1. Betrayal and revenge
2. Metaphors of death-King Lear, Merchant of Venice, Othello
3. Humor- A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It
4. Pastoral settings- Ling Lear, A midnight Summer's Dream
5. Madness and insanity- Othello, Midnight Summer?s Dream, King Lear
6. Reversal- the main character falls from a high place
7. Letters- King Lear, Merchant of Venice
8. Things are not as they appear- King Lear, Merchant of Venice,
Midsummer Night?s Dream
9. The Father/Daughter Conflict-Midsummer, King Lear, Merchant of
Venice
10. Justice- King Lear, Merchant of Venice
The Father/Daughter Conflict-
In Midnight Summers Dream, Egeus commands Hermia, his daughter, to wed
Demetrius, whom she does not love. Against the advisement of the
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is the villain in the play. It is not by accident that he is mentioned in the letter in this way.
In King Lear, Goneril plots to kill her husband through a letter to
Edmund delivered by Oswald. Edmund frames his brother Edgar with a letter that appears to conspire to kill Gloucester, their father. It is here that the audience sees how conniving and calculated Edmund really is and there is no room for sympathy of the character.
Things are not as they appear-
Disguises are tools William Shakespeare uses to hide or mask inner and outer appearances. In The Merchant of Venice, disguises are used throughout the play by different characters for varied reasons. The
?lottery of the caskets? in Merchant of Venice is an excellent example the theme; Things are not as they appear. Portia?s suitors must choose from caskets of gold, silver, and lead in order to win her hand in marriage. The choice of the lead casket not only wins the fair Portia, but it is also indicate the suitor is intelligent and of substance: not superficial and materialistic.
Raised as a Jew, Jessica disguises herself as a pageboy to cover up her identity and embark on a forbidden marriage to Lorenzo, a Christian.
This act of defiance refuses her not only her religion, but also her father, Shylock, a Jewish usurer. At the introduction of Jessica?s character, the audience may be inclined to pity the daughter of the main villain in the play, who is accused of greed and usury;
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet presents many themes such as, betrayal, deceit, and revenge to name a few. Events in the play include murder, eavesdropping, and confessions. Questions regarding love, honor, and loyalty are also fused into the storyline. Madness in the form of insanity is also a question throughout the plot. Moral behavior regarding right, immoral behavior regarding wrong, and whether to be a righteous character, or corrupt are also focused on. Two reoccurring elements mentioned are fear and mortality.
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is enclosed in a coffin of deceit, betrayal and lies which places everyone’s future in tragedy. The theme runs throughout the entire play and the severity of the theme ends in death for most characters. The themes of deception are
Throughout many of William’s Shakespeare’s plays, Shakespeare creates distinguished characters that serve as foils to the title characters. In Romeo and Juliet, the unseen Rosaline and the conventional Parris contrast with the heavily featured Juliet and her unpredictable partner, Romeo. In Macbeth, the decisive Lady Macbeth contrasts with her indecisive husband, Macbeth. In Hamlet, Shakespeare creates one of his most polarizing title characters. Detailing Hamlet’s quest to avenge his father’s death, Shakespeare shows how Hamlet contrasts with other characters. Hamlet’s foils Laertes, Fortinbras, and Ophelia emphasize Hamlet’s independence, calmness, religiousness, patience, cunningness, rationality, loyalty, intelligence, perseverance, compassion, and honor.
We see in this play many themes, including: revenge, betrayal, mortality, madness, religion, deceit, sex, family, and gender.
In his play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare invites his audience into a multi-layered tragedy that encapsulates many motives, deaths, and moments of deceit. Shakespeare utilizes a variety of themes to communicate important insights and to give emphasis to various important messages of the play. Hamlet encapsulates many themes, such as revenge, appearance versus reality, sanity versus insanity, decay and corruption, family dynamic, and gender, that all mingle together throughout the plot to emphasis the main ideas. Throughout the scenes, the reader meets Prince Hamlet, the son of the late King Hamlet. Prince Hamlet returns home for his father’s funeral when he realizes that his mother has already remarried his uncle, Claudius. It is not too long after all of this information is revealed to Prince Hamlet that his late father’s ghost arrives in the castle and asks him to avenge his death on the murderer, Prince Hamlet’s uncle. This unravels a plethora of twists and turns that strategically accentuate each theme to a different degree. Throughout Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, it is evident that revenge is the most significant theme to the play as it is strongly emphasized in many instances throughout the plot, most significantly, Hamlet’s journey to kill Claudius and Laertes’ drive to seek vengeance on Hamlet, his father’s murderer.
