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Sexual Politics Of Romance In Twelfth Night And Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

2 Pages 944 Words
Today, our society is accustomed to vast changes in perspective of sexuality and new challenges of sexual norms. It appears these perspectives are new, but these changing perspectives can be traced back to the Middle Ages. These topics are illustrated through many works of literature. Two texts that best exemplify topics of sexual politics are Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Sir...

Loyalty Of Love, Service, And Friendship In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, King Lear, And Hamlet

4 Pages 1882 Words
In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, King Lear, and Hamlet, there is a theme of loyalty between a central character and another. This loyalty transcends what the other characters belief; they help them no matter the burden it bears on them. It also reveals itself in many different forms, through love, service, and friendship. As seen throughout countless Shakespeare plays, women are...

The Tragedy of Hamlet: Characters and Features

1 Page 606 Words
If you tell the truth, it might sting for a bit, but if a lie is told, you’ll hurt for life. Shakespeare, a well-known playwright, manages to encompass the complexity of a person through his writing. Hamlet -one of Shakespeare’s amazing work- portrays the betrayal of a brother who gains the rewards of the other. Claudius kills his brother, King...

The Illusion of Free Will

1 Page 600 Words
Destiny, “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice, it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” (William Jennings Bryan). Macbeth is a victim of his own desire. The witches played with Macbeth’s mind. They can predict, and they can suggest, but they do not necessarily control...

The Themes of Hamlet Soliloquy

2 Pages 721 Words
William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark has seven soliloquies throughout the play with the purpose of providing a more personal understanding of Hamlet. Hamlet’s “Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” soliloquy is the most important because it provides insight into his feelings about his inaction, reveals his future plans, and creates an anticipant...

Hamlet as an Existential Play

1 Page 545 Words
Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare, is about a prince and his mission for vengeance. Hamlet’s quest for revenge covers the 20th century philosophical movement; existentialism. Throughout the play, prince Hamlet regularly questions his purpose and existence as he mourns over his father’s death and his mother’s incestuous affair. Concurrently, this serves a perfect opportunity for the author to...

The Iago's True Nature in Othello

1 Page 636 Words
In William Shakespeare's play Othello, Shakespear uses diction in Iago's monolog to further the plot and for the reader to higher apprehend who Iago's character is and what his plan is. In addition to this, Shakespear moreover makes use of diction to create pathos to create a hateful and untrusting feeling towards Iago by portraying him as manipulative, scheming, and...

Blind Fool: Oedipus Rex And King Lear

4 Pages 1617 Words
“How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise” (Sophocles, line 316, “Oedipus Rex”). People often mistake blind people, or people labeled as somehow flawed, for being ignorant. Whether the blindness is literal, like Teiresias in Sophocles’ Teiresais in “Oedipus Rex,” or blindness as transparency, like the Fool in Shakespeare’s’ King Lear, both of these...

Is Iago Gay in Othello

3 Pages 1555 Words
Reviewed double_ok
Villainy is often born from jealousy, insecurity, and paranoia. Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello, though dubbed as motiveless, is no exception; what starts as an optimistic heterosexual romance ends as a tragedy brought about by homoerotic envy, competition, and fear of emasculation. The play is centered around a military environment, which puts emphasis on traditional indications of masculinity such as physical...

Othello: Iago’s Truth of Dis-Honor

2 Pages 1105 Words
Most other Shakespearean characters do terrible things to accomplish a specific objective. As a rule, the guilty party is aspiration, as in Macbeth, or retribution, as in Hamlet. The thing about Iago is that one never truly knows for certain why it is that Iago needs to pulverize Othello. All through the play, Iago gives different and inconsistent thought of...

Fantasy and Real World in Death of a Salesman

2 Pages 1012 Words
In “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller presents a wide range of themes throughout its story. Themes such as the “American Dream” are shown in various ways through the lens of the characters such as Willy Loman that reveal the problems of trying too hard to achieve this dream only to be frustrated by failures that come along the way....

Othello: The Motivation of Iago to Cause Harm

5 Pages 2140 Words
The majority of the characters in Shakespeare’s Othello, view Iago, the play’s antagonist, as “most honest” (II, ii, 7) and laudable; however, as readers, we perceive him in a completely different way. There is a clear dichotomy between two perceptions of the same character. In the reader's perspective, Iago is an extremely powerful manipulator who feasts on being in a...

The Meaning and Role of Death in Hamlet

2 Pages 791 Words
In Shakespeare's play, 'Hamlet,' death identifies himself as an uninvited guest who never cares to leave the opening scene with the ghost to the bloodshed in the final scene. However, the appearance of the tortured spirit of Old King Hamlet and the deaths of all the notable characters in the play are more evident demonstrations of death in its simplest...

