The Importance of Honor in Richard II
The tension-charged exchange between Bolingbroke and Mowbray in the first scenes of Richard II provides exciting action for the audience, and gives a glimpse into trial by combat and the importance of honor in Shakespeare's plays. Trial by combat, or a judicial duel was a traditional way to settle disputes in England and Europe for many generations. People dueled to defend their own honor, and to prove personal claims against the honor of others. Honor. Honor is the accumulation of virtuous deeds that instills a respect in others and in you. Possessing, seeking, and defending the elusive trait of honor are crucial elements of Richard II.
The concept of honor has different meanings to individual members of a modern audience, just as it did to an Elizabethan audience. What is honorable? What makes someone honorable? Aristotle thought:
there is no true honor in the world but that which commeth from vertue. Vertue seeks no greater or ampler theater to shew her selfe in, then her owne conscience. The higher the Sunne is the lesse shadow it makes, and the greater a mans vertue is the lesse glorie it seekes. (qtd. in Council 28)
So, by Aristotle's rationale, those people who seek honor are in fact not honorable because they are deliberately seeking honor, which is a vice. Council sums Aristotle's argument very well, "virtue consists in action; the reward of that action is honor; to pursue more honor than virtuous action warrants or to pursue honor for its own sake is a vice" (19). Honor is also eloquently described by Rabelais's definition of honor to the Thelemites, "because men that are free, well-born, and well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have natu...
... middle of paper ...
...mon. New York: W W Norton, 1994.
12. Seldon, John. Table-Talk. [1689]. Ed. Edward Arber. London: Alex, Murray & Son, 1868.
13. Shakespeare, W. "The Tragedy of King Richard the Second." The Complete
14. Signet Classic Shakespeare. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Johanovich, Publishers, 1972.
You may wish to begin your essay with the quotes below:
Bolingbroke:
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor and a miscreant.
(Richard II, 1.1.37-39)
Mowbray:
I take it up; and by that sword I swear,
Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder,
I'll answer thee in any fair degree
Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;
And when I mount, alive may I not light,
If I be traitor or unjustly fight.
(Richard II, 1.1.78-83)
William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, has a heavy focus on honor. The characters in the play have a tendency to refer back to honor and the honor of Rome, but are they really as honorable as they say? Honor is a very abstract concept that is widely applicable in many situations, but what is it? To honor someone is to show them respect, and to be honorable is to act in a way that deserves respect and admiration. The characters of Julius Caesar, for the most part, are all seeking some form of honor, but do they achieve it? Three of the best examples of honor in Julius Caesar are Brutus, Cassius, and Portia. With varying levels of honor, these characters display the spectrum well.
?What is left when honor is lost?? Publilius Syrus' quote, though dating from 100 B.C., still seems pertinent to our era (Quotations). Many people still feel that once integrity is lost they are nothing and many are willing to stand up to keep their integrity. Without integrity, we are nothing. During the time that Arthur Miller wrote his most famous play, The Crucible, innocent men and women are accused of having Communist leanings. Their whole lives are ruined in a short amount of time because they refuse to compromise themselves by selling out their friends. Miller tries to make a statement about these unfair trials by comparing them to the Salem witch-hunts and trials of 1692. The main protagonist of his play is a man named John Proctor who is accused of witchcraft but stands up to maintain his name and his honor, even though he is hanged for it. During the H.U.A.C. trials some took stands for their beliefs with the knowledge of possibly being shunned by society. Knowing this, instead of taking the cowards' way and giving the names of their friends, they refuse to tell the committee anything in the same way that John Proctor stands up against a court that is ruining the lives of innocent people.
In 1885, John S. Pemberton, an American pharmacist, created the formula for what is now known as Coca-Cola. Being a pharmacist, Pemberton’s original intention was for this concoction to be used as medicine in order
The Greeks placed great importance on personal honor. Why is this? Is it because to them man I nothing without honor. Or is it that the honor is more important than the man? "Honor to the Greeks is something that is won by a man's prowess, his ability to fight and be victorious on the battle field"(Schein 62). This is just one example of how honor is obtained. A second method of gaining honor is to be a great orator, one must posses the ability to speak in the assembly and express his ideas eloquently, and persuasively to the gathered body. A third way of achieving personal honor is to demonstrate athletic ability.
