All's Well That Ends Well as Fairy Tale and Morality Play
Shakespeare employed two ancient story-telling forms in writing All's Well That Ends Well. One, the fairy tale, he inherited from his source. The other, the morality play, he worked into the story.
The type of fairy and folk tales of which All's Well That Ends Well is an example are known as Virtue stories. These are composed of two major sections: The Healing Of The King and The Fulfillment Of The Tasks. These tales can be found in the early literature of cultures the world over and have two qualities in common: the cleverness and devotion of the woman sent by her husband to perform the tasks, and the husband's immediate acceptance of the fulfillment of the tasks as evidence of the wife's courage and love. The Healing Of The King in All's Well is a variation of a common popular theme: a hero wins the hand of the king's daughter by performing a difficult task, in which failure will cost him his life. Boccaccio and Shakespeare add interest by switching the genders of the characters.
Shakespeare also drew on the morality plays, a popular medieval theatrical form in which characters representing good and evil struggle for the soul of the hero. In All's Well Shakespeare has created similar relationships by adding the character of Parolles. Parolles acts as Vice personified, and Helena acts as Divine Grace. Together they struggle for the soul of Bertram, unredeemed man.
Shakespeare carefully weaves these two forms together at two major points in the action. Helena's healing of the king operates on the level of fairy tale and carries hints of the miraculous as well. Lafeu calls it "A showing of a heavenly effect in an earthly actor." At the end of the play, Bertram's acceptance of Helena fits the Virtue story form. It also reflects the point in morality plays when unredeemed man, burdened by sin and about to be carried off to the everlasting torments of hell, calls for mercy. However, unlike the characters in morality plays and fairy tales, Shakespeare's characters are realistic in their motivations and behavior. Can a fairy tale work in the complex lives of real people?
In most people's lives, there comes a point in time where their perception changes abruptly; a single moment in their life when they come to a sudden realization. In Langston Hughes' 'Salvation', contrary to all expectations, a young Hughes is not saved by Jesus, but is saved from his own innocence.
Shakespeare introduces to us a character who is evil according to the moral judgement of the moment. He does not respect the social values and norms. For him social taboos such as incest and crimes such as murder cease to be wrong once they become instruments of power. He is Satan incarnated, cunning, greedy and destructive. He has no respect for those who observe social, norms, family ethics and political loyalty.
Kenneth Branagh creates his own individualistic adaptation of this classic through the use of visual imagery, characterization, and setting. Branagh cut many lines and speeches from the text to better support his interpretation of a more open and informal society of warm-hearted, affectionate characters. Though Shakespeare's mood is more formal, Branagh remains true to the essence of the play as all of the same characters and most of the dialogue are justly included in the film. Although distinct differences can be made between Branagh’s film and Shakespeare’s written work, they both share a common denominator of good old-fashioned entertainment; and in the world of theater, nothing else really matters.
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
In Langston Hughes’ essay “Salvation,” Langston talks about the first time he is going to be saved from sin. Langston is a young boy around the age of thirteen. He is going to church to see Jesus for the first time. In which case, he truly experiences religion for the first time in his life. Throughout this essay Langston uses many narrative techniques such as, imagery, metaphors, and irony to explain his interpretation of that one night when he did not see Jesus.
The ability of an author to capture the interest of the audience has and will always be an important factor in the art of storytelling and even the expression of research or related material. When an author is able to seize the attention of any partaking of their work, curiosity will develop which will lead to the wonder of what the conclusion my bring about. Not only is it important to snatch the audience’s attention in the beginning, it is necessary to hold it prisoner throughout the tale. Authors do this by having an interesting plot development in which many unexpected details come into play and the course of the story is thrown from the norm and into the conflict. Shakespeare was a master of this art in the work he produced throughout his life and was able to create stories of humor and those of tragedy. For example, his play King Lear is a terrible tragedy in which many awful things take place and the story ends by disastrous means. While in the play Much Ado About Nothing, very little conflict is present and if it is, it is resolved quickly and the play concludes with the joyfulness of marriage nuptials. His ability to develop plot and story in a way in which the audience who love to devour, Shakespeare will in a way immortalize himself, “Shakespeare proved himself to be both the "soul of the age" his works reflected and adorned and the consummate symbol of the artist whose poetic visions transcend their local habitation and become, in some mysterious way, contemporaneous with ‘all time.’” (Andrews) As stated, Shakespeare went beyond his time and created traditions, symbols, sayings, and even stories that people today will remember forever. King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing are each examples of Shakespeare's detailed ...
