Perhaps the most important part of a play is its beginning, and Peter Shaffer immediately grabs his viewers’ attention in the opening monologue of Equus. By starting the play in Dysart’s mind, Shaffer establishes that the story is about Dysart; although it at times seems that it is Alan’s story, by the end, what was suggested in the opening scene is revealed: Dysart is the true protagonist. The monologue introduces the religious and sexual symbol of the horse, an integral part of the book. The most important thing that it does, however, is delving directly into Dysart’s psyche, hinting at themes of passion and normality and setting the stage for them to be more deeply explored.
Equus is all about passion; for Alan it is his sexual and religious passion for horses, and for Dysart it is the lack–or suppression–of his passions. Throughout the play Dysart comes to acknowledge his passion problem, which is magnified by the extreme and strange passion he sees in Alan’s case. “The doubts have been there for years, piling up steadily in this dreary place.” This passion is implied even in t...
the opening scene of the play, as the readers later found out that he had
...by and enchantment. In real life, most of us are Helens hoping that this trance will last forever, except we do not have the magic to prolong the love or the fake realities we create. Shakespeare reveals how absurd it is to live on these unrealities by throwing in Titania’s realization of her love for Bottom. Titania’s love reveals that we are not all doomed to this life of living on the edge of hope, that we can be truly elated with our real world. Aside from this criticism Shakespeare’s contrast between appearance and reality shows us how ignoring reality and accepting unrealities can sometimes prove to be the better pathway to take in life, as Theseus and the rest of the audience of Pyramus and Thisbe display for us. Shakespeare is telling us to live our lives more like Titania and less like Helen so that we can be completely content with reality.
...espeare's control of the play proper. This is shown both on the small and the large scale. The linguistic variety of the play (see below) and the control of the four narrative strands are such that the play has enjoyed great success in performance. In the wood, Shakespeare will leave a group of characters alone for as long as he needs to, but we never lose touch with their story. It is typical of Shakespeare that the mortals we see first in the wood are Demetrius and Helena; at once the playwright shows us the cause of Demetrius' rejection of Helena and lets us know that the other pair are also in the wood. We do not need to see Lysander and Hermia before they have lost their way, but we are ready for Puck's mistake as he seeks one in "Athenian garments".
In drama, readers are given spoken language and stage directions to interpret the world of the play. In Shakespeare's case, stage directions are close to non-existent and as analysts of what most consider the most gifted and eloquent playwright of humanity, it is possible to expound upon the most minute details and possible interpretations of his work. Having no information on what Shakespeare thought of his own work or his intended literary and dramatic motives, he speaks through his character's voices. It is important to observe Coriolanus objectively to see how his interactions with his supporting characters shape the play and shed light on why Shakespeare chose to lead him down his tragic spiral. The main benefit of the first seven weeks of class has been to take twenty informed opinions and allow them to take shape in structured discussion in order to fuel theories and the building process of discovering major themes and literary motives in important literature to theater as an area of study. There are many sections of speech in Coriolanus that provide an outlet of use for the techniques that have been refined in class so we may be able to break off as individuals and formulate solid and specific arguments by ourselves. In lines 182-193, before the closure of Act Five, Scene Three, Coriolanus succumbs to his family's pleas thus relinquishing pride's strong grip around his headstrong personality and through the form of the scene and these specific lines and their dramatic explosiveness, his tragic flaw is revealed being not his pride, but his willingness and ability to understand the false motivations it has inspired within him.
In this essay I will explore how significant act 3 scene 7 is to the
In the written text, Shakespeare emphasis's the hidden reality through the use of dramatic techniques of imagery and symbolism. There is a constant use of light and dark imagery which is used by the protagonist , MAC...
What is so interesting about Shakespeare's first play, The Comedy of Errors, are the elements it shares with his last plays. The romances of his final period (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest) all borrowed from the romantic tradition, particularly the Plautine romances. So here, as in the later plays, we have reunions of lost children and parents, husbands and wives; we have adventures and wanderings, and the danger of death (which in this play is not as real to us as it is in the romances). Yet, for all these similarities, the plot of The Comedy of Errors is as simple as the plots of the later plays are complex. It is as though Shakespeare's odyssey through the human psyche in tragedy and comedy brought him back to his beginnings with a sharper sense of yearning, poignancy, and the feeling of loss. But to dismiss this play as merely a simplistic romp through a complicated set of maneuvers is to miss the pure theatrical feast it offers on the stage - the wit and humor of a master wordsmith, the improbability of a plot that sweeps...
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
...are evoked but against the divinely spun destiny and pity is felt for Oedipus, their play-thing, with no more power to change his life than to change his past.
The play begins with a conversation between Roderigo and Iago. The opening lines are significant in that they set the tone and initiate the plot. Roderigo’s thematic purpose is portrayed through Iago’s manipulation in the lines, “Tush, never tell me! I take it much unkindly/ That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse/ As if the strings were thine shouldst know of this.” (1.1.1-3).
The answers on these questions will help to understand Wilde’s position towards the problems he rises in the play. Where are a lot of them, and this fact makes harder to take one as the most central. In all three acts, the reader faces with such problems as: r...
Shakespeare’s tragedies were extremely popular in Elizabethan times and today. A tragedy is described as “a sad, serious story or play, usually ending with the death of the hero. A disastrous, fatal or dreadful event.” By comparing the three plays, Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello it is possible to see how he has used techniques appropriate to tragedy and how he applied them to his plays. The opening of the play is significant because it sets the scene and the preceding atmosphere. When looking at the start of many of Shakespeare’s plays the audience generally discovers the protagonist by other characters. The audience also become aware of where the play is performed, together with important events contained in the play’s plot. In order to compose the openings of the plays it is necessary to examine the way in which Shakespeare uses setting, imagery, language, theme and structure. In doing this it will be possible to understand Shakespeare engages the audience attention in his opening scenes.
Indeed, Jaques observes astutely from the sidelines. He separates himself from what he considers the frivolity of making suitable marriage matches. But Jaques's speeches are not merely Shakespeare's devices for explication. There is a psychological middle ground between the court and the forest, and the ideals closest to those who think little are, in Jaques's eyes, admirable. His words make him the most egalitarian character in the play.
There is a general feeling that this is a play of distinctive character, and an equally widespread difference of opinion as to what that character exactly is. Few plays have been given more names: tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce, tragical-comical, farcical-satirical, 'terribly serious' or 'tediously trivial'; 'terrifying', it seems, cannot be too heavy a term, nor 'absurd' too light [sic]. (166)
Characterisation is hugely important to a plot just for it to make some sort of sense. The characterisation of key figures in the plot, however, has huge significance as it helps you to understand why the characters perform certain, (often unthinkable,) actions. If we only have one dimensional characters described to us then we are unable to immerse ourselves into a highly complex plot. Intense characterisation makes us form connections with key figures and actually empathise with some of them, especially in the case of the “Thyestes.” As a rule, characterisation is vital to make any plot evoke any sort of feelings except the enjoyment of reading a pleasurable story. Methods of characterisation include appearance, personality and behaviour; which all can be split into two categories, direct and indirect. Direct characterisation is when a writer describes a character in a certain way, so they are ‘directly’ helping us to visualise the character in a certain way. Indirect characterisation is, for example, when the expressions of a key figure makes us expand on their personality. These techniques are needed to be used to help the overall impact of any plot, especially in the case of main characters. Seneca’s characterisation of Thyestes adds impact in many different ways, each of which I will now discuss in this essay.