trauma or loss.
In The Tempest, the physically traumatized characters, are Trinculo and
Stephano. They are chased by dogs but their physical trauma has not induced any sign of remorse or guilt. Ferdinand, on the other hand, is overcome by emotional suffering at the "loss" of his son. In King Lear, Lear is plagued emotionally. He feels that he has lost the love of his favorite daughter
Cordelia, and he feels the harsh hatred of his two evil daughters. At the conclusion of the play, his sanity is restored but he has suffered tremendously in an emotional manner at the hands of Regan and Goneril. In Othello, Brabantio goes through emotional suffering when he must succumb to his daughter's wishes.
Desdemona also goes through emotional suffering when she is accused by Othello of cheating on him when he is convinced of this by Iago.
In The Tempest, the theme of purification through suffering can clearly be seen. Prospero, in his long exile from Milan, has more than attoned for whatever mistake he might have made while he ruled. Ferdinand must suffer through Prospero's hardships and laborious tests before he can win Miranda's hand. Most significantly, Alonso must undergo the suffering that Prospero has designed for him before he is forgiven.
Prospero, who is the real Duke of Milan was overthrown 12 years earlier by his younger brother Antonio. Prospero was driven out of the island along with his daughter Miranda; the two were cast out to sea. His suffering has occured in a physical and a non-physical way, he is deeply hurt from losing his kingdom and from being cast out to die. Despite this, he is generous in forgiving. He is not only in control of those around him but he punishes the guilty and demands repentance.
When Ferdinand meets Miranda, they instantly fall in love with each other. "I might call him...a thing divine; for nothing natural...I ever saw so noble." ( Tempest, I, ii, 417-419). He is perfect for h...
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...ello and Iago agree that Desdemona should be put to death. Out of rage,
Othello smothers Desdemona in bed and kills her. "She must die, else she'll betray more men." (Othello, V, ii, 6).
In conclusion, there is evidence that Shakespeare designed his characters to be affected by different types of suffering in different ways. The characters who underwent emotional suffering, usually ended up purified or at least in a better state of mind. On the other hand, those who only underwent physical suffering did not change from their past behaviors and did not repent.
Evidence of this can be seen in the following ways: Ferdinand in The
Tempest, is struck by emotional pain. Because of this, he is purified through his trial and he repents. In Othello, the main character is caught in an emotional battle- who is he to believe- his loyal servant or his new bride?
Unfortunately, Othello does not realize the truth until it is too late and has already killed Desdemona. In King Lear, Lear becomes temporarily insane from the pain and turmoil he endures from his daughters. He does not come to terms about his mistake until, like Othello, it is too late and Cordelia has already been
killed.
life, and acting upon his responsibilities in order to follow with his heart, instead of with
it is a reaction against the life he has lived so far ,in the courts
King and Queen that he has "lost all mirth," in this world so "foul and
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed a theory based on what she perceived to be the stages of acceptance of death. Her theory has been taken further by psychologists and therapists to explain the stages of grief in general. Kubler-Ross identified five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, as happening in that order. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet exhibits all five stages of grief, we can assume in relation to the recent death of his father, but not necessarily in this order, and in fact the five seem to overlap in many parts of the play.
thoughts, as he questions how much faith he has left, and how he seems to know his time is
Emotions have some control over our actions. However, there are other factors that influence what we do. In the play Othello though, emotions have way more power over the characters' actions. For example, the actions committed by characters consumed by love are greatly amplified. Another example of this is that the characters in the play that are consumed by jealousy go to far greater lengths than one normally would to quench their thirst for vengeance. The last instance that proves this is that the actions of characters overcome by despair are based solely on their hopelessness. These three points all help to show that in the play Othello, Shakespeare exaggerates how much our actions are affected by the major emotions of love, jealousy, and despair.
