Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The women of shakespeare's richard iii
The women of shakespeare's richard iii
Into the wild character analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The women of shakespeare's richard iii
In Christian philosophy, love is a revered virtue built upon understanding, trust, respect, and compassion. The act of marriage is its ultimate expression: a promise of abundant happiness and fertility. Many poets and authors in classical literature share this idea, depicting righteous resolutions and jubilant atmospheres through successful unions in their works. One such playwright is William Shakespeare, who in the tragedy Richard III uses marriage to end a tyrant’s bloody rule and restore peace to England. Interestingly, in the same play, Hastings “forfeits all title to compassion”, and “the widowed Queen Margaret appears as the fury of the past” (Schlegel, 2). Furthermore, numerous relationships amongst the nobility are loveless, dysfunctional, and ill-fated. Love is cynically portrayed to the extent that all male/female relations inevitably lead to death, desolation, ruin, and decay.
The first victim of love is Lady Anne. Her wooing and marriage are “perversions of the ritual of traditional courtship rights” (Carroll, 3). In a vulnerable state subject to “loss of title, position, and identity” (Miner, 6), her denial of Richard’s feelings is so significant that he threatens himself with death: “This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love, / shall for thy love kill a far truer love” (1.2.194-195). Yet, after she accepts his proposal, he indicates to the audience that he does not love her. He even congratulates himself on being able to manipulate her emotions, because gaining her confidence is merely a part of his larger scheme to become king. It is too late when she realizes his true intentions, and laments to Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of her unhappy marriage:
For never yet one hour in his bed
Did I enjoy the go...
... middle of paper ...
...Bloom, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. 32-34.
Pearlman, E. “The Invention of Richard Gloucester.” Shakespeare’s Histories (Bloom’s
Major Dramatists). Ed. Harold Bloom, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. 28-30.
Plasse, Marie A. “Corporeality and the Opening of Richard III.” Shakespeare’s Histories
(Bloom’s Major Dramatists). Ed. Harold Bloom, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. 30-32.
Schlegel, August Wilhelm. “Lectures of Dramatic Art and Literature.” Shakespeare’s
Histories (Bloom’s Major Dramatists). Ed. Harold Bloom, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. 19-21.
Shakespeare, William. King Richard III. Eds. Pat Baldwin and Tom Baldwin.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.
Young, Bruce W. “Ritual as Grace: Parental Blessings in Richard III.” Shakespeare’s
Histories (Bloom’s Major Dramatists). Ed. Harold Bloom, Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. 21-23.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling novel City of Bones, once wrote, “To love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be the one destroyed”. As an author of a series of young adult books, Clare wishes to send a message to adolescent readers regarding the destruction that young, passionate love can lead to. A similar theme is explored in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where two adolescents from feuding families fall in love with one another. When they first see each other on the night of the Capulet party, they quickly fall in love and are soon married by Romeo’s friend and mentor, Friar Lawrence. Their love, being full of passion in its quick course, faces many trials such as Romeo’s banishment from their hometown of Verona, as well as Juliet being forced to marry Paris, kinsman of the Prince. The affection they feel for one another, being all consuming, often leads them to want to sacrifice everything for each other, including their own lives. Their self-destructive, rushed love ends with their deaths, occurring just a multiple days after they first met. In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, many characters such as Friar Lawrence, Romeo, and Juliet illustrate that young, passionate love is a powerful force that leads to destruction.
In William Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, Falstaff and King Henry IV share father-figure relationships with Henry “Hal,” Prince of Wales. The former, a drunk and cavalier knight, acts as a surrogate father to the prince, while the latter, a determined and distanced monarch, is his blood. Yet, who is the better father-figure to Hal? Although Falstaff and Prince Henry share a strong, quasi father-son relationship, the former’s manifestation of the tavern atmosphere, venality and dishonor are obstacles to the Prince’s goals; King Henry IV, on the other hand, is the better father-figure because he motivates his son to realize his ambitions, and embodies the setting of the court and the monarchy in which the Prince belongs and will one day inherit.
Everyone has lied at one point or another in their life. Whether it is a small white lie about an outfit’s mishaps or something that ruined a relationship, lying or hiding the truth is a universal theme that everyone could relate to. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the theme of deception to develop characters and cause their ultimate downfall in the play. Deception is not only woven in the plot but also portrays through the characters’ action and personality, such as Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet.
The transition of royalty from King Hamlet to King Claudius seemed smooth, but the tension within the royal family created some complications. Almost all of Denmark gave their loyalty to a new king without any suspicion as to how the previous ruler died. Although Denmark’s citizens are unaware of the fratricide, this fickle faithfulness exemplifies the social and moral decay of Denmark. Most of Denmark’s subjects act upon their own selfish interests and lack any conviction. Shakespeare uses Polonius, formerly a loyal servant to King Hamlet, as a microcosm of Denmark’s oblivious and hypocritical society as a whole. The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court and the father of Laertes and Ophelia, Polonius has good intentions, but he tends to be somewhat conniving and underhanded. He frequently leaps to the wrong conclusions, and his speeches are comically pompous and long-winded. He is completely incapable of figuring out what Hamlet is up to. Looking to stay on Claudius’s favorable side, Polonius pleases the new king’s demands and even puts his own children’s reputation and lives in jeopardy. Because of his meddling in Prince Hamlet’s business, Polonius ends up dying on his own account.