Honor is something men and women have fought for century after century. Even now, thousands of American and British men are fighting in Iraq, near to where the Trojan War was to have taken place. These men fight for the greater good. They fight for those in Iraq who are unable to fight for or otherwise defend themselves. They fight for honor. The characters in the Iliad are motivated by their own form of honor, or arete, known similarly as the Homeric Code. And it is because of this code that the Trojan War began. The characters in this story are shown to possess arete, but some have different ideas as to how vastly and to what rate it should be respected. And because of this, many a man’s honor is disturbed.
The undeniable pursuit for power is Richard’s flaw as a Vice character. This aspect is demonstrated in Shakespeare’s play King Richard III through the actions Richard portrays in an attempt to take the throne, allowing the audience to perceive this as an abhorrent transgression against the divine order. The deformity of Richards arm and back also symbolically imply a sense of villainy through Shakespeare’s context. In one of Richard’s soliloquies, he states how ‘thus like the formal Vice Iniquity/ I moralize two meanings in one word’. Through the use of immoral jargons, Shakespeare emphasises Richard’s tenacity to attain a sense of power. However, Richard’s personal struggle with power causes him to become paranoid and demanding, as demonstrated through the use of modality ‘I wish’ in ‘I wish the bastards dead’. This act thus becomes heavily discordant to the accepted great chain of being and conveys Richard’s consumption by power.
In the Homeric world, honor is qualified by power. In the Iliad, power is measured several ways. When Nestor tries to mediate between the enraged Achilles and Agamemnon, he makes the point that “power and glory [are] given by Zeus himself” (Book I, Line 294). A king is the ultimate in nobility, even if he is the king of a small, poor Greek city. Being a king depends on accident of birth, not on ability, and is a sign of the gods’ favor. Because the gods have smiled on him, “a scepter-holding king has honor beyond the rest of men” (Book I, Line 293). In the Greek army...
William Shakespeare's Richard II tells the story of one monarch's fall from the throne and the ascension of another, Henry Bullingbrook, later to become Henry IV. There is no battle fought between the factions, nor does the process take long. The play is not action-packed, nor does it keep readers in any form of suspense, but rather is comprised of a series of quietly dignified ruminations on the nature of majesty. Thus, the drama lies not in the historical facts, but in the effects of the situation on the major characters and the parallels drawn by Shakespeare to other tales. The outrage felt by Richard and his fellow royalists is not due from a modern sense of personal loss, but from the much more important sense of loss of order, which came most predominately from the strictly Catholic sensibilities of the time. In Richard's time kings were believed to be divinely appointed and "not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash the balm off from an anointed king" (III.iii, 54-5). This disparity between the perceived will of God and the way in which the events unfold creates trouble in the minds of the characters and the audience. Shakespeare makes it clear that this is not just a simple switch of power, rather a series of events whose meanings and effects penetrate far deeper than the mere surface of the story.
When Dr. Pemberton mixed the drink with tonic water, sampled it, and critiqued it until excellent, his bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, named the product Coca-Cola and created the distinct and classic font still recognizable today. Before dying only two years later, Dr. Pemberton sold the original product to an Atlanta businessman known as Asa Candler. He became one of the greatest men to work with Coca-Cola. Mr. Candler traveled all around the city handing out coupons and advertisements to people to come and try the best new thing. As the new president, Asa Candler distributed Coca-Cola to more and more fountains outside of his city. With the new syrup plants in more cities like Los Angeles, California; Dallas, Texas; and Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Candler was able to spread items with the famous brand name on them across the country ("Coca-Cola History").