According to Webster’s Desk Dictionary, grief is defined as “keen mental suffering over affection or loss” (397). Various characters in Hamlet choose to deal with grief in different ways, with many of their methods harmful in the end. Ophelia is dealt two setbacks during the course of the play, one being her father’s death and the other being Hamlet’s disrespectful treatment. Her brother Laertes must also deal with Polonius’s death, as well as Ophelia’s. From the beginning of the play, Hamlet grieves over his father’s murder. His grief is what sparks his quest for revengeand his battle to kill Claudius.
"’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, / nor customary suits of solemn black / [ . . . ] but I have that within which passeth show; / these but the trappings and the suits of woe” (Shakespeare 1.2.76-73, 85-86) says Hamlet when confronted about his way of grieving over his father’s recent death. Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is a remarkable tale that is centered on the idea of death and grief. While death is a universal occurrence, meaning every person will deal with it, how we grieve after a loss is completely individual. To look at a formula of grief, most turn to the five stages of grief developed by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist, who studied the topic in her book On Death and Dying. This model consists of denial, anger, sadness, bargaining, and acceptance, although the duration and order of the stages are different for every person. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet the stages of grief are evident in his sadness, anger, and finally acceptance.
Both Shakespeare’s King Lear and Dante’s Inferno explore the reasons for, and results of, human suffering. Each work postulates that human suffering comes as a result of choices that are made: A statement that is not only applicable to the characters in each of the works, but also to the readers. The Inferno and King Lear speak universal truths about the human condition: that suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. While both King Lear and the Inferno concentrate on admonitions and lamentations of human suffering, one of the key differences between the works is that Inferno conveys an aspect of hope that is not nearly as prevalent in King Lear.
... mourning of his father), an encounter with a ghost who claims to be his father and asks him to exact revenge on his own uncle, and an innate sense of overly analytical and indecisive qualities which likely stem from the upbringing of the character in his youth. These perils which plague the character, along with the long drawn-out soliloquies the character delivers, all create for a character which is by definition, depressed.
From the beginning of the play, Shakespeare characterizes Macbeth to be a figure of power by things such as the defeat of the unloyal thane, and the gain of his title. Though Macbeth appears to represent an idea of power, Macbeth is proven to be a false aid to this perceived symbol of power through the witches involvement, animal nature controlling human nature, man being susceptible to temptation, all climaxing in Macbeth being a powerless, ineffective king. By examining Shakespeare’s imagery of illness, one can determine that Macbeth is a powerless figure that leads him to be an ineffective king.
Many people believe that ignorance is bliss. There is a mentality that exists, where the truths are better off unknown and another where the truth is ignored completely. This is certainly true in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’’ Oedipus. Jocasta and Gertrude both choose to ignore reality, and therefore blind themselves from the truth before them. As a result of her intentional ignorance, Jocasta severely damages her relationship with Oedipus and her reputation, whereas Gertrude’s ignorance merely causes mild, repairable damage to her relationship with her son and her reputation. Therefore, Jocasta’s contentment in her ignorance inevitably results in a far more tragic ending, than that of Gertrude.
The Shakespearean tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” represents the idea that love incurs a price through a range of dramatic techniques. In this play, it becomes very clear that intense and sudden passionate love brings hurt and pain to the lovers involved, as well as their family and friends.
But, after suppressing his emotions for too long, Hamlet eventually loses his mind to the depths of insanity causing an emotional overload.
As we live our lives, we don't really take the time to stop and take notice of the little things going on around us. We don't question why the sky is blue or why does the sun rises. Those are questions that we can easily search and find the answer to. What challenges the mind the most in my opinion is complete uncertainty. When there isnt a definite answer, you have to paint your own picture on what you think it will be. The spellbinding question of “How can I accept the idea that someday my life will end” will definitely have your mind racing in a million different directions.Hamlet found himself aqquring death when he states in his monolouge that “To die, to sleep.To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come” (Act 3 Scene 1). This is his way of coming to terms that death is certain and ineviatble. I can honestly say that I'm still in the mind-boggling process of accepting the matter myself. When I encountered death first hand, it was at a funeral of a loved one. Mortified and deeply filled with sadness I felt the same way as Ham...