Any student of history who plunks down to expound on the fifteenth century is fighting Shakespeare from the minute he lifts his pen. It is a fight he will most likely lose. Shakespeare’s representations of the Plantagenet lords, sovereigns, and nobles who led and demolished England are strong to such an extent that they have, by and large, become magically melded with the genuine, recorded people themselves. Who, for instance, can consider Henry V without burping up a line or...
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Despite the adaptation of a text to film benefiting from the opportunities and abilities bestowed to a director through the visual aspect of the medium, narrative complexity and depth of literary themes almost inevitably suffer a condensation. Ralph Fiennes’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is not immune to this trend, with temporal constraints forcing Fiennes to focus upon thematic elements of Shakespeare’s original work that he finds to be integral to his interpretation. Whereas Shakespeare’s characterization of key figures such...
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Vengeance, chaos, uncertain honor and untimely death-whether describing the fall from grace of a noble king, impassioned General, or valiant warrior, each arises in the historically based tragedies of William Shakespeare. Coriolanus, Shakespeare’s account of the societal and self destruction of a Roman warrior paragon, proves no exception, depicting the demise that results from any character trait excess, even honor. This particular play introduces a further element of gender to fatal excess, providing, through the characters of Coriolanus and Volumnia,...
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Antony and Cleopatra’s love for one another is the prominent theme throughout the play, and although both characters profess to an incomparable “peerless” love, they encourage doubt in the audience by acting in a manner that appears to contradict this. This is demonstrated by Cleopatra’s bullying, manipulative manner and also with the ease with which Antony dismisses their relationship in front of Caesar and his marriage to Octavia. Ultimately, Shakespeare intended for the audience to question the genuineness of Antony...
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In this play Coriolanus by Shakespeare, Coriolanus’ expulsion is the peak of a sequence of incidents in which a few powers have a role, all impelling him to his absolute destruction. As is normal in Shakespearean Tragedy, the legend, at the crest of his accomplishments, falls, because of a lethal blemish in his character. Despite the fact that Coriolanus is viewed as the legend and hero of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and ought to be a solid, thoughtful character, he is ruled...
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AP English Literature and Composition Name: __Carmen Cerrito____________ Major Works Data Sheet Title: ___Henry V__________________________ Author: __William Shakespeare_________________________ Date of Publication: __1600_______________ Genre: __Historical__________________________ Biographical information about the author: (Provide information that gives insight into the author’s historical experiences.) William Shakespeare was born roughly around April 23rd, 1564, and he later became a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor. He was the third child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. John was an alderman, and bailiff, and held a mayor-type...
5 Pages
2391 Words
Cleopatra, “Egypt’s Queen,” is arguably Shakespeare’s most resilient and enchanting female protagonist. She is personified as the embodiment of her country, ‘the soul of Egypt’, and defies the reductive Jacobean “most monster-like” perspective of women. The Renaissance stereotype of the subordinate and inferior female is in total juxtaposition to the possessive and shrewd characteristics that Cleopatra possesses, as she is in fact “a wonderful piece of work.” Cleopatra manipulates her associates and subordinates through her alluring sexuality and ‘infinite variety,’...
2 Pages
992 Words
The world of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida does not distinguish decidedly between the Greeks and the Trojans. Though the Greek camp is a makeshift assembly of tents pitched on the shores of Troy, and the Trojan society is the courtly palace of Priam and his sons, both societies value the same ideas and objects: honor in men, and beauty and faithfulness in women, as revealed haphazardly through appearances and acts. The inadequacy of such measures of worth, their failure to...
4 Pages
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In many ways, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure are examples of his ‘problem plays’ that are concerned with self-division and lack of self-knowledge. The former play deals with the duality of the characters and it is in the knowledge or lack of knowledge in this duality between the characters which makes it a problem play. Self-division is also implicit in the latter play, where the characters are forced to confront their different natures due to a crisis...
