I used to serve tables and one particular table will forever haunt me. After a normal meal, an older gentleman gave me his credit card to pay for his meal. The name on the card was none other than Gordie Howe. I was star struck to say the least. When I approached him, I immediately asked for his autograph on my grandparent’s fiftieth anniversary card. He looked the part and acted the part as well. After giving the card to my grandparents as a gift, I then had it appraised. I was happy to find out an authentic Gordie Howe autograph is worth anywhere from $300 to thousands, pending on the autograph. I was unhappy to find out that the autograph I obtained was not an autograph from Gordie Howe, the famous hockey legend, but the autograph was from someone who happened to look, act, and have the same name as the hockey legend. I never told my grandparents of the worthlessness of the autograph to this day. Mistaken identity can happen anywhere. But when it is in a story or a play, the characters have no control over who they are. The characters with mistaken identity in plays such as “Oedipus the King” and “The Brothers Menaechmus” had very different outcomes. In the following I am first going to define what mistaken identity is, show how mistaken identity helps the reader see that characters have no control over their fate, and show that through mistaken identity characters lives change quickly. Through these three features, I will show that mistaken identity helps make a story interesting to the reader.
First, let us define mistaken identity. To do that, one must define identity of a character, before one can understand what mistaken identity truly is. Character identity in a play is much like identity of any indiv...
... middle of paper ...
... king was no more. In fact, he was going to look like the opposite. He was going to be everything he lived his life to avoid. He would never get back the honor and pride he once had due to his mistaken Identity.
In hindsight, Oedipus probably should not have killed anyone. Then he might have been able to dodge his fate. Or if Meneachmus 1 had lived a life that was based on deceit of his loved ones, then maybe he could have avoided losing his wife and friends with his new found brother. That is what makes mistaken identity in drama or real life so interesting. It can change ones fate and/or life for the better and sometimes for the worse. Either way mistaken identity is a great way to make a play or situation interesting. Had I known that the man I was getting an autograph from wasn’t the real Gordie Howe, would I have gotten his autograph, probably not?
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is depicted as a morally ambiguous character; neither purely evil or purely good. Oedipus runs from his fate initially to prevent himself from pursuing what he believed was his fate; however, he is lead straight towards his real fate. He kills his biological father as he is headed to Thebes, where he takes the throne. Once he has taken the throne, he begins to try and save his city from the plague by looking for the murder of king Laius. However, what he does not know is that the prophet has told him who has slew the king; therefore, he presents his ignorance as a leader. Not only does his ignorance create the flawed character inside himself, but it also causes him to run from his fate. The significance of Oedipus being a morally ambiguous character is that he cannot run from his fate
people will not want him to be the King. The King has his own ideas on how he
Lately, it would be difficult to find a person who speaks in the elaborate way that nearly all of Shakespeare’s characters do; we do not describe “fortune” as “outrageous” or describe our obstacles as “slings and arrows,” neither in an outward soliloquy or even in our heads. Lately, people do not declare their goals in the grandiose fashion that members of royal family of Thebes proclaim their opposing intentions: Antigone’s to honor her brother and Kreon’s to uphold his decree. Lately, people do not all speak in one unified dialect, especially not one that belongs specifically to the British upper class; Jack and Algernon’s dialogue is virtually identical, excepting content. Unlike the indistinguishably grandiose, elaborate, fancy way characters speak in Shakespeare’s plays, Antigone, The Importance of Being Earnest, and other plays written before the turn of the twentieth century, more recently written plays contain dialogue that is more unique to its speaker. This unique dialogue indicates a change in the sort of characters which drama focuses on which came with a newly developed openness to those who are different from us. Moving away from recounting tales of nobility, royalty or deities brought the lives of a common, heterogeneous populace to the stage and, with these everyday stories, more varied speech patterns.