The birth of Coca Cola began in May 1886 when the first coke formula was invented. It was invented by a pharmacist who lived in Atlanta, Georgia called John Pemberton as drink at soda fountains. The name of the drink “Coca Cola” was a suggestion given by Pemberton’s bookkeeper Frank Robinson (Bellis). Pemberton wanted his invention to bring him commercial success, however, Coke did not do well in its early years (Martin). The man died in August 1888. After Pemberton’s death, a business man named Asa Candler bought his formula for $2300 and rescued his Coke business (Bellis). In 1891, Candler became the sole owner of Coca-Cola (Martin). Coca-Cola became one of the most popular fountain drinks in America by the late 1890s (Bellis). However, Pemberton would never see this commercial success he had been looking for during his lifetime since his life ended in 1888 before Coca-Cola became popular. After the 1960s, soda fountains became less popular and coke began to be sold in bottles. On April 23, 1985, the “New Coke” formula was released (Bellis). The Coke we drink today is the “New Coke” that comes in bottles.
The premise of the play Titus Andronicus can be easily summed up in one word. That word is simply ‘honor’. Honor means a different thing today than it did during the Roman Empire or Shakespeare’s life, but it is important to know honor’s definition in order to understand Titus Andronicus. Honor was used to justify murdering multiple times throughout the play. Titus killed two of his own children to protect his honor. Titus’s honor was also destroyed by Lavinia being raped and mutilated and Aaron tricking Titus into cutting off his hand, an important symbol of his honor. The word ‘honor’ has a huge impact on the play Titus Andronicus.
HONOR CAN BE DEFINED IN SO MANY WAYS CAN mean respect and esteem shown to another. HONOR may ALSO apply to the recognition of one's right to great respect or to any expression of such recognition IN SOME SITUATIONS IT implies profound respect mingled with love, devotion.There is a priceless respect that everyone in the world possesses, and that is the. respect of a person?s honor. A person?s honor is something that can not be bought, sold,. or traded it?s something that must be gained by the respect of your peers. An example of. how honor is seen in everyday life in through a persons word. The standard dictionary definition of honor first lists public regard and esteem under the word, with ethical conduct or high standards of justice and responsibility appearing much further down the list. This is reflected in the way the modern world treats the issue of honor. In ancient times, honor was the manner of being that we now describe as having integrity. In plain language, an honorable person avoids deception whenever possible, treats others with respect and sticks to her beliefs no matter how others think or act. People generally do not seem to behave very well toward each other any more.Honor determines the hierarchy of an individual while revealing his loyalty and true intentions. Reward comes for those at the top whose honor does not diminish, while a false or fleeting honor of a lesser mortal causes destruction. Exploring and discussing how to act honorably toward each other is a place to start.The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. How can you be a person of integrity? First, figure out what integrity (honor) is. My mother used to say to treat others the way you wanted to be treated. Does anyone do that these days? Well, I know that I don't want to be cut off in traffic, or yelled at, or bumped into rudely at the grocery store, or left picking up garbage all over my yard from the street. So I could try not to do those things to other people. I won't cut off others in traffic, or yell, or act rude at the grocery store, or throw garbage in the street. That's just a place to start. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
how honor is seen in everyday life is through a person’s words. A person’s honor is
"What tongue speaks my right drawn sword may prove" is the sentence which concludes a short speech delivered by Henry Bolingbroke to King Richard II (1.1.6). These words are but the first demonstration of the marked difference between the above-mentioned characters in The Tragedy of Richard II. The line presents a man intent on action, a foil to the title character, a man of words.
Coca Cola is now available in all the continents of the world and recognized by most of the world's population. In the beverage industry, global Coca Cola has an important role. Asa Griggs Candle had transformed people to the new image of Coca Cola. His success to make the consumers understands “Coke medication” is a delicious fresh drink. In 1886, Coca Cola was first introduced to the public in Atlanta, Georgia and it really attracted the attention of most people, who enjoyed the great aroma and attractiveness of Coke. Later on, Coca Cola soft drink became a global celebrity. Coca Cola was attractive...