6 Pages
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A problem play is a play in which the playwright portrays the social, political and economic problems of the society he lives in. The problem play is a development form of the ‘drama of ideas’ (Drama of ideas is a type of discussion play in which the most acute problems of social and personal morality is revealed). It is tragic in tone and deals with human dilemmas along with the social evils, i.e., it is a play in which a...
4 Pages
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Will the war on masculinity only fire back? The problem with the term toxic masculinity by Jacinta Petrohilos Toxic masculinity has become a very over used term in modern day society, the application of the term “toxic” traits target things such as aggression and sexist behaviours but we only ever associate these terms with males. We are now in the era where masculinity is raised to praise what is wrong with men and to address how to change them. But...
2 Pages
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In Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the intense conflict between the families of the Montagues and Capulets illustrates the theme of internal conflict present throughout the play. It is this conflict that led to the downfall of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship and their inevitable death. In the play, Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question when Juliet states, ‘What if it be a poison, which the friar Subtly hath ministered to have me dead?’ This illustrates Juliet’s doubt of Friar Lawrence’s intentions,...
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“Whether the spirit of greatness / Or of woman I know not, but it shows / A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity”. Cariola’s choric commentary at the end of Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ reflects her uncertainty of whether to see the Duchess’ bid for self-determination as “greatness” of spirit or as “madness”, for she is moving beyond the bounds of socially accepted behaviour with no clear path to guide her. As Joseph...
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W. Shakespeare was born in England (1564-1616). He is considered the most famous dramatist of all time. He was a poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. Throughout his life, he wrote 2 long narrative poems, 39 plays, and 154 sonnets. He reformed and developed the 14 lines in iambic pentameter in the worldwide successfully. I will analyze the meaning and the literary techniques of his sonnet 30 in the following essay. Sonnet 30 was published in 1609. In...
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Love does not have a standard definition, love is not just a word, but so much more. The definition of love is defined by an audience’s familiarities with it, through experience, love is a changing entity. This essay will discuss what Arthur Marrotti meant by “love is not love” in Elizabethan sonnets (1982) in through the techniques used in Thomas Wyatt’s “The Love That in my Heart Doth Harbour”(1527), Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 1”(1580s), Mary Wroth’s “sonnet 1” from “Pamphilia...
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Introduction This paper deals with the “Sonnet XXIX”, one of the 154 Sonnets the well-known English poet, playwright and actor William Shakespeare has written. The aim of my paper is to examine in how far this particular Shakespearean Sonnet fits into the pattern of a ‘typical’ Shakespearean Sonnet. “Shakespeare’s sonnets are synonymous with courtly romance, but in fact many are about something quite different.” [cf. Paterson 2010: online] Shakespeare’s Sonnets polarized and this paper also examines how love is approached...
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Many of Shakespeare’s sonnets revolve around two people’s relationship with each other. Shakespeare’s sonnets show the Victorian standards of true love. Although Sonnet 130 and Sonnet 138 both discuss love, they have different views of how true love is expressed. Sonnet 130 regards loving your partner despite their faults and being honest about the fact that they’re human. Sonnet 138 is about omitting your faults from a relationship in attempts to preserve the love. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is brutally...
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The term ‘Gaia’ owes its origin from James Lovelock’s contention that the Earth’s self-regulating system itself create a sustainable life to co-exist on the planet and it is hereby, this principle of self-regulation that decides the fate of life to exist on other planets. According to James Lovelock, Gaia constitutes “a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback of cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on...
5 Pages
2101 Words
Rosalind and Viola are seen as a dominant and independent figure in Shakespeare’s plays. Because, each exemplifies the power and intelligence to confront other characters with their gender-based disguises. They use their disguises as a way to take control of the romantic aspects in their lives, and they engage into different roles with the ability to defy the constraints that the society imposes on women during the Elizabethan period. In Shakespeare’s play, female characters obtain more power and freedom within...