Do the males in Hamlet’s society feel that women are inferior to them? It certainly seems that way, but is it possible that the males behave in this manner due to their own self-loathing? Hamlet by Shakespeare is considered to one the most tragic plays ever written. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, has one of the worst mothers. She knowingly marries her husband’s murderer, Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. In one of the most convoluted plots in literature, Hamlet is on a mission to avenge his father’s murder, punish Gertrude, and rid himself of Ophelia, whom he has driven to madness. In the end, Hamlet’s intense need for revenge is his ultimate downfall. Even though Hamlet seems to be the victim, in some ways, he is actually the villain because of the ways that he treats his mother, Gertrude, and Ophelia. The women meet their fate due to their lack of independence. After a closer examination, there is evidence to show that the women's actions, or lack thereof, are the reasons behind their demise. In particular, three factors come into play in terms of a Feminist standpoint. First, upon closer examination of the text, it becomes apparent that women lack wise decision-making in matters of love. Secondly, women's feeble minds deter them to make shrewd decisions, as they are immature and weak. Finally, a male-dominated society affects the females’ decision making ability because they are being controlled by the men around them. Therefore, an obvious focus for the audience in Shakespeare’s, Hamlet is the prince’s indecisiveness; however, what is more noteworthy is the overt suggestion in this play that females are incapable of reaching wise decisions. Clearly the patriarchal values displayed by the men in their conversations with women in Hamlet, u...
What is the appropriate time of mourning for a lost loved one? In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlets mother, Gertrude, mourned the passing of her husband for less than two months. She then decided to marry King Hamlet's brother, Claudius. Hamlets mother's new marriage is what bothers him the most. Hamlet believes Claudius will never live up to the legacy left by his father as the King of Denmark. The social context that is being revealed to the reader through Hamlets soliloquy describes three character traits he possesses: suicidal thoughts, concern for the well-being of his country, confusion towards his father's ghost and whether or not it’s in the countries best interest for him to get revenge. This also portrays how Queen Gertrude’s hasty nuptials after not having a proper time of mourning, goes against society in this era. Furthermore, this foreshadows the vast effect this will have on Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is a story about revenge, murder, and insanity, which leads to the untimely deaths of many characters within the play. As Hamlet seeks revenge from the murderer of his father, the story unravels into a wave of conflict and play on of words; all the while getting ever closer to the truth behind Hamlets fathers death. Hamlet a son of a murdered father strays from his obligations though, and causes more trouble than what its worth to the ones he loves, just to keep his mind at ease; this leads to the rebirth of old characters and how they see him, some being left in sorrow and hatred over his impetuous actions. It’s a really remarkable play, and to see all these sons seeking revenge for there fathers really speaks about the human tendency to overlook key things; if you are the cause of such hatred what hate can be created because of that, this is what ultimately Shakespeare is trying to show us through “Hamlet” and to show it in such a way is a perfect example of this.
When in the course of human events, something’s are made self-evident, like having to read Hamlet and write about three soliloquies. These soliloquies tend to be very lengthy and have very sub surface meanings to them that require some enabled humanoids to use the frontal cortex of their neurological brains in order to understand these meanings. In other words, they are hard to understand, especially with them being written in the Shakespearean era of influence in the island Kingdoms that are Untied. However, they offer meanings unimaginable and crucial to the outcome of the play Hamlet. As I have just explained, the three soliloquies of Act I, II, III, of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare have very deep important meanings and messages to them.
In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet does avenge his father’s death but at the cost of many life’s. Multiple characters must be analyzed in order to make an opinion about Hamlet’s revenge. There are many reasons to hamlet delaying avenging his father’s death because he finds out from a ghost he could not trust. Hamlet can be compared to Laertes and Fortinbra. They are very similar but different and the same time. Each of them loved their fathers very much and felt as if they have to avenge their father’s death. Something they had in common has been that they felt their fathers were disrespected not only their fathers but them as well. Hamlet took a very weak approach to his father revenge where as in Laertes was quick to act and Fortinbra was in the middle.
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, the presentation and development of the relationships among the triumvirs, Caesar, Antony and Lepidus becomes a pivotal concern. As the play progresses, the dynamics of the triumvirate changes and becomes more complicated, providing the audience with the main political conflict that sometimes overshadows the romance of the title characters in the play. Shakespeare provides the audience with several different images of the triumvirate through different characters. The play’s first mentioning of the triumvirate is, in essence, a masculine Roman perspective of a soldier.
The complexity and effect of father-son relationships seems to be a theme that Shakespeare loved to explore in his writings. In Hamlet, the subject is used as a mechanism to identify the similarities between three very different characters: Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet. They have each lost their fathers to violent deaths, which leads them to seek vengeance. As different as they may seem, they all share the common desire to avenge their father’s deaths. The method they each approach this is what differentiates each of their characters, and allows the audience to discern their individual characteristics. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet’s intense loyalty to their fathers drives them to individual extreme measures of revenge, exemplifying Shakespeare’s masterful use of describing the human psyche during Elizabethan times.
In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.
“Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged;/ His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” In the William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet struggles internally throughout. After his father, Hamlet, is killed by his uncle, Claudius, Hamlet looks to seek revenge. Claudius is now king, and married to young Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude and now holds power over the kingdom. In his plot to kill Claudius to avenge his father, Hamlet takes on insanity as part of the act. While pretending his insanity, he mistakenly kills Polonius, councillor to the king, and also drives his lover, Ophelia, to suicide. In addition, Hamlet abandons all those he once called friends except for his one confidant, Horatio. Eventually, the insanity, once feigned by Hamlet, morphed into reality and became his enemy.
Hamlet seemed like a very intresting book to me, because of the series of unfortunate events were more like a domino affect. Their was no space in between these events. The death of Hamlets father to him loosing his sanity from learning the truth about his fathers death. The death of Ophealias father and that leading to her own. It taking hamlet to realize he loved ophelia after she died.