The film Stardust is easily categorized as a high-fantasy romance, but at a closer scrutinization, the depth of the movie exceeds the simple term of “love-story.” A flamboyant captain of a dingy ship who drapes himself is frilly dresses and beautiful rouge is anything but “normal.” A prominent catalyst in the film, Shakespeare is an effeminate traveler and ship operator. Upon meeting the film’s protagonist, Tristan Thorn, Shakespeare gifts the audience with a valuable lesson. Prior to engaging with Tristan and Yvaine, Shakespeare would have never shown his womanly tendencies to anyone but himself. After their union, Shakespeare’s life would be drastically different, and the audience would gather an important message. In Stardust, Captain Shakespeare …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s business (flying through tumultuous skies and capturing bolts of lightning), it is worrisome to come across unfamiliar travelers. While coursing through the sky, Shakespeare stumbles across Tristan and Yvaine who are lost in the clouds. At first, Shakespeare is wary of the couple. He interrogates Tristan and Yvaine to acquire information of their purpose in the skies. After Tristan explains his plans to return home to the town of Wall, Shakespeare adopts the two onto his boat; he has a deep interest in Tristan’s home in England. Upon first impressions, Shakespeare assumed Tristan and Yvaine were threats to him and his crew. After the scrutinization of the two, he realized they proved to be anything but a threat. Shakespeare had the opportunity to kill Tristan and Yvaine because they were simply new and foreign. Instead, he spared their lives because he realized his first impressions were invalid. Shakespeare withholds any judgements and accepts Tristan and Yvaine for the people they are, not who he thinks them to …show more content…
When in England, Tristan expressed a deep infatuation with a local beauty: Victoria. To express his devotion to his beloved Victoria, he promised her to travel across the dividing wall of the towns in order to collect a fallen star. While on his travels, he discovers the star in the form of a young woman called Yvaine. In their expedition to return home, Tristan and Yvaine finds themselves taking several detours, as the land beyond England, Stormhold, proves to be a difficult place to leave. The two face adversaries, local citizens, and selfless samaritans. Among said samaritans, Tristan and Yvaine meet Captain Shakespeare and travel with him on his ship. During the many hours on the boat, Shakespeare analyzes the two and determines each has feelings for the other. He prompts Tristan to consider Yvaine as his true love. Tristan’s knit brows are riddled with surprise and realization. Without Shakespeare’s incitation, Tristan may have never accepted Yvaine as his lover; he could have still believed Victoria was the only one for him. Due to Shakespeare’s awareness of Tristan’s feelings, he guided him to accept his true love into his heart and to chase a new
Rose, Mary Beth. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988. Shakespeare, William. The.
The tale of Tristan, a tragic myth of doomed romantic affection, was one of the most influential romances of the Medieval Era. The story itself speaks closely to the success of adultery whether it may be influenced by a potion or not. Nonetheless, throughout the land, and the people met through vast adventures the one emotion that every person could relate to was love. Love as seen throughout Tristan stretched people to their furthest point in order to conquest what their heart truly desires. However, with that being said love, could also turn out to be doomed from the very start, but even then people will do anything to be with their true love.
While in Hamlet and others of Shakespeare's plays we feel that Shakespeare refined upon and brooded over his thoughts, Macbeth seems as if struck out at a heat and imagined from first to last with rapidity and power, and a subtlety of workmanship which has become instructive. The theme of the drama is the gradual ruin through yielding to evil within and evil without, of a man, who, though from the first tainted by base and ambitious thoughts, yet possessed elements in his nature of possible honor and loyalty. (792)
Another staple of out modern society is our loosening restrictions of sexuality. Whedon’s film takes on a level of sexuality in certain scenes only acceptable in contemporary times. While Shakespeare’s sexual double entendres seem meant more for comedy’s sake, in the film they are entwined in the acting itself, so much so that it causes certain relationships to take on new meaning.
Shakespeare Alive!. Bantam, 1988. p. 85-102. “Love and Marriage.” Life in Elizabethan England.
