The Psychological Impact of Viewing William Shakespeare's Plays From psychologically viewing the plays, Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello it seems that these three tragedies all connect. Shakespeare has a way of manipulating the audience into feeling compassionate towards acts that the usually wouldn't be compassionate towards. These acts may include insanity, murder, or betrayal. And Shakespeare also has a way of leaving the audience to ponder what the outcome would have been if one certain event may not have happened. Shakespeare's tragedies will certainly stick in many people's minds and hearts for years to come because of the power and reality of Shakespeare's characters. Shakespeare's Hamlet is a complex story of revenge, the lack of love, and the "madness" of Hamlet. This play is fueled by the the people of the Elizabethean and Jacobean period. It is a revenge play that included the elements for a revenge play that the people wanted. They wanted a hero to avenge an evil deed, scenes of death and mutilation, insanity or feigned insanity, sub-plays, and the violent death of the hero. Shakespeare knew what the people of this era wanted and he combined it together to create one of the best plays of that time and all-time: Hamlet. Shakespeare was able to make this play so great because Hamlet was a great character. Most people could relate to what he did and why he did it. He was a real person; mourning the loss of his father and rejecting the man who was to take his father's place. This play was maybe the first time that the audience was able to come to understand the insanity of a man. Hamlet is faced with some of the biggest difficulties a man can be faced with. How to handle th... ... middle of paper ... ... of what a great love has been destroyed. Shakespeare's tragedies will certainly stick in many people's minds and hearts for years to come because of the power and reality of Shakespeare's characters. Through these characters we are able to feel emotions inside ourselves that we may have never felt before. Shakespeare's tragedies give us an ability to connect with an insane person, the ability to know how important insight is, and to know to also trust your own feelings and not just the people's around you. Bibliography: References: (1995)Hamlet [Audiotape] New York: Harper-Collins Othello [Audiotape] New York: Harper-Collins King Lear [Audiotape] New York: Harper-Collins Encarta 2000. [Computer Program] Microsoft Corporation. Bevington, David (1997). The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 4th Addition. New York: Addison Wesley.
...he gives about him, giving the reader a clear picture of what sort of character he is. But he is weak in his sense of self, content to live as a symbol of a glorious past rather than as a true human.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the motif of madness through the portrayal of Prince Hamlet and Ophelia; Shakespeare portrays the madness as originating from King Hamlet and Polonius, the two overbearing fathers within the story. The two fathers can be seen as the catalysts for their children’s madness, whether the madness be feigned or not. Ophelia and Hamlet have in them residing a love that they must hold at bay due to the requests by their separate fathers; one father sends his child on a mission of vengeance that leaves no time for love and the other father fears for his child’s reputation so requests that they stay away from their beloved. This love deprivation acts as only one example for the causes of the tragic events taking place thus leading to this conclusion: these fathers bring about madness, which in return secretes tragedy from its wake, rendering every tragic act that takes place on the actions and decisions of King Hamlet and Polonius.
He worked hard while he was at school, in the Wisconsin company and even in the valley. His hard work earned him respect as he worked hard along the other people to earn his keep. He knew his self-worth and never doubted his ability. He was at peace with himself and his emotions, he was not conceited or arrogant (640) his self-esteem seemed boundless and justified. He was confident in his ability and had his happiness governing his morality and conduct. He never believed that he had to be his brother’s keeper; “. . . ever since I remember, I had felt that I would kill the man who’d claim that I exist for the sake of his need. . .” (680) He believed instead in pursuing his own happiness. Happiness represented his morality and ultimately, everything he did was for his happiness. He expressed this to Francisco d’Anconia his friend in no uncertain term when he informed him of his decision to return to New York – “If I go back it won’t be for our work. It will be to win the only thing I want from the world for myself …” (732). Although he was a reasonable man, he was not immune to emotions - he loved Dagny passionately, and he had a profound respect for his friends: Francisco d’Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He revered his mentor, Hugh Akston who was like a father to him. He never hid his love for Dagny or his
By using just the right combination of words, or by coming up with just the right image, Shakespeare wrote many passages and entire plays that were so powerful, moving, tragic, comedic, and romantic that many are still being memorized and performed today, almost four centuries later. But the greatness of Shakespeare’s ability lies not so much in the basic themes of his works but in the creativity he used to write these stories of love, power, greed, discrimination, hatred, and tragedy.
himself in a defiant way and disobeyed all authority in his life. His brother Pete helped
What are Shakespearean tragedies? Well they simply share the same conventions and features, for example; Romeo and Juliet verses Othello. Conventions are an element that all stories have in common. In Romeo and Juliet and Othello there are similarities in the characters and the general idea of the stories.
Mehl, Dieter. Shakespeare's Tragedies: An Introduction. Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge U, 1986.
...as pulled into this situation by chance, and it was left in his hands to justify his father's death. He did what he had to do according to his own manner.
Beginning with the Greeks, tragedy has been an essential form of entertainment. Although it has changed slightly over time due to different religious and social values, it is still written and performed to this day. Perhaps the most well known tragedy of all time is Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet is perhaps the epitome of all tragedy. Not only does the tragic hero Hamlet meet his demise, but all the main characters in the play at some point due to some flaw in their character, or some fatal decision, also meet the same fate. It is because of their character flaw and/or their fatal decision at some time during the play that their death can be justified.
When asked to pick two plays of William Shakespeare, I could not help but think of my two favorite plays Othello and Hamlet. These are my favorite plays because in both it can be seen how the protagonist’s downfall was driven by themselves with help of others. For example, Hamlet is acting on instructions from his ghost father, while Othello was being manipulated by Iago. Each protagonist was put in a situation where their tragic flaws not only brought their downfall, but others as well, including their loved ones.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
Hamlet’s mourning about the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother drives him to madness. This is the main characters inner tragedy that Shakespeare expresses in the play. First he considers suicide but the ghost of King Hamlet sends him on a different path, directing him to revenge his death. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to articulate his thoughts about life, death and revenge. Being a moral character he must decide if revenge is the right thing to do. Shakespeare relays many scenarios of reasoning to the audience about mankind His hero sets the wrongs on mankind right again.
The madness of each individual is not realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature. Overall, we see that the theme of madness has a significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. He used Ophelia’s grief and love, Hamlet’s wit and ruminative nature to convey a theme that could be related to more than the one character, and tie all of the conflicts and complications down to one cause.
Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant today in today’s society because the relationships shown, people can still relate to. They are part of our everyday lives, even though the play is based around Shakespearean times. I think that the moral message of the play is that when people commit themselves to one another they need to be mature and have consent of their parents.
In most of William shakespeare 's plays the theme of tragedy is well emphasized. In his play Hamlet, this theme of tragedy has been observed again. The protagonist, Hamlet faces many dilemmas that lead him to undergo many transformations in his personality such as: before the stress of avenging his father he disliked the relationship of the queen and Claudius but after he was introduced with this duty he turned his dislike into the feeling of vengeance towards Claudius, He pursued his burden by acting insane but, later on this acting deeply impacts his nervous system and forces his sanity to lose control. Earlier in the play Hamlet had respect for his mother, but after her continuous act of defending his nemesis, Claudius, Hamlet loses the