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power in shakespeare plays
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The Rhetoric of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine
The hero of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great did not lead the life of any ordinary Scythian shepherd. Throughout the course of the drama, the once lowly Tamburlaine is bent on a path of unstoppable conquest, upheld as much by intense personal charisma and power of speech as by the strength of his sword. He exemplifies this eloquence throughout his many speeches in the play, not least of which is his “Thirst of Reign” address to the defeated usurper of the Persian crown. Tamburlaine’s speech is delivered with the intention of justifying, to Cosroe and all others present, the righteousness of his own ambitions, and inviting them to share in the same. He achieves this end by skillfully employing in his speech Aristotle’s three canonized methods of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos.
Tamburlaine begins his address with a subtle use of ethos, an appeal to his own credibility as a leader worthy of respect. He does this by comparing his own desire for the “sweetness of a crown” to that of “mighty Jove,” who threw his father Ops down from the heavenly chair for this same reason. By this line of persuasion, Tamburlaine is following in the very footsteps of the mighty god, and fulfilling a goal established as worthy by a most divine precedent. This comparison serves to glorify his bloody path, and subtly clarifies him as a mighty persona in majestic uprising, not simply a violent, sheep-herding rebel.
Tamburlaine’s bolstering of his own person is followed by a justification of the very act of ambitious conquest by means of logos, a logical appeal to reason. He argues that “Nature…Doth teach us all to have aspiring...
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...nd morally questionable to audience and readers alike. The depiction of ruthless conquest as an admirable and heroic endeavor could only be done successfully if it were shielded by language as beautiful as it is capable of persuasion. Despite this quality of speech, there is a certain weakness in the address that the modern reader is privy to: the idea of four warring elements composing our frames is quaintly erroneous. Aristotle himself would be quick to point out that a logical argument based on faulty assumptions is a faulty argument, so Tamburlaine’s use of logos in this speech rings somewhat hollow on ears which can pick out the flaw in his persuasions. Not that this flaw would come as a surprise to an educated modern reader, as they would likely already distrust any justification of violent domination that history has repeatedly shown to be far from admirable.
In the famed author William Shakespeare’s playwright Julius Caesar, we are introduced to an extraordinary plot of a powerful ruler, Julius Caesar, who gained power through astonishing victories and remarkable strategies but fell victim to betrayal. The betrayal that led to his demise was led by some of the very people that surrounded him the most, even some people that he considered as friends. The theme of betrayal and the notion of friendship and its validity are both topics that are worth examining but perhaps the most prevalent topic that drives this plot is the image of Caesar. Caesar ascended into power after a long period in Rome where the rise of tyranny had been fought systematically and physically. He had to not only be a powerful leader but also a wise politician when it came to his decisions. His image tarnishes more and more as his power increases and he too chases after it. He becomes so ambitious over power that he begins to feel immortal and free from danger. His conspirators do not just want him out of power for the simple sake of it but because some of them, either persuaded or not, earnestly believed that Julius Caesar’s death would save Rome not hurt it. What makes this playwright’s so extraordinary is not the dynamic drama alone, but also the depiction of Julius Caesar and how even in the monstrosity of his murder, his image was still arguable causing division amongst men. Although William Shakespeare has, for a very long time now, been known for his great writings it is clear that he himself depicted a ruler that would win favor in the eyes of the great Italian political philosopher and writer Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli but not the profound Italian writer Baldassare Castiglione. Both writers wrote ab...
Cicero’s oration in defense of M. Caelius Rufus shows many substantive and stylistic borrowings from the Roman Theater, particularly the comedies of the 2nd century b.c.e. This would scarcely seem remarkable to Cicero, to employ such devices is only to make use of the tools of his trade, as a practical and practicing rhetorician. In this case using the theater as a framing device to guide his audience’s response.
Assault weapon control is becoming an unavoidable topic in the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation more than nine hundred people have died from mass shootings in the past seven years and an assault rifle was used in twelve of the forty-three mass shootings in the past four years. The U.S. Department of Defense has long defined assault rifles as fully automatic rifles used for military purposes. The National Firearm Act of 1934 prohibited fully automatic weapons in the United States. The 1994 Assault Weapon Ban prohibited semi and fully automatic weapons and any weapon with military style characteristics. California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, is leading the charge in the American government to pass a bill that will limit the capacity of ammunition in a magazine and ban assault weapons that are too dangerous for public use. It is time for the American government to act swiftly and acknowledge the dangers assault rifles pose.
