But he does. While Hamlet slowly is driven mad by visits from the ghost of his father and the scheming plots of his uncle Claudius, the one thing that actually keeps Hamlet focused and centered are his feelings for Ophelia. Hamlet’s seemingly unreasonable actions and questionable motives toward her are all part of a ruse to fool everybody at court and actually protect her from being used as leverage by the murderous King Claudius. There are several moments where Hamlet professes his love for Ophelia in moments where he didn’t have to, which in my opinion point to where his heart really lies. Let’s explore the moments within the text where Hamlet actually used his smarts to trick the other conniving characters into thinking that he didn’t love Ophelia and was going insane instead.
Thesis: A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare explores the idea of love and how it causes one to make irrational decisions and prone to foolishness. In the play, love is caused by a magic love potion where the four Athenian youths, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena fall out in love with their courtship (Lysander and Demetrius fall out of love with Hermia and in love with Helena) and chase the wrong person around in the woods. Shakespeare may conclude that love is fickle and makes us suffer because of its strong power over us. I. Theseus, the king of Athens and Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen, serve as the ideal form of marriage as well as an example of traditional love. a.
Oberon, king of fairies, tries to convince his wife, Titania, to give up the Indian boy she promised to take care of so he can use him as a knight. Titania refused and it made Oberon furious so he decides to hire Puck, who has magic powers, to put magic flower juice on her eyes. This magic flower juice, would make her fall madly in love with the first person she opened her eyes and saw and have an overwhelming desire to be with them. This ended up not turning out in his favor and she ended up falling in love with Bottom, a man who is stuck on himself and plays an ass. When this happened he had to try the magic juice again so she would be in love with him rather than an ass.
Act IV, Scene 1, L. 45-100 (p.216-p.220): Oberon and Titania : submission or reconciliation ? This passage is an extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was written by Shakespeare. As the title of this work suggests it, the play takes place mainly in the darkness and especially in the woods which are an enchanting world as the Queen of the Fairies, Titania, is submitted to it and loses her identity without being able to do anything. She has been drugged indirectly by her husband, Oberon, because he wanted her Indian child. So she has opened her eyes just after the trick and has fallen in love with a miserable human being, Bottom.
In this play there are characters that are, in the puritanical belief, good and bad; no in between. The characters that cause such destruction and the death of many that are considered “good” are Abigail and Danforth. The one that seems brave and a good man is John Proctor. Abigail in the play accuses people for being witches because she danced in the woods with some of the girls. She decides to blame others so it doesn’t show on her.
His decisions are, however, to some extent, made under the influence of Lady Macbeth, who manipulates him in every way to guide him to success. The witches and their prophecies play a significant role in Macbeth’s downfall. Throughout the play, the witches deceive and fool Macbeth by giving equivocal prophecies, evoking his inner desire for power and swaying him to take evil action. They exploit his ambition from the very beginning, telling Macbeth he will be “Thane of Cawdor” and “King of Scotland” without specifying when or how. This, along with the proven credibility of their first prophecy – Thane of Cawdor – awakens Macbeth’s hidden ambition and triggers his desire to fulfill the last prophecy – King of Scotland, giving him the thought of killing Duncan, “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair” (Macbeth, I,III, 45) and thus, providing the first stepping stone towards his demise.
He sneaks into the ball and if he would not have been in the Capulet’s house, he would have never met Juliet. At the ball he also makes Tybalt angry, which makes the feud worse. Romeo’s bad decisions lead to the death of many characters including Tybalt, Paris and his true love Juliet. Juliet also made bad decisions which lead to her death. For example, when she trusts the Friar to get the information to Romeo.
The Three Witches recklessly deal with their supernatural charms, spells and prophecies which make them seem ridiculous. But they do succeed in confusing and toying with Macbeth. They mislead Macbeth and make him doubt his bravery of courage and loyalty for King Duncan. We can see the witches succeed in provoking dark thoughts and evil temptations on Macbeth as Macbeth later expresses in his soliloquy, ‘Let not light see my black and deep desires.’ Although he is ashamed of the thoughts of killing King Duncan, he can’t stop his flaming ambition for the seat on the throne. Shakespeare doesn’t just use the three witches to expose female dominance over men, but also uses Lady Macbeth, the ambitious wife of Macbeth.
The problem of greed and lust is explored by Arthur Miller particularly in the protagonist- Abigail Williams and the characters of Thomas Putnam. During the play, we are told that John Proctor had an affair with Abigail William’s, which gave her the delusion he was in love with her. This delusion causes Abigail to dance in the forest naked and drink a blood charm to kill Elizabeth. This, along with “laughing at prayer..”, “Corrupt dreams” and “standing in an open doorway without a stich on my body” are considered by the people of Salem as signs of the devil. Also, the corrupt dreams of murdering Goody Proctor are due to her lust for John and the jealousy and need for vengeance she has for Elizabeth for dismissing her.
The witches god doesn't like this which causes the the witches to betray Macbeth, “Spiteful and wrathful, who (as others do) Loves for his own ends, not for you. But make amends now: get you gone, And at the pit of Acheron Meet me i'th morning: get you gone, Will come to know his destiny. Your vessels and your spells provide, Your charms and everything beside” (III. v. 12-19). The witches god is saying that why are they putting up with Macbeth and that he only cares for himself.