In Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare portrays this idea of love as being a hardship where the character Helena represents the sad truth of a one-sided love. For example, Helena loves Demetrius but he has his eyes set on Hermia. Meanwhile, Hermia loves Lysander but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Throughout the play we see that women are ready to give up everything to chase after a man for the assurance of love. Helena is a character who falls...
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Male to female relationships is a common topic in literature. The women were known as supporting the men in their positions of higher authority and taking care of their family. Othello by Shakespeare is a great example of relationships. In the play, it shows the acts of love and hate for one another in the examples of Othello and Desdemona, Iago and Emilia, and Cassio and Bianca. The play “Othello” represents how women are treated in the Elizabethan Era. Women...
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Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman and August Wilson's play Fences portrays the image of both protagonists transfering over the burden of their mistakes to their sons. The pattern of being away from home can become the cause of betrayal, secrets and a loss of responsibility and resentment from others. Troy Maxon from Fences and Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman have both shown the absence in their familes lives can create bad decisions, such as having an...
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Jealousy and pride tend to take root within an individual and unravel relationships between people. The play, Othello, tells a tale of Othello, who begins to lose trust in his beloved wife Desdemona, due to his uncertainty of deserving her love and lies that his trusted friend, Iago, had told him. In Othello, Shakespeare particularly takes a more pessimistic view of human relationships. An example of these flawed human relationships is the marriage between Desdemona and Othello. In the beginning...
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Shakespeare begins his play in an open street in Venice in which a quarrel occurs between Iago, the mischievous and manipulative man and Roderigo, a rich nobleman capable of believing anything told by Iago, immediately it introduces the idea of the private becoming public when an argument occurs in an open street during the night where anyone can listen to the exchange of words. It becomes apparent to the audience that the argument is based on a man named Othello;...
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Shakespeare as well as other renowned writers during the Elizabethan time profusely explore the theme of controlling natures of men towards women in their works to highlight the strict patriarchal values of Jacobean society. Desdemona’s subservience acts as a signifier of the control men had over women. The concept of men controlling women can be seen and encouraged through women’s internalised societal expectations during the Elizabethan Era wherein their sole duty was to serve as a dutiful wife. Desdemona says...
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Introduction: The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Othello Othello (1603) is a domestic tragedy written by the famous Tudor playwright William Shakespeare. The tale discusses themes of love, jealously, revenge and most importantly race. Othello is an African man living as an army general in Venice. He falls in love with Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian senate named Brabantio, and asks for her hand in marriage. Brabantio is horrified by this act of miscegeny and forbids the...
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A Doll’s House is a play by Henrik Ibsen that revolves around issues of marriage and family. It talks about a middle-classed woman named Nora Helmer who is married to Torvalds. She took a bank loan illegally to save the life of her husband, Torvalds. Her husband is not aware of whether she has any pending bank loans to be paid. This paper will look at a summary of the drama, setting of the play, irony, main characters, historical context...
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Introduction A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1594–1595) belongs to the period from Shakespeare’s experimental, a similar comedy to his mature, romantic, philosophical, jolly vein. The play develops the motif of love as an imaginative journey from reality into a fantasy world created by the one and only artist, Shakespeare. Plot Summary A Midsummer Night’s Dream involved four plots elaborating four groups of characters: the court party of Theseus, the four young lovers, the fairies and the rude mechanicals or would-be...
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In 1999, the cult classic “10 Thing I Hate About You” came out. This movie rode on the ideas of Third wave feminism, which was highly prevalent in the 1990s and early 2000’s, unlike its original source material: Taming of the Shrew. Written in the late 16th century, Taming of the shrew is reflective of the renascences misogynistic, patriarchal and mistreatment of the women in that time. The original play tells the story of Petruchio (Patrick in the film) ,...
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Since gender and sexuality are interpreted as a construct of society and since literature is a method of cultural representation, works of literature can both emphasize gender norms and construct newer, less restricting portrayals of gender and sexuality. This fluctuating state of gender identity based on current societal values is conveyed in works ranging from Renaissance Shakespeare to Romantic Mary Shelley and Victorian Robert Louis Stevenson. While Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew demonstrates a female response against societal norms...
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The topic in this year’s festival is intertextuality between different texts. Intertextuality allows us to draw on existing ideas to create interesting new works and these texts are strongly influenced by society and culture. Shakespeare’s plays are some of the most well-known and adapted texts. His play Taming of the Shrew written in 1590 was adapted in 1999 into the film directed by Gil Junger, 10 Things I Hate About You. In adapting Taming of the Shrew into a modern...
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Today we are discussing how modern texts like 10 Things I Hate about You has borrowed an older text like The Taming Of the Shrew by comparing and contrasting different elements of both stories. Characters are a significant part of both the Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate about You as they drive the story as a whole and the types of characters that are involved are important in a story as it creates different types of...
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Do humans have free will? Or are they just objects the greater force plays with? The subject is addressed in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and “The Guest” by Albert Camus. These stories portray how humans are being control by greater forces creating no free will. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, people are controlled by destined fates created by an outside force. For example, the oracles. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Macbeth is shown...
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Love is a cruel game that has no rules. The play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, is about the unstable and conflicted relationships between four couples. The play is set in Athens where everything starts to go wrong with the upcoming wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, which is happen in four days. Lysander and Demetrius change their feelings of love and commitments for both Hermia and Helena in this short period of time. Through these characters, Shakespeare shows...
