What a Difference One Word Can Make in King Lear King Lear's response to Cordellia's failure to express her love for her father in words is symbolic of King Lear's madness in the play. His madness is most clearly manifest in his need for his daughters to testify to him of their love. Cordellia's failure to say that she loves him winds up destroying him. What is fascinating though is that it is not the rejection of him that hurts so much as his dismay that his daughter would say such a thing. The last line of the selection (Conflated Version 1.1.94) highlights Lear's anger at not only the words that Cordellia speaks, but Cordellia herself.
The movie Troy, although set in a starkly different time than the Iliad, still manages to effectively convey Homer’s story of pride and greed. In the poem the reader’s response is to vilify the young and dumb Paris for being led by emotion rather than reason, or even stubborn Achilles for sitting out of battles and allowing many men to die. However, the movie depicts these people more sympathetically- drawing on their weaknesses, the things that make them human to show where their duty lies and just how noble they are. The movie doesn’t rely only on valor and audacity as indicators of greatness.
In Romeo and Juliet, the older generation has evidently made peace and learned to live together, which resembles the principles of the Settlement. The families are still separate entities, but they have learned... ... middle of paper ... ...vidual, and would have understood that Romeo and Juliet's decision, based on individualism, is their one major flaw and that when acting as an individual, the consequences of ones actions affect not only oneself, but the whole society. Modern culture, now that we have grown so far from the age of Individualism, can idolize Romeo and Juliet and villainize social order, but it is uncertain to whether an Elizabethan audience would have had the same views. 'I suggest that Romeo and Juliet is not so much a play about romantic love as it is a religious and political commentary. To reduce Shakespeare's work to allegory would be an oversimplification of his work; however, to divorce it from the literary and socio-political trends of his time is to overlook an important element of theatre during the Elizabethan period'.
The audience sees them struggling to attain a peaceful marriage and the audience knows that their marriage will be a failure. Shakespeare created the character of the Friar to take the majority of the blame and responsibility for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. He devised a plan to marry Romeo and Juliet, and assumes that he has the power to change the course of history. The Friar believes that if he weds Romeo and Juliet the age long feud be... ... middle of paper ... ... aware of the power of individual free will. The characters often ignore the authority of the state, family and church.
Juliet just having stepped into adulthood flatly refuses to marry Paris ‘He shall not make me there a joyful bride’. Capulet hearing is this enraged as Juliet as gone against his desires. He does not understand why Juliet would not want to marry the legible Paris as he had status and money. Juliet’s selfish ways irate him and he threatens to hit her ‘my fingers itch’ the fact that Capulet feels the need to hit his daughter expressions the amount of anger that exists in him. ‘Itch’ meaning uncomfortable sensation indicates that Capulet will not be satisfied at this point until he hits Juliet as he is that shocked as her reply.
The presence of the maternal figure, in Shakespeare’s play King Lear, though rather absent, is often presented in a negative light and portrayed as being completely powerless whenever mentioned, which compared to the male power and authority present in the play. The unfavourable portrayal of women reveals the distrust men may feel towards women due to the uncertainty they may feel towards their children’s parentage. Women’s low social status is evident in the play, and irony is employed to exhibit the disparagement the society feels towards women’s gender roles. Goneril insulted her husband’s reluctance to direct his military forces and gain more power for himself by saying that he has “milky gentleness” (1.4.364), and that she should “give
For Donne’s first poem, “Song: Go and catch a falling star”, his narrator illustrates how love does not exist because women are not honest or beautiful to give us this ... ... middle of paper ... ...attempting to call men as “passionate lovers” while women are the “rationale lovers”. The men wants to continue to be with this one woman and the women realizes there are men to experience than just one man. Overall, these two poems by Donne shows the central question that love is a bad idea because men are not equipped to love women. Women are too rational for these passionate individuals and their passion will make them act irrational. In essence, their irrationality will become misogynistic because their passion is broken.
As Ophelia transitions from sane to insane, upon being rejected by Hamlet and told she is underserving of his love by her family, Ophelia’s fragile mental state becomes paramount in terms of determining her actions as she takes her own life. As Shakespeare developed the character Ophelia, her dependency on men, for both approval and instruction, becomes her fatal flaw. When Ophelia becomes smitten with Hamlet, her father Polonius and brother Laertes waste no time in deterring Ophelia’s devoted love for him. The challenge of being with Hamlet is hard enough alone, but the combination of forbidden and unrequited love has devastating effects on Ophelia’s mental state. Ophelia is told her social class is too low for her to be romantically involved with a prince and her father takes advantage of her and plays her like a pawn, in order to question Hamlet’s sa... ... middle of paper ... ... free and clear… we’re free.” (Miller, p.139) Just like all humans, fictional characters have breaking points.
Romeo displays emotional immaturity by believing that he could never love anyone besides Rosaline. “She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,/ To merit bliss by making me despair./ She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow/ Do I live dead that live to tell it now” (Shakespeare I.i.212-215). Romeo’s unhappy obsession with Rosaline is driven by lust, which he falsely claims to be love. Romeo is grief-stricken over Rosaline’s decision to be celibate. By believing that he was unable to function and live without her shows his lack of experience in his romantic endeavors.
In conclusion, the idea that a character can only blame himself for his misery or death is portrayed by Viola in Shakespeare in Love for her attempts to pursue dreams she could never fulfill, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet for his impulsive behaviour, and Brutus in Julius Caesar for his naivety. Cassius once tells Brutus, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves” (Julius Caesar, 1, 2, 139–140), explaining how people should not blame others for their own problems. A person can only live once, therefore they must be very careful in their choices in order to make the most out of their life. Works Cited Shakespeare In Love. Dir.