The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The play revolves around one main plot and three sub-plots. The main
plot centres on the question of mercy and forgiveness as seen in the
relationship between Antonio, the kind Christian, and Shylock, the
unrelenting Jew. The three subplots revolve around the romances of
Portia and Bassanio (the most important couple in the play), of
Lorenzo and Jessica, and of Gratiano and Nerissa (the least important
couple of the play). All four plots are bound by the threads of love,
generosity, friendship, and the wise use of money, which are the
ideals of the Elizabethan society. The plots are also reflective of
one another. Antonio's love for Bassanio is reflected in Bassanio's
love for Portia. The love of Gratiano and Nerissa is modeled after the
love of Portia and Bassanio. Jessica, like Antonio and Bassanio,
recognizes the greed of her father and wants to replace it with
Christian love, which she finds in Lorenzo. The characters are,
therefore, are tied together by friendship and Christianity. In the
end, the play is a romantic comedy that emphasizes the rewards of
love, generosity, and harmony. In the first scene I had some first
impressions of shylock being a villain because he is a person who
cannot forgive and forget, because Antonio looks down at him and spits
at him because he is a Jew and now that he needs his help he tries to
get revenge on Antonio, however you can see why he would do such a
thing from the way he has been treated all his life.
As the play moves on shylock still strikes me as a villain, the reason
being is that he talks to Antonio behind his back, saying what he
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...is all if he could save
Antonio. Gratiano wishes his wife were in heaven to plead with the
power there to bring about a change in the Jew. Both Portia and
Nerissa remark that it is fortunate that their two wives are not
present to hear such statements. Shylock berates his absent daughter
for having married a Christian, saying he would have preferred her to
wed a thief.
Although Solarino and Solanio mock Shylock and that we feel sympathy
for the loss of his daughter and he is now portrayed as a victim.
Shylock manages to make himself a villain again. The play is full of
moments when shylock is either seen as a victim or a villain and can
get confusing as to how you judge him. For example when Jessica wants
to leave home and elope with Lorenzo he can be seen as a villain to
make her feel that she wants to move out.
Maria had no authority over her restless family. The source of the conflict between Antonio and Maria originates from her oldest sons taking to going where they please and not caring about their parent’s wishes. The burden of pleasing their parents passes from the eldest sons to the youngest one. With the sole duty of pleasing his parents, Tony internally rebels against their wishes instead seeking to set to rest his churning mind by seeking his own beliefs. His brothers console themselves about abandoning their family by saying that “Tony will be her priest” (Anaya 36) and not knowing that the “dreams of their father and mother [haunt] them” (Anaya 36) also haunted Antonio. Having the responsibilities of his brothers and his family shape the way he grows and thinks. He isn’t just thinking about himself he also has the problems of redeeming his family on his head. Through the story and through Ultima Tony realizes that he is not bound by obligations and can instead shape his own
In Chapter one and two, the Nazis continually mess with the minds of the Jews by giving
evil witchcraft on his family and that of a friend. That is why when Florence drowns in the river
William Shakespeare was a Stratford Grammar School boy, who was a member of the Church of England, similar to just about everyone else in Stratford. However, due to some events that occurred in the Shakespeare family home, there is some evidence that could prove that the family may have had some Roman Catholic connections. When William Shakespeare was 10 years old, legal issues and debt took a toll on his family’s life. Shakespeare’s father’s stopped attending alderman meetings which resulted in the removal of his name to become an alderman, and he was also forced to sell his beautiful home. The cause of this crisis is unknown, however the records can be used to throw together the idea that there were peculiar religious events going on (Fox). Due to these mishaps, William Shakespeare’s religion is a bit of a mystery. The play, Hamlet, was written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, which happened to be a time when religious conflicts were a big deal (Alsaif). The protagonist in the story, Hamlet, is a character who seems to make his choices through his religious beliefs. Hamlet is a very indecisive person, but his thoughts on religion tend to persuade him. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the character of Hamlet to show the flaws in all religions. Hamlet does his best to follow the rules of Christianity, but he often questions the morality involved. Although Shakespeare belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t find any particular religion to be perfect.
In William Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, Falstaff and King Henry IV share father-figure relationships with Henry “Hal,” Prince of Wales. The former, a drunk and cavalier knight, acts as a surrogate father to the prince, while the latter, a determined and distanced monarch, is his blood. Yet, who is the better father-figure to Hal? Although Falstaff and Prince Henry share a strong, quasi father-son relationship, the former’s manifestation of the tavern atmosphere, venality and dishonor are obstacles to the Prince’s goals; King Henry IV, on the other hand, is the better father-figure because he motivates his son to realize his ambitions, and embodies the setting of the court and the monarchy in which the Prince belongs and will one day inherit.