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In Hamlet, the pretense of madness was a huge part of this play. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet had severe consequences for all the characters. However, referring to the main protagonist Hamlet, he was mainly the character that has been affected negatively. Hamlet experiences different ways of loss throughout the play because of his decision to act mad. Furthermore, individuals who act over madness to take revenge must experience losses in their lives. To start off, individuals who act mad will misjudge...
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Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play about a tragedy that invokes many different ideologies about the meaning of loss and how it goes hand in hand with both madness and grief. Hamlet, throughout the play, portrays the underlying theme of madness and the loss of his father triggers his insanity and he quickly starts to stray farther and farther from reality causing him to ponder suicide and seek revenge, which then sparks concerns from the people around him. It is evident...
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The illustration of Trauma Theory and stigmatization has recently been the center of academic discussions as well as theatre productions. Trauma holds a central role in Sydney’s Theatre Company “A Streetcar Named Desire”. One of the reasons why the play has a poignant and affecting stimulus is because, through creative vision, performance and stage directions it illustrates what most productions find extremely difficult to achieve, that being what experiencing trauma must be like. Through the embodiment of the effects of...
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Not Another Teen Movie Girl dresses like a guy; she falls in love with a guy, but all while a girl falls in love with her dressed as a guy. It's a story we have all heard before, that is if you have read the Twelfth Night. Recently I saw a film entitled She’s the Man and a friend told me it was an adaption of a Shakespeare play called Twelfth Night. Since I have had to go to Shakespeare...
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Annotated Bibliography Hull, Robert. 'Hamartia and Heroic Nobility in Oedipus Rex.' Philosophy and Literature, vol. 17 no. 2, 1993, pp. 286-294. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/phl.1993.0047 The article is written by Robert Hull, and he argues that one’s consequences are already displaced by their character flaws at the beginning of the story, as opposed to those who believe that Oedipus will cause his consequences by his own actions. This article begins with a discussion about how readers are taught to think about...
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In the graphic memoir titled Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel, sexual self-discovery is one of the criteria for the development of the main character. Furthermore, Bechdel depicts the plethora of factors that are pivotal in the shaping of who she is before, during and after her sexual self-development. Bechdel’s anguish and pain begins with all of her accounts that she encountered at home, with her respective family member – most importantly her father – at school, and the community she...
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The Romantic movement which began in the late 18th century reflected the irrational, illusory, exotic, naïve and untrained aspects of society. It presented human emotion with a complex natural grandeur that subtly transcends all human capacities and concerns. Dealing with the affairs of the upper classes. Its characteristics tend to borrow from Christianity with a secularised Christ-like hero that triumphs over industry, technology and civilisation. We see these themes staunchly presented in novels such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774...
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After reading both Trifles and Hamlet more than once, there have been new themes that seem to catch my attention. Although there are themes such as death and revenge in both plays, but the most vital one would be the oppression of women in both plays. Considering that these plays were written a long time ago, in a time where women's freedom was restricted and limited, there is alot to observe about the treatment of women back in the day....
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To confine is to keep or restrict someone or something within certain limits. Confines are defined as borders or boundaries of a place, especially with regard to their restricting freedom. Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. In “A Doll House by Henrick Ibsen and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell it is determined that confines and freedoms can be those of a home, one’s self, and/or of marriage....
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Throughout the centuries, history has given society people whom one can call a hero. There are ongoing reasons why these heroes have been given a special title and looked upon: bravery, determination, agility, inspiration, or confidence. However, a tragic hero carries different characteristics and traits. Aristotle argued that tragic heroes meet five standards. In Sophocles’ Antigone, King Creon exemplifies all five qualities of a tragic hero. Although many might believe there are different tragic heroes seen in the Greek drama,...
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“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go,” Tennessee Williams once said. Throughout the play, there are many situations where Williams shows times where the characters have to let a part of them or something go. Most of the Wingfield family have trouble relating and connecting to reality, each member of the Wingfield family goes into a separate world with their own fantasy. Not everyone follows the social norm or the status quo, everyone...
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Throughout the history of black American culture, the pursuit of dreams has played a pivotal role in self-fulfillment and internal development. In many ways an individual's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles barring the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme has been quite evident in black literary works regardless of time period or writing style. For example, in both Fences, by August Wilson, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale...
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The main character in the poem, Othello, starts out as this noble, naive, and trusting person, to a foolish, jealous, murderer. Throughout the poem, the villain Iago is setting up his attempt to ruin Othello's life. Iago eventually sets into action his deviously complex and twisted plot to ruin Othello. As Iago's plans start unfolding, Othello's character slowly changes. Iago's ultimate plan is to attack Othello's insecurity about his wife's loyalty, to set her up, and to hurt him. Only...
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Twelfth Night Questions What is the most important theme in your play and explain how the author communicates the theme throughout the play? (Remember the theme is a main message of the play - the lesson, or observation about human nature the author makes - it should take a stand not just be a topic or one word like “love”) In his play Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, William Shakespeare develops the theme of love is pain and the...
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A tragic hero may be a character having heroic characteristics, like leadership, courage, or determination, including a tragic ending, generally death. These are not stories with 'happily ever after' endings that we tend to square measure acquainted with nowadays. Greek tragedies square measure several the foremost well-known stories with tragic heroes. The mythical being plays square measure several the foremost studied of the Greek tragedies, notably mythical being. mythical being ends in an exceedingly complete tragedy wherever mythical being is...
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