I argue that the majority of the guidelines are still followed today, thus The Prince sets forth ideas that still hold value in today’s political society. Niccolò di Bernadrdo de’ Machiavelli was a resident of Florence, Italy, andwas unable to participate in government due to the lack of his father’s wealth (Rebhorn, Introduction, pg.15). Little is known about Machiavelli’s youth; records of him don’t start showing up again until 1498 when he was reinstalled in the newly elected city government, which had just overthrown the Medici family. There he worked in numerous government positions until 1512 when Spain invaded Italy and the Medici family reclaimed power. They imprisoned him and he was eventually exiled outside of Florence.
The whole plot of The Tempest can be summed up by these words from Gonzalo: "...In one voyage Did Claribel her husband find at Tuns, And Ferdinand her brother found a wife Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves When no man was his own" (Shakespeare 82). Works Cited Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Lecture IX". The Tempest. New York: Signet Classic.
If first proposal to the body was to establish procedures for the emancipation of slaves, an idea quickly shot down. He remained a member of the house until its dissolution in 1774 by the colony’s British Governor Dunmore. The same year plans were made to hold a continental congress of all the colonies. In preperation for this meeting Jefferson wrote an essay called A Summary of the Rights of British Americans, in which he voiced his thoughts on the rights of men. Due to illness he was unable to attend this meeting, but its widespread publishing lead to his nomination to the second Continental congress.
This essay deals with the figure of Prospero as master of Shakespeare's “The Tempest”, illustrating his power in all its expressions and explaining how it is based on knowledge. The first paragraph explains the context in which Prospero's power arises through the play and introduces his background and other main characters. In the second paragraph I discuss the relationship between Prospero and Caliban, a creature found in the island and submitted by the protagonist that attempts to civilize him. The third paragraph is about Miranda, Prospero's daughter. She grew up only with her father after the shipwreck, so he is the only example she can follow and he decides everything for her.
Hamlet is under the belief that his father died of natural causes and nothing more. As he comes to realize the truth, he leaves behind the safe harbor of innocence and naïveté and enters the uneasy world of adulthood and experience. Standing within his castle, he makes a speech to himself and to God commenting on the quickness in which his mother married his uncle. It is at this point where the beginning of the end of his innocence starts. He believes that by marrying his uncle, his mother betrayed his father.
Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try; In that I live, and for that I will die." (I.i) These passages indirectly state that King Richard II is at fault for the death of his uncle. But for the reader to see this they must break down the play and search for those "hidden meanings".For the ordinary reader, who does not search, the text clearly states that the fight for innocence is distinctly between Bullingbrook and Mowbray. Such an example can be found in Act I: "Bull: That he [Mowbray] did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death,Suggest his soon-believing adversaries,And consequently, like a traitor coward,Sluic'd his innocent soul through streams of blood." The rest of the dialogue converses back and forth between Bullingbrook and Mowbray, each fighting for their own innocence.
While Claudius wears a mask of a loving brother who now has to take the role of father upon his nephew, Hamlet convinces even his own mother of his insanity. Claudius refers to his nephew in the sense that, "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe" (I, ii, ll. 1-4) This only sets the tone for the entire play for his deceptive actions of being a doting parent, husband, and king while in reality having committed a heinous murder in order to obtain the power of the throne. His falsified feelings towards honestly and loyalty are dashed within act three, when he promotes his love for Hamlet, arranges for his death. The King plans for his stepson to be murdered while traveling to England, but is unsuccessful.
This is shown in his first speech addressed to his court, "and that it us befitted/To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom/To be contracted in one brow of woe" (Shakespeare I22-4). It is shown further on in the same speech when he says, "our late dear brother's death" (Shakespeare I219). However, this is not how Claudius truly feels about his brothers death, for Claudius is the one who murders elder Hamlet. We see the proof of this in Claudius' soliloquy when he appears to be praying; "O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven./It hath the primal eldest curse upon't/A brother's murder" (Shakespeare III336-38). Another love which Claudius fakes is the love he has towards his nephew and stepson, Hamlet.
Shakespeare's King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one man's decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lear's first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction.
For example, the death of Ophelia struck him without notice, especially for being blamed for her death by her brother, Laertes. Readers can see this when Hamlet says “Hear you, sir, What is the reason that you use me thus? I loved you ever.” (V.i.307-309). Later, Hamlet overhears Claudius about his plan to ship Hamlet off to England, but immediately upon his arrival, will be killed. Now knowing that, Hamlet decides to go but only for readers to know that he switched ships to one that will be going home rather than England.