3 Pages
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The play, As You Like It, by William Shakespeare is all about dropping out of the everyday madness of modern capitalism. Shakespeare wrote many plays in his lifetime, and As You Like It is one of his most famous comedies that represents love at first sight, disguise, and manipulative love in an amusing manner. Love as a state of being is universal throughout As You Like It. In Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It, Duke Senior is overthrown by his...
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Early Modern English l was about a hundred years old when Shakespeare was writing. There existed not dictionaries and Latin was still the language in which most documents were written. He contributed over 3000 words to the English language, because he was the first who wrote them . There are nearly 1700 of those words that were used by him for the very first time, including antipathy, assassination, hereditary, snow-broth, mouth honour, under-honest or zany. W. Shakespeare is well known...
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The vast number of Shakespeare’s sonnets alone lends itself to an array of ideas and perspectives within the collection. These differing insights can be viewed as the embracing of a spectrum of views on sexuality and gender as well as a challenge to the biblical and cultural concept of love. The string of characters within the sonnets also convey differing vantages: the poet’s speaker, a fair youth, the seductive dark lady and a second poet whose appeal to the fair...
3 Pages
1373 Words
At present, our society is facing various social inequalities. A significant problem is discrimination against minorities in the community and workplace. These minorities are neglected and concealed of these inequalities also by the media. Citizenship is crucial to this issue because it has always been a key factor in creating equality and inequality for equality assumes that all citizens, rather than aliens, have equal status, regardless of wealth, capabilities, and social class. Because citizenship guarantees equal rights, citizenship has always...
4 Pages
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In the Play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ written by one of the best English playwrights; William Shakespeare, the role of deception is an important theme that is presented frequently through the characters. The play is based upon deceptions and multiple schemes that are used to show the thoughts of nearly every character and the characters deceive themselves by putting on a different public facade instead of showing their true feelings and personalities. The play also involves a complex order of...
2 Pages
898 Words
An individual’s self-perception varies based on what they believe is an illusion and what they believe is reality. In today’s society, this same idea is present when people interact with one another, as they may retain a different perception of what others think of them compared to what the blunt truth is. As a matter of fact, humans possess the potential to influence the behaviours and thoughts of others in a way that benefits themselves, and lets down those close...
2 Pages
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When you hear the name Shakespeare, who do you think he was? Do you think that he was some crazy writer that made up words and phrases because he wanted to? Or did you think he was a mastermind and an idol for English literature? If you looked at everyone’s reasons, I’m sure that the pros would outweigh the cons. The main reason being is that the globe theatre is still alive today, along with his words, phrases, sonnets and...
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William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of all time. His tragedies and poems are still read and analyzed today by many scholars and students, but what if William Shakespeare wasn’t the one to write these great works of literature? It was not William Shakespeare that wrote these works, but another scholar or playwright. The most popular candidate is the Oxfordian Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Edward De Vere became an earl as a young man...
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Shakespeare is still relevant today for his insight into human behavior and experiences, and in the way he represents aspects of human life, including love, loss, greed and hate. These insights into human life that Shakespeare represented in his plays reflect a lot of the modern society we have today, and provide people with a deeper understanding of the world. Shakespeare’s tragedies are often about loss, and death. His tragedies will generally include a tragic hero, external and internal conflict,...
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535 Words
I love my dog, she is very soft and pretty. She is loyal and sweet but she has a skin condition so when I give her a bath she starts to lose her fur and smell but I still love her. If I was infatuated with her I would ask my parents to get rid of her and move on to the next dog. The love I have for my dog was from time, care, and attention. However, with Shakespeare’s...
2 Pages
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The Marxist literary lens analyzes literature by understanding the historical conditions and factors that produce it and the structural cause of society behind it. This style of criticism is concerned with the interactions of societal “levels” and social relations, and how class struggle, oppression, and inequality are portrayed (Eagleton 18). Karl Heinrich Marx’s theories and ideas of politics and psychology, specifically known for criticizing the capitalist society and how “labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity” are used...
4 Pages
1599 Words
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