When it comes to William Shakespeare's works there are no coincidences in regard to which characters are present on stage and when. The first act of a play in particular proves essential in dictating the audience’s initial impressions, and therefore, Shakespeare strategically uses characters such as servants or messengers to foreshadow the imminent plot points and tone that will play out in the next five acts to effectively create obstacles for his protagonists that his audience is able to track. Shakespeare's supporting characters can best be defined as those who lack a true arc or developement from their initial characterization, where there words and actions are not nearly as important as the way in which the stories protagonists react …show more content…
Through his incorporation of supporting characters into the foreshadowing and final resolutions of his plots, Shakespeare complicates the arcs of his main protagonists, effectively demonstrating to his audience that their is intention and purpose behind every character and piece of dialogue on stage.
Through the presence of ostensibly irrelevant characters in the first scene of his plays, Shakespeare introduces his audience to the initial obstacles of his protagonists effectively setting his plots in motion within the first lines. Romeo and Juliet particularly, sees Shakespeare introduce the Montague serving men, Sampson and Gregory, before his title character Romeo as a means to show that the family fued between the Capulets and Montagues looms larger than any one single character. While Shakespeare's audience may
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Where Shakespeare uses the characters of Sampson and Gregory to illustrate the potential obstacle that Romeo faces in attempting to lead his decision making with his heart instead of his sword, the fallout from Mercutio and Tybalt’s duel sees Romeo confront the implications of this obstacle directly when the two become one in the same. Again, it is the conflict between these supporting characters that springs Romeo into action. After seeing his friend slain at the hands of the fiery Tybalt, Romeo feels guilt suggesting that, “Juliet’s beauty hath made [him] effeminate” and that he should have fought in Mercutio’s place. To compensate, Romeo lets “fury be [his] conduct now” and strikes Tybalt in an act of rage. The death of his friend challenges Romeo’s loyalties with potential for high stakes consequences that ultimately come to fruition through a domino effect of tragic events resulting in the suicides of the two title characters. In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows how the tragedy will end as early as the prologue, what is far more important is the events leading up to it. Shakespeare consciously highlights the battle between Tybalt and Mercutio, given that these two are foils to his title character, to set the tragedy
(1) In many short stories and plays there are persons involved which [who] help characterize other main characters. This process of characterization is called a foil. [A foil is not a process.] "A foil is a minor character, who by similarities and differences, reveals characteristics of a more important character, and who, as an element of plot, is there for the more important character to talk to" (Vavra). The foils in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, help the reader understand the main character; [, not ;] Hamlet.
(CLOSING STATEMENTS) With his audacious nature, Romeo kills Tybalt in a challenge and later kills himself, which causes significant problems in the plot. Unfortunately, as a result of Romeo’s actions, Juliet stabs herself with his dagger because she no longer wants to live in a world without him. Along with Romeo, Mercutio is another character who makes poor decisions based on his overdramatic personality and tendency to disagree with Benvolio's way of thinking. These two choices cause characters around Mercutio to not take him seriously, and for this reason, he later dies in the play. Although Mercutio’s actions impact the storyline, Friar Laurence’s choices primarily cause the play to become such a tragedy. For instance, his poor decisions to marry Romeo and Juliet and flee Juliet’s tomb eventually cause the couple’s love for one another to become inseparable, and they take their lives at the end of the plot. (CLINCHER) As the readers delve deeper into Romeo and Juliet and unravel what went wrong, they will begin to realize that the decisions made by the characters created catastrophic
After Tybalt killed Mercutio and Romeo challenges him to a duel, Romeo demands, “That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio’s soul/ Is but a little way above our heads/ Staying for thine to keep him company/ Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” (Shakespeare Act III scene i, lines 119-123). This quote shows how Romeo’s downfall is partly his fault because he is defying the prince’s command to no longer fight with the Capulets by challenging Tybalt. Since Romeo is aware that he is defying the prince and fighting anyway it is proven he is contributing to his own demise or downfall. When Mercutio is wounded after fighting Tybalt , he cries, “I am hurt/ A plague o’ both your houses!” (Shakespeare Act III scene i, lines 84-85). The excerpt shows how even Mercutio recognizes the feud between the Montagues and Capulets being destructive, and how it is now gotten so out of hand he has been dragged in it. Mercutio tries to open Romeo’s eyes on how if this feud continues there will be a demise for both families; but by Romeo choosing to ignore this advice and killing Tybalt he is setting himself up for his failure/downfall. Thus, Romeo is shown a tragic hero because his demise is partly his fault and not an
Minor characters play a very crucial role in Shakespear's Hamlet. They serve as narrators for events that occurred outside the immediate play: the Dane's ghost. Distinct contrasts are created through the usage of the play's minor characters. The reader gains new perspective on Hamlet's character when he is compared with Laertes. The presence of these minor characters can also have a direct effect on the action of the play. The actors in the play within the play are used to expose the guilt of Claudius; Hamlet then has proof of the King's crimes. The expertise use of these characters - either to exemplify good and purity, or to spread the vile corruption which permeates Elsinore - is one of the main reasons for Hamlet's success as one of the greatest plays ever written.