There exists a kind of person who can be called by no other name than by “Magnificent Bastard”. They are masters of deception, bloody brilliant, unstoppable in achieving their goals even when it means grinding others into the dust, and yet they have such a flair, such a charming disposition, that they are often admired by even those who are wronged by them. Iago in Shakespeare’s play Othello is one such character. The audience may love or hate him, but either way they must admit that he commands the spot-light. In spite of this, the reason why Iago acts as he does is shrouded in mystery. Even when directly speaking to the audience about his motivations, Iago is not always truthful. In reality, while Iago derives great pleasure from manipulating others, his driving motivation throughout the entire play is his own jealousy; from being unrecognized for his greatness, to an impossible love for Desdemona, and of the virtuous characters all around him.
The transition of royalty from King Hamlet to King Claudius seemed smooth, but the tension within the royal family created some complications. Almost all of Denmark gave their loyalty to a new king without any suspicion as to how the previous ruler died. Although Denmark’s citizens are unaware of the fratricide, this fickle faithfulness exemplifies the social and moral decay of Denmark. Most of Denmark’s subjects act upon their own selfish interests and lack any conviction. Shakespeare uses Polonius, formerly a loyal servant to King Hamlet, as a microcosm of Denmark’s oblivious and hypocritical society as a whole. The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court and the father of Laertes and Ophelia, Polonius has good intentions, but he tends to be somewhat conniving and underhanded. He frequently leaps to the wrong conclusions, and his speeches are comically pompous and long-winded. He is completely incapable of figuring out what Hamlet is up to. Looking to stay on Claudius’s favorable side, Polonius pleases the new king’s demands and even puts his own children’s reputation and lives in jeopardy. Because of his meddling in Prince Hamlet’s business, Polonius ends up dying on his own account.
When in the course of human events, something’s are made self-evident, like having to read Hamlet and write about three soliloquies. These soliloquies tend to be very lengthy and have very sub surface meanings to them that require some enabled humanoids to use the frontal cortex of their neurological brains in order to understand these meanings. In other words, they are hard to understand, especially with them being written in the Shakespearean era of influence in the island Kingdoms that are Untied. However, they offer meanings unimaginable and crucial to the outcome of the play Hamlet. As I have just explained, the three soliloquies of Act I, II, III, of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare have very deep important meanings and messages to them.
Hamlet’s soliloquy is surely one of the great dramatic monologues in world literature. It is as well known as any in the Shakespearean canon and a favorite selection for memorization. The Prince’s meditation transcends the personal. Much of what he says is applicable to all mankind. The speech, coming as it does at the midpoint of the entire action, poses many critical problems. In view of the widely contrasting interpretations of this speech, it would be naïve to ignore the difficulties of interpretation.
Claudio's interest in Hero is on account of her wealth, but her outward beauty also attracts him. Claudio is hence revealed to be a slave to social assumptions. He regards love and marriage as a sensible way in which to obta...
...accepts his wife’s life of royalty, and assimilates into an unfamiliar family, ending his journey.
This is an example of the treatment of Jews at the time. It is very
The complexity and effect of father-son relationships seems to be a theme that Shakespeare loved to explore in his writings. In Hamlet, the subject is used as a mechanism to identify the similarities between three very different characters: Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet. They have each lost their fathers to violent deaths, which leads them to seek vengeance. As different as they may seem, they all share the common desire to avenge their father’s deaths. The method they each approach this is what differentiates each of their characters, and allows the audience to discern their individual characteristics. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet’s intense loyalty to their fathers drives them to individual extreme measures of revenge, exemplifying Shakespeare’s masterful use of describing the human psyche during Elizabethan times.
In school he and his school mates bully the Jewish boy, Jacob, “Mowbray easily engaged me to join him against the Jew boy; and a zealous partisan against Jacob I became. . . Every Thursday evening, the moment he appeared in the school-room, or on the play-ground, our party commenced the attack upon “the wandering Jew,” as we called this poor pedlar. . . we persecuted and tortured him body and mind. (19)” The only “good” reason they had to bully Jacob, was because he was Jewish, “We laughed at his losses, mocked his gains. . .
...h Calixtra, either by arriving unannounced or figuring it out, their marriage would be ruined. This shows that the conflicts between the two are those based around deceit.