Lately, it would be difficult to find a person who speaks in the elaborate way that nearly all of Shakespeare’s characters do; we do not describe “fortune” as “outrageous” or describe our obstacles as “slings and arrows,” neither in an outward soliloquy or even in our heads. Lately, people do not declare their goals in the grandiose fashion that members of royal family of Thebes proclaim their opposing intentions: Antigone’s to honor her brother and Kreon’s to uphold his decree. Lately, people do not all speak in one unified dialect, especially not one that belongs specifically to the British upper class; Jack and Algernon’s dialogue is virtually identical, excepting content. Unlike the indistinguishably grandiose, elaborate, fancy way characters speak in Shakespeare’s plays, Antigone, The Importance of Being Earnest, and other plays written before the turn of the twentieth century, more recently written plays contain dialogue that is more unique to its speaker. This unique dialogue indicates a change in the sort of characters which drama focuses on which came with a newly developed openness to those who are different from us. Moving away from recounting tales of nobility, royalty or deities brought the lives of a common, heterogeneous populace to the stage and, with these everyday stories, more varied speech patterns.
Sharplin, Arthur. (1989). Lincoln Electric Company Harvard Case Study. McNeese State University. Retrieved from http://my.uopeople.org/pluginfile.php/59756/mod_book/chapter/39460/Lincoln_Electric.pdf
In the play Coriolanus, the story’s namesake character struggles with capturing the trust and support of his people while more manipulative officials prevail. Coriolanus is a rather shy and awkward type who doesn’t wish to show off in grand gestures why he is a superior leader for the community. This play focuses on how persuasion is a very powerful tool in earning the support of other people as well as recognizing the value of an honorable background but is not enough by itself. The idea that in order to win the support of the people, it is necessary for people to understand that there is a balance between being persuasive and being honest. Coriolanus is not a persuasive person and his rivals are and that ultimately leads to his downfall.
Words have a tremendous effect on any person or any situation, especially if used cleverly. In the play Othello we can see that Iago has the ability to use the power of words along with imagery for malicious purposes, but due to his effective use of language the other characters considers him to be an honest and moral person. In this essay I will firstly state how imagery and the power of words complement each other and then provide examples with explanations regarding the influence of language in the play Othello.
In his article, “Can You Be Education from a Distance?”, James Barszcz effectively weighs the pros and cons of online education compared to the traditional method, while effectively supporting his position with factual information and statistics. While distance education proves to be convenient for students, Barszcz asserts that it eliminates valuable experiences necessary in order to get the most out of the material being learned.
...us the King. In Robert W. Corrigan (Ed.), Classical Tragedy Greek and Roman (pp. 245-251). New York, NY: Applause Theatre Book Publishers.
Jones, Eldred. "Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthelemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994.
In the final scene of Othello, the hero, with that utter lack of self-consciousness of self-criticism which is the height of human vanity, strikes a heroic attitude, makes an eloquent plea for himself, at the height of his eloquence stabs himself – and the innocent spectator feels a lump in his throat or dissolves in te...
To begin with, many have looked at the reasons of this tragic hero’s need for enlightenment. This was from all the flaws and faults Brutus carried. Brutus throughout the whole play has made many blunders. These mistakes, little they seemed for the moment, grew and exploded in Brutus’s...
Shakespeare’s utilization of characterization through personal thoughts illuminates the willingness of Iago to betray during his quest for revenge. While blissfully deceiving Roderigo, Iago’s reveals his
Furthermore, some may suggest that online learning is benefiting our students in society. There has been a breakthrough in time and geographical limitations of education via online courses (Ho, 2009). Online education is cost-effective, efficient, and easily accessible (Schmeeckle, 2003). Online classes are used for individual and independent learning in which the student can learn at their own pace (Gonzalez, 2009). Not only is online education beneficial for breaking down barriers, online education has the potential to help students learn material more efficiently. Students are more likely to seek help from their instructors when the material is taught online (Whipp & Lorentz, 2009). Computer use in statistical classes could help decrease math anxiety (Gundy, Morton, Liu, & Kline, 2006). In a study that measured online students’ ability to achieve the same efficiency of course material as face-to-face students, at least 98% of students reported that they had, so one may be lead to believe that online learning is just as efficient as face-to-face courses (Liebowitz, 2003). With all of the positive aspects of online education, one may wonder why there is any debate as to whether or not online education is beneficial for
Shakespeare examines this particular issue best in his simple yet complex characterization of Brutus. Guided