After reading “Why Read Shakespeare” the author Michael Mack stated that the main and most important reason why we should read Shakespeare is because the characters you find in Shakespeare are often related to the personality types of people you will meet in life from time to time. Like the ambitious, the curious, the selfish, the courageous, the clueless, and even the prideful. Mack also mentioned that reading about life’s characters can also help you better understand yourself. But for now we will be focusing on figuring out the actors of life’s stage, by comparing the universal traits to the characters we see in stories and texts like Macbeth, “Macbeth Murder mystery”, and “5 P.M, Tuesday, August 23, 2005.”
Shakespeare's utilization of acting and actors in Hamlet acts as the entire framework of the play, down to the very structure of the tragedy itself. The characters are given different façades in different situation and whilst interacting to different people. The language of Hamlet is manipulated in order to achieve the profile of the most complex actor of all. However, as the curtain falls, fate has got the better of all of the actors on the stage of Elsinore - bringing an end to the puppet-show.
Shakespeare’s plays show the complexity of human beings. Everyone is different in reactions, actions, and thought. Shakespeare explores various themes throughout his writing career. Each play is unique, and their themes are handled in a very distinct way as Shakespeare writes each work with great care. Two major themes are appearance versus reality and relationship between motive and will; Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 all portray these two themes in similar and different ways.
When analyzing a text, it is essential that readers do not put two-dimensional character aside as they have the same amount value of a three-dimensional character. Minor characters typically serve as a plot device to establish a setting or theme. However, it is not expected of them to be interesting as the major characters are far more complex and have intentions that cause them to be the central focus of the play. To further explain, major characters are three- dimensional so a reader and, therefore, relatable, as opposed to a two- dimensional role. With that being said, minor characters are important to help establish a three-dimensional major character through interactions between them. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet successfully applies the
In Act One of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we meet Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt. Right away, we get an idea of who these characters are and what kind of role they will play throughout the story. Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt share many distinctive characteristics and personalities in the story. We learn that Romeo is the romantic and handsome son of the Montagues. In the beginning of the story, he was depressed, but his mood quickly changed as the story went on. We also learn that Mercutio is Romeo’s closest and good friend who tries to make Romeo forget about his first love, Rosaline. He is a great entertainer and he’s very sarcastic too. Instantly, we learn that Tybalt is a Capulet and Juliet’s cousin. He is very hot-headed, aggressive, and violent. He loathes the Montagues very much. Finally, in Act One of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we meet three characters, Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt and we directly get an idea of what the characters are like.
Shakespeare writes with purpose in this play, he is showing that our ideals are not always what they seem. That in the end the truth wins. As in the case of his main characters in the play they needed to think about their ideals and see what the truth would be before they moved forward with their plans. These characters needed guidance and should have allowed life to happen instead of forcing situations; maybe then they would have survived.
The means in which Shakespeare develops the dialogue between his characters allows the reader to hear the words as if they are being spoken to them personally. This helps in understanding the personality of each character. Once a reader develops a feel for each character and who they are, the audience begins to foreshadow and analyze a theme for the story. Shakespeare uses imagery and repetition of events in his dialogue to make the story easy to understand. Overall, diction place an important role in every story whether it be describing a character, developing a plot, or understanding a theme.
William Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic techniques and his use of hyperbole are used to describe the characters emotions and weaknesses. The use of dramatic irony is used to create personal conflict. This is done throughout the play to describe the characters concerns and their situations.
To understand a play, you must first understand the fundamentals for the play: protagonist, antagonist, exposition, rising action, crisis, climax and resolution. I will examine Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This is a great example for the purpose of this paper it provides a clear and great examples.
Minor characters serve important roles in many works of literature. In a tragedy, these characters are used predominantly for the sole purpose to relieve tension through humour. Although typically true, it does not apply to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which is a tragedy about Danish prince Hamlet and his battle to avenge his father’s murder. Some may claim that the comedic scenes of minor characters, Polonius, Osric, and the grave diggers, only serve to provide humour. However this is inaccurate because Shakespeare uses these minor characters to reinforce the themes of appearance vs reality and death and the afterlife as well as to reveal Polonius and Hamlet’s character traits. When analyzing the play in
Upon examining Shakespeare's characters in this play, Hamlet proves to be a very complex character, and functions as the key element to the development of the play. Throughout the play we see the many different aspects of Hamlet's personality by observing his actions and responses to certain situations. Hamlet takes on the role of a strong character, but through his internal weaknesses we witness his destruction.