This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on. (I.II.442-449)
When this quote was spoken, Edmund was telling Gloucester about a letter that Edgar wrote about killing him to get his money, however, Edmund faked the letter, making Gloucester believe that Edgar was a villain. Upon hearing this, Gloucester said, These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend/ no good to us. (I.II.429-430) With this quote, Shakespeare is telling his audience that misery isn’t caused by “the sun, moon, and stars”. It is the cause of one’s own actions, but people believe that when they suffer, it isn’t their fault, and they blame others. That, according to Shakespeare, is the idiocy of the world. In Shakespeare’s plays, specifically King Lear and Romeo and Juliet, grieving is a common theme, and it makes a greater point about humanity. Shakespeare makes people suffer in his plays to show his audience that suffering in universal and often the product of one’s poor decisions.
Using the characters of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows that one’s actions in love can make people suffer. Upon meeting, Romeo and Juliet kiss, and seem to be falling in love, although only knowing each other for a little while. When Juliet leaves, she goes to her balcony, and Romeo sees her, then says to himself that he loves her more than anything.
It is my lady. Oh, i...
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...sight into his failures and the nature of the people around him. Gloucester realized that he didn’t need eyes because even when he had them, he couldn’t see clearly. Shakespeare’s greater meaning is that people will suffer unless they look beneath the surface, and that having literal sight doesn’t mean that people can see clearly. The audience should understand that they shouldn’t look at the world and make decisions with their eyes, but with their heart and mind.
The theme of suffering in Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet is used to show that suffering is universal and often the product of one’s poor decisions. His plays show many truths about humanity, and many of them are explained from characters such as Romeo, Juliet, King Lear, and Gloucester that have to suffer because of their actions. Shakespeare shows his audience that everyone suffers.
By the end of the play, Romeo and Juliet have completely fallen in love, which ultimately led to their premature deaths; with their relationship beginning as lust and blossoming into love. While Romeo and Juliet's interest in each other starts off as just physical attraction, through spending time together and learning about each other, their relationship transitions into true love because of the constant fear of living without each other.
“Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it.” In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare exposes the life of two young lovers in the Renaissance period fighting for something they cannot live without; each other. Although fate takes its toll, the everlasting feud between two families, conditional love by parents, and the irresponsibility’s of father and mother like figure are the main causes in the death of Romeo and Juliet. The idea of love is something that is valued in this play from many different aspects of characters, lines, and scenes. Shakespeare leaves the minds of readers soaring over not why it happened, but who was at fault.
Through Lear, Shakespeare expertly portrays the inevitability of human suffering. The “little nothings,” seemingly insignificant choices that Lear makes over the course of the play, inevitably evolve into unstoppable forces that change Lear’s life for the worse. He falls for Goneril’s and Regan’s flattery and his pride turns him away from Cordelia’s unembellished affection. He is constantly advised by Kent and the Fool to avoid such choices, but his stubborn hubris prevents him from seeing the wisdom hidden in the Fool’s words: “Prithee, tell him, so much the rent of his land comes to: he will not believe a fool” (Shakespeare 21). This leads to Lear’s eventual “unburdening,” as foreshadowed in Act I. This unburdening is exacerbated by his failure to recognize and learn from his initial mistakes until it is too late. Lear’s lack of recognition is, in part, explained by his belief in a predestined life controlled completely by the gods: “It is the stars, the stars above us govern our conditions” (Shakespeare 101). The elder characters in King Lear pin their various sufferings on the will of...
In Act I of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare demonstrates different forms of love that characters face. From the beginning, Romeo struggles to find true love and what love really is. As for Juliet, she also struggles on what love is, but also finding her own voice. And when finally finding true love they discover that they have fallen in love their own enemy. They both realize that the idea of love can be amazing, but also a painful experience. Shakespeare demonstrates love versus evil and the forms love takes that is acknowledged as an universal issue that connects different types of audiences. Audiences are captured by relating on love and the emotions that are displayed. From Romeo and Rosaline’s unrequited love, Paris and Juliet’s false love, and Romeo and Juliet’s ill-fated love, create the forms of love that establishes love as a leading theme in Act I.