To conclude, reading the plays of Shakespeare is not only about an entertainment, there is more about learning manhood and the importance of the role that morality plays in everyday life. That is the reason of Shakespeare’s plays are so popular because through his work, he illustrates that: life is a play, which is performed on the earth stage, and his world stage will continue influences the past, modern and further.
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.
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.
No matter how different we think that we are, as a human race, the feelings that are brought out in Shakespeare's plays bring us together in spirit.
During our infancy mostly of us (I hope) heard about the fairy tales that help us to imagine unrealistic ways of actions. Fairy tales also help us to think more broadly to solve a problem. We are used to read, listen, or see those compositions that are always written and censored many traumatic aspects to avoid bad interpretations. The majority of the stories are simplified to target lower ages, however, fairly tales can be scary. Sometimes, we do not notice the horror behind those stories. But to a great extent of stories, the fairy tales can be scary. The Shining is one of those fairly tales, where the father tries to kill his family. It is a fairy tale that is misinterpreted; however, the film itself depicts to be a fairy tale.
The battle between good and evil presents itself throughout William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet in numerous ways. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s struggle to follow his moral values and beliefs is evident. Hamlet can be viewed as a strong character with good intentions but had fallen vulnerable for his need to avenge his father’s death, King Hamlet. Seeking vengeance for king Hamlets death is viewed as dishonorable under the eyes of God but shows that Hamlet is as susceptible to sin as any other character in the play. Therefore, Hamlets character is caught between his Christian faith and the need to avenge his father’s death.
Fairy tales have been around for hundreds of years, dating all the way back to at least the 1600’s and are still common narratives today. The way they are told has changed, but the purpose of them as not shifted. They used to be passed down by word of mouth or by writing, and now they are passed down through children’s book, to adult novels, to motion pictures and plays. Certainly they are used for entertainment, but fairy tales also teach us valuable life lessons in danger, safety, respect, friendships, and love.
In William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” the major theme in this play is good versus evil. There are good characters, who do good, help others and try their best to stay out of trouble, and there are other characters who are the exact opposite. All the characters do is try to get even with those who hurt them, hoping that ravage would solve the problem. Good and Evil, just like the theme of the book, also applies to the world that we live in today because there are good people and there are bad people. Good will do good while bad will be bad.
William Shakespeare's plays come in many forms. There are histories, tragedies, comedies and tragic comedies. Among the most popular are the comedies which are full of laughter, irony, satire and wordplay. Many times the question is asked: what makes a play a comedy instead of a tragedy. Shakespeare's comedies often use puns, metaphors and insults to provoke 'thoughtful laughter'. The action is often strained by artificiality, especially elaborate and contrived endings. Disguises and mistaken identities are often very common. Opposed to that are the tragedies, where the reader would find death, heartbreak, and more serious plots and motives. The plot is very important in Shakespeare's comedies. It is often very convoluted, twisted and confusing, and extremely hard to follow. Other characteristics of Shakespearean comedy are the themes of love and friendship, played within a courtly society. Songs often sung by a jester or a fool, parallel the events of the plot. Minor characters, which add flavor to the plot, are often inserted into the storyline. Love provides the main ingredient. If the lovers are unmarried when the play opens, they either have not met or there is some obstacle to their relationship. Examples of these obstacles are familiar to every reader of Shakespeare: the slanderous tongues which nearly wreck love in "Much Ado About Nothing", the father insistent upon his daughter marrying his choice, as in "A Midsummer Nights Dream", or the confusion of husbands in "The Comedy of Errors".