Essay Comparing Eliot’s Parody and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses characters as foils to show contrast to Jane and other minor and major characters. The entire book shows contrast, and it not only compares them to Jane but characters like Mr. Rochester. Charlotte Bronte also used foils to show complexity and diversity in many characters including Jane. In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte use Georgiana reed one of Jane’s extremely privileged and wealthy cousins as the first foil. Georgiana reed was depicted as “her beauty, her pink cheeks …delight to all who looked at her (Bronte 20).” Georgiana has beautiful blue eyes with yellow ringlet hair, compared to Jane who is said to look plain and even in some cases ugly “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little(72).” Jane being compared to Georgiana; helps me see Jane’s characteristics because Jane knows that superficial things such as wealth and beauty can only get one so far in life, it shows me that Jane is independent and determined to surpass her current situation.

Shakespeare starts off the sonnet by describing his mistress' eyes as being "nothing like the sun." In his time comparing women's eyes to things of brightness and shininess, such as the sun, was a very common thing as noticed in Spenser's poem; "Her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright." Shakespeare's mistress' lips have a far more faded red color than the color of Coral. Unlike Spenser's; who has "lips like cherries charming men to bite." Spenser claims his loved one's breasts are like "a bowl of cream uncurdled," which was another common practice; comparing a female's breasts to bright white things, such as snow.

Women in the Petrarchan sonnet are described as ideally beautiful. Sonnet 130 mocks the typical Petrarchan metaphors by telling the truth, rather than making his woman into a goddess. For example, Shakespeare notes that her eyes are "nothing like the sun,"(1). Her lips are less red than coral and her breasts are dun-colored when compared to the whiteness of snow. Shakespeare even says that “music hath a far more pleasing sound” (9) than her voice.

In Edward Scissorhands, when Peg goes to the mansion, it’s very low key and gives off a suspicious essence when she sees Edward in the corner. She finds Edward in the corner, but since it’s such a low key setting, the audience can’t see him right away. When she decides to take Edward into the real world, Tim Burton does a great job in changing the lighting from low key and ominous to very high key and uplifting. This change in lighting gives the audience a more jubilant feel than the feeling in the mansion. Aside from the different lighting in both, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Fac... ... middle of paper ... ...happens with both the lighting and the choice of lighting when the audience sees the town through Charlie’s point of view.

He believes that this woman’s purpose was to trip him up and get pleasure from it. Sammy goes on to describe the three young women. The first one he refers to as the “chunky one” (230), whom he describes as having a “sweet broad soft looking can” (230), in reference to her backside. He also adds, “With two crescents of white under it where the sun never shines” (230), indicating that he is really gawking at her backside. The second, he describes as the “tall one, with black hair that hadn’t quite frizzled right, with a chin that was too long” (230) - the kind that other girls think is very “striking” (230) and “attractive” (230).

Infinite Virtue IV.viii of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is a short scene, less than 40 lines, and an entirely unexpected one. The preceding scenes of Act IV, such as Hercules' departure and Enobarbus' desertion, heavily foreshadow Antony's defeat. When Antony wins his battle against Caesar and returns to Cleopatra in IV.viii, the joy of their reunion contrasts with the despair of Act IV. Antony's victory is a strike against fate and a tribute, albeit short-lived, to the power of Egypt. The association of royalty and divinity was a common tradition not limited to the Elizabethans' world picture.

Both characters of the play are interpreted as complete opposites. Titania, characterized as the beautiful, graceful fairy queen; Bottom is portrayed as overdramatic, self centered, and as of now, not keen on the eyes. However, the love nectar never fails and seems to bring the two into a state of lust. The contrast between the two is overwhelming. An important scene in the pl... ... middle of paper ... ...d lust.

130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. -William Shakespeare I selected the Shakespearean sonnet 130 to base my own creative work off of because it has always been one of my favorite poems written by Shakespeare.

Romean spectatorship measure identity by the relation between visual performance and ve... ... middle of paper ... ...s resonates. Caesar, after describing some of Antony's pleasurable immoderations, says that he "is not more manlike than Cleopatra,; nor the Queen of Ptolomy more womanly than he." Cleopatra recalls of the time, when she "drunk him to his bed; Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst I wore his sword Philippan." Consequently, Antony is presented in several emasculated ways - as a eunuch, a pleasure-seeking boy, and cross-dressed as a woman. As a result of all these dynamics, the audience's deference to him is supplanted with disgust, that such a great man could allow himself to degenerate to such a position, of losing his identity and replacing it with an ineffectual one.

William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra “Heaven help the American-born boy with a talent for ballet” – Camille Paglia The prim and proper women and the strong and strapping men are no match for Shakespeare’s haze of character’s muddled together in Antony and Cleopatra. As always Shakespeare delivers a luminary cast of individuals that deviate from the socially accepted gender roles. As the audience works its way through the fierce genesis to the catastrophic resolution, it is made more than apparent that lines are being crossed all over society’s conformist board of gender specific expectations. The character that was most amplified in this context was the stunning Cleopatra. Less like a lady and more like a warrior, the audience was witness to this Egyptian queen beginning her cameo with a barrage of games she endlessly threw Antony’s way in a sly attempt to win his affections.