Love is a wonderful curse that forces us to do unexplainable things. Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by William Shakespeare, who does an exceptional job in showing the readers what hate, mercy, death, courage, and most importantly what love looks like. This play is about two star-crossed lovers who are both willing to sacrifice their lives just to be with one another. Unfortunately tragedy falls upon the unconditional love Romeo and Juliet have for each other, but along the way they experience immeasurable forgiveness and extraordinary braveness just to be with one another. Sadly enough, love is a cause of violence in the end. Even though the pair spends less time together, it is enough for them to fall in love. It is clearly true
Throughout the history of Literature, writing has become more complex. One will see the idea of revenge in many great pieces. If one were to take a glance at modern society you will see that vengeance and greed is destroying large communities over time, populations, and even entire civilizations. Revenge and greed has the power to turn a complete civil man into a total savage and Shakespeare showed the reader in one of his most popular fine works called Hamlet. Hamlet is dealing with a character who goes through a change from college student to a bloodthirsty character looking for vengeance. Even though the character loses sight of who he is and who he really avenging in the end he feels that he is complete. There is also another character who is being overwhelmed with greed that he would kill his own blood for the right of the crown and fortune. The reader’s will see that revenge and greed plays a main role and that they complement each other and Shakespeare would use this to his advantage when writing this play. Throughout the play readers will realize Shakespeare’s creativness to use vengeance, death and insanity to emotionally drive his characters to their death or to their prosperity.
... as it unfolds. It is saddening to see these characters fail again and again to understand each other, and themselves. Within our own lives however, we are not so different from the characters of the play. Many things are beyond our comprehension, and it is easy for suffering to arise when people are without understanding. Alas, Shakespeare has given us fair warning of the tragedy that could spring from incomprehension. It would be unwise to take this warning for granted; perhaps a pursuit of greater understanding will correlate with less tragedy among our lives.
Despite what many people think, Romeo and Juliet is not a love story; rather a story of desperation and obsession. People have been reading Shakespeare for hundreds of years and several people have mistaken it for a love story, due to the fact that Romeo loves Juliet so much he is willing to kill himself when he finds her supposedly dead; she does the same when she wakes up to find him dead. But in fact, Romeo is more taken aback by her beauty than he is in love with her. Juliet is intrigued by the fact someone could love her because her parents are very unsupportive of her. When the two find each other, they immediately become obsessed, mistaking this for love at first sight.
The use of blindness throughout the play provides for certain irony and a lesson to be learned. Shakespeare uses these references of blindness to show that sight isn’t helpful unless you understand what you are seeing, that you can gain sight through the loss of your eyes, and that blindness isn’t what you physically cannot see, but what you gain from not
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.
Ultimately`, William Shakespeare shows in many different ways throughout the play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, that love is the more powerful force than hate. The readers see how the characters continuously forgive one another, even when the conditions are tough. The friendships between specific characters display a loving bond that cannot be broken with hate. Shakespeare demonstrates that Romeo and Juliet’s love can overpower the hate of many events in the play. He shows that their love can even overpower the death of one of their own family members. Romeo and Juliet’s love brings friendship between their feuding families. This story is a true example of how love can conquer all.
Love is ironic. It can take you anywhere in the world unexpectedly, and turn you into a person that you never were. However, love is also two-faced, having both a negative and positive view. It is what drives you to the point where you do not know who you are anymore. In Shakespeare's story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare perceives love with the personalities and actions of the characters, Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet are characterized as immature and irrational due to their "love." In addition, both characters fail to realize the reality of life and go towards the path of adolescence. Even though Romeo and Juliet are doomed at the end of the journey of "love," their demise was caused by their rash and silly decisions because their belief of everlasting love blinds them from reality and shapes their lives into an unstoppable time bomb.
In the play “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare shows that love has power to control one’s actions, feelings, and the relationship itself through the bond between a destined couple. The passion between the pair grew strong enough to have the capability to do these mighty things. The predestined newlyweds are brought down a rocky road of obstacles learning love’s strength and the meaning of love.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet play, the character that I took interest in and thought that helped with unfolding the plot the most would be Juliet. Juliet played a very big role because she was the star crossed lover of Romeo Montague. In my slide, I pulled out a few quotes that I found that focused on Juliet’s personality. Juliet provides a pure and beautiful personality. Romeo says “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun” (2.2.3) while she enters the balcony for their kissing scene. To interpret this, it meant as a comparison, as Romeo expresses Juliet’s beauty and radiant glow. Romeo falls in love with Juliet at first sight and he truly shows compassion for her. To symbolize her beauty and glow, I chose to put a picture of a sun.
In Shakespeare's classic tragedy, King Lear, the issue of sight and its relevance to clear vision is a recurring theme. Shakespeare's principal means of portraying this theme is through the characters of Lear and Gloucester. Although Lear can physically see, he is blind in the sense that he lacks insight, understanding, and direction. In contrast, Gloucester becomes physically blind but gains the type of vision that Lear lacks. It is evident from these two characters that clear vision is not derived solely from physical sight. Lear's failure to understand this is the principal cause of his demise, while Gloucester learns to achieve clear vision, and consequently avoids a fate similar to Lear's.