The existential drama, No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre, and the absurd drama, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard both portray characters with an ambiguous sense of identity. While the characters in No Exit delude themselves with respect to identity and shirk responsibility for their identity-making choices, the characters in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are primarily controlled by outside forces that confuse and limit their sense of identity. Both these authors do a fine job of portraying the relationship between identity and the outside forces
Whether we know it or not we all develop a sense of personal identity throughout our lives. Personal identity is the development of the way you view yourself as well as the way you want others to perceive you over the course of your life. For some people this may be more difficult than others because developing a sense of personal identity can be a lifelong journey whereas for others it can be as simple as getting through a certain situation and then realizing what you’re capable of. Personal identity crises not only occur in real life with everyday people but also in works of literature as well since they depict characters or speakers who struggle with the concept of personal identity. Examples of works of literature that
A person is created by the experiences they go through and by the things they learn throughout their life. It is the question of who each individual is and what makes up their identity. Writers, no matter the type, have been addressing the issue of identity for thousands of years. One playwright who stands out in this regard is Shakespeare and his play Hamlet. The play continually questions who the individuals are and what makes up the person they are. Yet another play can be associated with Shakespeare’s masterpiece, as Tom Stoppard takes the minor characters in Hamlet and develop them into something more in his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The twentieth century reinvention of the supporting characters from Hamlet, contains three major messages or themes throughout the play including identity, language, and human motivation. The play has deep meaning hidden behind the comic exterior and upsetting conclusion and each of these three themes add to the ultimate message the play invokes into its audience.
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
Last week, I had an opportunity to read Oedipus Rex, which was a fantastic play. Oedipus Rex presents different perspectives of a person’s life, and the impact they might have on his/her descendants. For example, Oedipus’s great grandparent committed a crime that affected Oedipus later on in his life. However, Oedipus isn’t even born when the crime take place. In addition, Oedipus Rex presents the notion of justice, which I agree with because I believe that justice is essential, and fair just, as it portrays in the play; however, I do think that justice can be unfair sometimes due to ones’ ulterior motives.
Gender roles are one of the most controversial topics in the history of humanity. Some people approve of them, while others disagree with them. Gender roles are defined as “the behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms”. There are times throughout history where gender roles were very unfair. However, some individuals still defied them in both open and discreet ways. One of these individuals was the famous literary figure, William Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare may have defied gender roles in some of his other literary works, the scope of this essay will be limited to his stellar play, Macbeth. In Macbeth, Shakespeare mostly uses three characters to defy gender roles: The Three
In general, identity means how one sees himself/herself and others around in order to distinguish himself/herself as different. David Snow differentiates between the ‘individual’ and ‘collective’ identity as “personal identities are the attributes and meaning attributed to oneself by the actor, they are self-designations and self-attributions regarded as personally distinctive.” (Snow 2) On the other hand, the “collective identities attributed or imputed to others in an attempt to situate them in social space. They are grounded in established social roles.”(Snow 2) This research paper aims at examining the role of ‘collective’ identity that is formed on the expenses of the ‘individual’ identity and how this leads to physical and psychological repression in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Isaac Babel’s “My First Goose.”
...le for them throughout the play, and it came to a head at the end of their lives. This play highlights the importance of identity, by showing what happens without it. Without your identity, you will pass through life with no purpose, until you stopped living.
...ne else in the play the power of language to alter reality, and the issues of conscious or unconscious deceit.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
From the beginning of the play the Duke shows his fascination with the art of disguise. He has Lord Angelo takes his place and he in turn becomes a friar in disguise. Throughout the play this notion of false identity and exchange of identity plays an important role for the Duke and also for the characters in the play.
Mistaken identity and disguise are important aspects of comedy in Twelfth Night that stand at the forefront of the play’s comedy. Not only are mistaken identities and disguise evident within the main plot of the play but also in various other situations. Sexual confusion amongst characters, subversion of gender roles and farcical elements through stagecraft all effectively contribute to the dramatic comedy genre. However, it can be suggested that certain elements of Twelfth Night are not interpreted to be purely comedic; Shakespeare has incorporated serious and controversial subjects such as the idea of genuine love, the patriarchy of the time and the cruel gulling of Malvolio. Therefore, disguise and mistaken identity are not solely for the purpose of comedy and it could be inferred that it even borders on the genre of tragedy.