Being one of the most debated texts in history, Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, has the power and ability to divide audiences. Throughout the play, it is seen that Shakespeare has left the audience to contemplate the underlying cause of the Romeo and Juliet tragedy. Shakespeare begins by showing the reckless actions and choices of the lovers, illustrating one of the main contributing factors to their deaths. Friar Lawrence plays a large role in the deaths of the lovers as he is the main instigator, greatly contributing to the deaths. Also, demonstrated through the play is that the lover’s destiny is written in the stars. Without
Countless people all around the world are familiar with the idea of the famously tragic tale of two star-crossed lovers in William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Their heart wrenching love story has been an inspiration for many literature pieces throughout various genres and later cinematic works of art. The young couple was not only memorable for their passionate, devoted love, but also the tragic events that ultimately lead to their death. One aspect of the play that has a strong impact on the audience is Shakespeare’s use of charismatic and compelling language seen throughout the play. The unique personality traits used to describe Romeo and Juliet allows many to relate to the young lovers. Shakespeare’s use of descriptive language, allows the audience to understand the societal expectations, beliefs, and values set out for the men and women of Verona, Italy. Romeo’s character, however, can be been seen defying these expectations and also
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a film that converts Shakespeare’s famous play into a present-day setting. The film transforms the original texts into modern notions, whilst still employing Shakespearean language. Compared to Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann’s picture is easier for a teenage audience to understand and relate to because of his modernisations. Despite the passing of four centuries Shakespeare’s themes of love, hate, violence, family and mortality remain the same regardless of the setting.
Through comedy and tragedy Shakespeare reveals the vast expanses and profound depths of the character of life. For him they are not separate worlds of drama and romance, but poles of a continuum. The distinction between tragedy and comedy is called in question when we turn to Shakespeare. Though the characters differ in stature and power, and the events vary in weight and significance, the movements of life in all Shakespeare's plays are governed by the same universal principles which move events in our own lives. Through myriad images Shakespeare portrays not only the character of man and society but the character of life itself.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
Have you ever been in love before? Many would say that love is hard to come by, and even harder to maintain, while some would say the opposite. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, he explores similar concepts related to love and infatuation. Although the reader never directly hears from Shakespeare, one could infer that his own thoughts are similarly mirrored in his characters, with the play serving as a warning tale of sorts, and the various roles echoing different dangers when it comes to love, which there are many. More specifically, Romeo Montague and his actions in the play are very intentional, as they help explain Shakespeare’s intentions and his own personal thoughts on the topic of love and its hazards, as well as its ups, too, which there are many.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.
Emotions are among the most potent forces humanity has ever faced, and, as William Shakespeare emphasizes, love is one of the most influential emotions an individual can experience. Throughout Twelfth Night, Shakespeare focuses on one main characteristic about love that helps to solidify the strength of this emotion on the characters. He wants to reader to understand that love is one of the few forces that can instantaneously incapacitate and cripple human beings, yet it simultaneously wields the capacity to bestow the highest level of satisfaction within an individual.
William Shakespeare has provided some of the most brilliant plays to ever be performed on the stage. He is also the author of numerous sonnets and poems, but he is best known for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I would like to discuss the play and movie, "Romeo and Juliet", and also the movie, Shakespeare in Love. The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is set in the fictional city of Verona. Within the city lives two families, the Capulets and the Montegues, who have been feuding for generations.
One example of true love in Twelfth Night is Viola’s love for Orsino. At the beginning of the play, the reader experiences Orsino’s feelings about love. It is a confusing start however, because Shakespeare offers contradicting views on love. Orsino says, “Give me excess of it, that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die” (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 2-3). This means that Orsino wants the musicians to give him so much love, that he gets sick of it and doesn’t love anymore. This shows the depth of Orsino’s desire for Olivia. He loves (or thinks he loves) Olivia so much that he can no longer control himself and wants to be rid of his love for her. The entire speech plays with the idea that love is not something tangible, but more or less an imaginative state of being....