William Shakespeare uses many literary devices to enhance and provide greater complexity in his works. More specifically, the theme, symbolism, and dramatic irony are used to enrich Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello. The plot is definitely engaging but the theme allows for an universal human correspondence, furthering the depth of the author’s message. The element of symbolism contributes to the theme of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Symbolism expresses elaborate concepts, which further intrigues the readers. Another literary tool Shakespeare uses to enrich his piece is dramatic irony. The powerful device of dramatic irony is intended to maintain the audience 's interest by establishing a
Shakespeare wrote three types of plays, which were tragedies, comedies, and histories. He wrote many of these plays, and became quite famous from it, with his influence still showing in the modern world. Arguably most popular of the three were tragedies, which included Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, and many others that are still commonly taught in schools today. One thing that tells that reader that what they read was a tragedy is the fact that in the end, everybody dies, and usually there is at least one suicide. There are a few rules of tragedies, the first one is that at least one important character dies, the death can’t be an accident, but must happen because of someone else, or by their own hand, and lastly the character
Edmund’s plan ends up working, and Gloucester turns on Edgar. The fact that Gloucester easily believes his son is going to attempt to kill him is a sign of his incredible ignorance, as Edgar is a good man who would never betray his father. Gloucester’s ignorance of the situation eventually ruins both his and Edgar’s life, and that exhibits the prevalent theme of King Lear that blindness to the truth can destroy lives.
The movie that is being compared to a story here is one of the all-time best. The main theme portrayed in "Shakespeare in Love" is a love that is never meant to be. "Shakespeare in Love" parallels the play Shakespeare is currently working on, Romeo and Juliet, in which love is not meant to be due to the many obstacles in the way. Shakespeare's life in the film is very comparable to Romeo's life in Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare's life in the film and the play he is writing has several similarities and differences. In my opinion, this is one of the best movies and books to compare.
William Shakespeare's Relevance Today For as long as formal education has existed in Britain it has been a largely standard assumption that teaching the works of William Shakespeare is relevant and necessary. Perhaps the relevance of his writing is taken for granted, perhaps it is necessary to re-examine the role of Shakespeare for the modern audience. There are indeed many people who question the relevance of this 440 year old playwright to a 21st century audience, taking it even as far as perhaps the greatest heresy of all, questioning the necessity of GCSE pupils learning Shakespeare at all. This “proposed vandalism from the policymakers” (Guardian 09/02/01) is opposed wholesale by supporters
William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night can easily be interpreted as a romance play. Given that the majority of the characters in the play in some way or another fall in love, but there are many twists that come with these romantic relationships. Some of the characters fall in love with the same character, others fall in love with a character that loves another, who actually loves another causing a chaotic love triangle. Within every romance a character is tragically hurt, turning the romance play into more of a tragedy. Throughout the play the characters throw around a rigid construction of the term “love,” that of a desire and not an actual feeling. Therefore, again turning the play away from a romance play, but now turning it towards a mocked romance play. The aspect that is manipulated causing all the misinterpretation is the representation of the term love, which is implicated by using multiple characters different scenarios of their love. The main characters reside in somewhat of a love triangle, Olivia, Viola, and Orsino. Love is often aligned with lust, stability, and class. None of which defines love as a sense of true selflessness. In the representation of love the reader interprets no selfless actions done to express their love to one another. Love is shown more as an obsession implied on the thought of love with respect to many alternative motives, which also show a lack of love being understood by the characters. In result, of the various representation of love
Character's often at times play a major role in developing themes throughout many sources of literature. Shakespeare's play Hamlet serves as an optimal example of this as he enhances the themes of revenge, morality, and deception though various personalities of his character's.. The author presents the theme of morality through many characters. The theme of morality is present with characters such as the ghost of King Hamlet, Laertes and Hamlet. Also, in many scenes of the play, the audience witnesses the theme of revenge. The audience observes revenge with the protagonist of the play, Hamlet. Furthermore, Deceit is another theme from the beginning until the end. Deception plays a major part in the play with many of the character's such as Polonius, King Claudius and Hamlet as they deceive their peers. In the play, Hamlet, the themes of revenge, morality, and deceit are portrayed within the characters.
William Shakespeare was a very talented man known for his various works of literature. His works include poems, plays, and sonnets. His works are then broken down into tragedies, comedies, and histories. Shakespeare left this world centuries ago, but his writings continue to live throughout the world today. He has greatly impacted the world of literature and his existence will forever be remembered.
In all genres there are stereotypical elements. This academic essay will outline the importance and effect of the elements of dramatic tragedy within the given passage from King Lear, and how this is significant and develops an understanding in the audience towards the play as a whole.
One of the themes that Shakespeare plays within his tragedies is the imbalance of order and disorder, dealing specifically with morality. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark or simply Hamlet is about the titular character contemplating killing his uncle after King Hamlet’s ghost tells Hamlet that he had been poisoned by Claudius. The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice tells the story of Othello being manipulated by Iago into believing that his wife is having an affair with Cassio. Even though these plays deal with different subjects such as love and revenge, they are similar as both Hamlet and Othello, as the heroes, attempt to fix this disorder in morality (Hamlet’s Uncle killing the King and Othello’s wife ‘cheating’ on him). Yet due to their tragic flaws, Hamlet and Othello have become the villains because they have fueled the disorder within themselves as well as with the people in their lives. In the end, the only way that moral order is restored by the deaths of the protagonists and every other person that has been affected by this disorder.