Act 2 Scene 1 is used to be the point of which the issues start to become apparent, with the ensuing psychological and emotional effects on Katherina now she is being subjected to Petruchio entering her life. However, Shakespeare has designed Taming of the Shrew as a comedy, and these issues become an underlying feature, and not the play’s main focus. Act 2 Scene 1 is the first meeting between the two characters and their initial interaction is quite explosive. A social concern that is made clear through the exchange is the lack of respect Petruchio has for Katherina, which is influenced through the fact that the play was written in the time of a Patriarchal society, and women had to get married if they wanted to be respected – even if it meant losing all their finances and belongings to the possession of the husband. Petruchio bombards Katherina with compliments as soon as she walks in such as “bonny Kate”, “prettiest Kate in Christendom, Kate of Kate-Hall, my super-dainty Kate”, while being consistently referential to Katherina as being his through the use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’, even though at that point, they had barely just met.
How and why have the portrayals of Cleopatra VII changed over time? Over the many years the story of Cleopatra has been around, the perceptions and portrayals of her reign and life in 69 BC – 30 BC have constantly changed. Many historians have different interpretations based on their own personal attitudes and views of the events which occurred in Cleopatra’s life. Due to the constant change in society, Cleopatra has now been called a shameless temptress who used blatant sexuality to maintain her grip on the throne of Egypt. Cleopatra’s contemporaries Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro; October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC) and Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC) demonstrate this view of Cleopatra in their epic poems.
Although it is true that Lady Macbeth is a big part of the play and adds a lot of interest, her character is revealed through her unkind attitude with Macbeth, careless feelings towards the lives of others, and her guilty conscience. Lady Macbeth is very pushy when it comes to the murder of Duncan and Macbeth’s hesitations towards it. She gives this comment to Macbeth, “Oh, never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may ready strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue.
This shows the context where marriage would be used to enhance a families place in society rather than for love. Being in the first scene, structurally, this suggests to the audience that the play is going to have a running theme of disruption because straight away we are introduced to the fact that there are contrasts in the characters desires. This is enhanced by the fact that Egeus disrupts Theseus and Hippolyta to tell them of his daughter’s disobedience, which provides a visual display to the audience that the upcoming events are not going to run smoothly. The theme of disruption extends to include the supernatural world in act 2: scene 1 which suggests a lack of hope for the human world because those with powers are unable to live in equilibrium. In the argument between Titania and Oberon, Titania says ‘but with thy brawls, thou hast disturbed our sport.’ This shows the disruption in their relationship; the phrase ‘our sport’ showing how close they used to be, behaving in a lively, energetic way which suggests childish behaviour brought about by being in love.
Insanity in King Lear is most evident in the portrayal of Lear himself, his mind is haunted and unsettled by the cruel treatment he receives at the hands of his daughters. At the core of this play is a paradox, when Lear is seen as sane, his logic is foolish and ridiculous, however throughout the play as his descendant into madness progresses, he seems to have shards of awareness amongst the gibberish he speaks. At the beginning of the play, Lear would be considered as clinically sane, however his logic is complete madness. He declares his abdication and to determine what each daughter will receive, he devised a contest for them, to see who declared their love for him the greatest. “Which of you shall we say doth love us most.” The verb “say” reflects Lear’s lack of rationality as love cannot be measured with words.
HOW DOES ROMEO & JULIET CRITIQUE THE PETRARCHAN DISCOURSE OF DESIRE? Shakespeare utilises a variety of techniques in Romeo and Juliet in order to critique the conventions of the Petrarchan discourse of desire. Through his construction of the sonnets that are found in the play and the characters that are found in Verona he manages to reinvent the discourse of desire both critiquing the Petrarchan view and providing a new view on what it means to desire and to love. Through these techniques Shakespeare constantly challenges his audience but never lays out a clear or concise answer to the themes of his play but instead encourages his audience to take on their own view. Shakespeare quite obviously plays with the conventions of Petrarchan characters and their views of desire throughout the play but most significantly towards the beginning.
11-28-12 Period 5 Rough Draft In Much Ado About Nothing (written by William Shakespeare), complicated relationships is one of the major themes. Edgar Allen Poe once said: “We loved with a love that was more than just love.” This quote means that a couple can have many different feelings between the two people involved. Beatrice demonstrates intricate relationships by having her connection with Benedick be much more than just a romantic one. As it is known, the play starts off with an enmity between Beatrice and Benedick due to their clashing opinions and stubborn attitudes. Their quarrel goes as far as personal insults (pg.
How does Shakespeare present conflict within Romeo in the opening half of Romeo and Juliet? The first half of the play sees Romeo swinging from hopeless love with one woman to another in the space of a day - which seems like the sign of a fairly confused/confusing character. Shakespeare uses vast amounts of techniques to create very dramatic conflicts. With immense amounts of contrast in Romeo this leads to the readers/ viewers to have a spilt opinions of Romeo. Romeo has a lot of conflict, which he approaches with different, changing attitudes, which we know as contrast.
How does William Shakespeare present Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Act 1 of the play? Macbeth, arguably one of Shakespeare’s most twisted plays, shows us how having too much ambition can have disastrous consequences especially if there is someone there to keep pushing and encouraging you do to do things you wouldn’t normally do. Macbeth we first see as a courageous and valiant man who slowly slips into a dark character with the help from Lady Macbeth, who we see as a ruthless, heartless person from when she is first introduced. The supernatural, blind ambitions (greed) and equivocation are just some of the main themes introduced to us in Act 1. At the start of the play, we were introduced to our Macbeth by the injured captain's recount about his war-time battlefield valour and heroics, therefore we were given an impression that the male protagonist was theoretically meant to be a courageous, brave and capable warrior who would risk anything to defend his country.
Throughout Leigh’s dramatic comedy are near constant malfunctioning relationships that credit the very definition of dysfunctional: flawed and defective. As act one and two advance in tension, the audience become aware very quickly that the idea is epitomised in varying degrees through interlacing relationships that have been left to develop in marriage or carelessly formed to keep up appearances and how these are presented, in most aspects, decaying. The varying dysfunctional relationships are shown through the female characters and how they interact with the others within the play. Undoubtedly, at the core of the play’s dysfunctional relationships is Leigh’s characterisation of the leading modern day medusa herself: Beverly, and where her character ensures that she infects every bond that she forms. Despite perhaps being Leigh’s prophecy of the new middle class, Beverly’s synthetic persona is explained in “The films of Mike Leigh” by Roy Caney “(Beverly) plays a part in which every gesture, inflection and tone of voice has been worked out in advance, and in which there can be no real learning or discovery” This results in the characters who attempt or are pressured into forming a relationship with her are left at an impasse, completely at the mercy of her overbearing personality and the incursion of dysfunctionality as they learn nothing about her with which to retaliate, and are in a sense, made defenceless.