Oedipus the King: Fate or Free Will?

1 Page 541 Words
Oedipus the King, assembled by Sophocles, indicates an underlying association between fate and free will. In today's society, we let our lives be led by a distinct force that we believe in. Yet, a widespread controversy that still rages today is whether we, as a species, have free will or if some divine source, some call it fate, governs our...

The Integrity Of Oedipus: Innocent Or Guilty

4 Pages 1690 Words
Oedipus Tyrannus is very fascinating and controversial. The stronger subjects in this nstory such as murder not only cause controversy between readers with different viewpoints, but they also open the readers minds to new ways of thinking. For years there have been debates over whether or not Oedipus should be deemed guilty or innocent for his actions on the crossroads....

The Similarities And Differences In Oedipus Rex And Things Fall Apart

4 Pages 1625 Words
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe has been influenced by Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The protagonists of both these works are similar because Okonkwo and Oedipus are both successful, they both have a flawed character, and they both experience a demise. ​Things Fall Apart’s protagonist Okonkwo and Oedipus Rex’s Oedipus are similar in that they are both successful....

Hamlet Madness An An Identity Crisis

3 Pages 1546 Words
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the writer displays the protagonist as someone who thinks of himself inferior to others, yet he rationalizes the choices he makes in his life. On these two occasions you either can contemplate whether or not he is even mad or is he just putting it off as an act to prove a point. Hamlet undergoes...

Hamlet as a True Character Revealed

6 Pages 2693 Words
One of Shakespeare’s most popular characters from one of his most timeless works of literature, Hamlet, is the center of some controversial discussion of whether the main character deserves to be remembered as a tragic hero or not. It can be concluded from further character analysis that Hamlet deserves to be viewed as more of a villain than a tragic...

The Revealed Human Nature in Hamlet

5 Pages 2257 Words
The human nature, a through an interweaving of good and evil, a mingling of kind and cruel, a bundle of two very dissimilar ways of thinking and acting, it has it all. The sophistication of the human mind, the way how of its working system, the questions of morality mutating with its very nature, never ceases to amaze indeed. And...

The Reasons For Hamlet Madness

2 Pages 1178 Words
The word “madness” or “insanity” can be linked with the malicious acts of many. Being mad can be defined as the state of being mentally ill, or unable to behave in a reasonable way (Cambridge Dictionary n.d.). In the setting of a courtroom, a culprit may plead insanity as an excuse for their wrong-doings, and they would have to pass...

Lessons to be Learnt in Hamlet

2 Pages 870 Words
Hamlet brings many contrivesal topic to life during the story including death, depresssion, and suicide. The main characters bring these topics into the spotlight by the struggles they endure during the story. They show these points by the multiple monologues in the story, some being what Shakespere is known for. Many people try to avoid death as a topic of...

Love and Hate in Othello

2 Pages 720 Words
Love and hate are two very contrary terms. However, even the most powerful emotion, love, can ironically turn into hate, the emotion that can lead to the most vulnerability. In William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, Jealousy is the bridge that connects love and hate. The play takes place in Venice during the Turks invasion of Cyprus. Othello and Desdemona, two of...

The Peculiarities of Iago as a Character in Othello

2 Pages 948 Words
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay”. Iago was a mere individual who had been revoked high position in favor of Cassio. The reason why this makes the whole play compelling is that this rejection led to a well-planned tragedy all the ways towards its ending. Although Iago is clever, his intelligence synergizes...

Hamlet: Ophelia’s Freedom in a Patriarchal Society

2 Pages 882 Words
Insanity during the Elizabethan Era was viewed as possession by an otherworldly creature. Shakespeare, one of the most famous playwrights of the time, delved into madness and insanity in many of his plays, including Hamlet. Several characters within Hamlet could be considered as mad, most notably Hamlet and Ophelia. While Hamlet’s every move is documented within the play, Ophelia is...

Jealousy as Humankind's Kryptonite in Othello

3 Pages 1328 Words
Jealousy, commonly described as “the green-eyed monster” is a consistent theme throughout Shakespeare’s literature. It is, more often than not, the fuel that drives the plot, the tragic hero’s flaw and the main motivation for the story’s antagonist. It is the universal theme of jealousy that set the mood for most of Shakspeare’s plays, including Othello. The obvious antagonist of...

Who, If Either, Showed Greater Resilience: Oedipus Or Hamlet?

2 Pages 999 Words
As Confucious points out, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” ('Confucius Quotes'). Both Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus are tragic heroes and, therefore, are designed to have low resilience. A resilient character would have traits such as optimism, control over their emotions and less dependence on fate. Even though Hamlet seems...

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