Day’s Reality to Night’s Imagination In Midsummer Night’s Dream there is a lot of ‘role playing,’ a lot of juxtapositions that question the boundaries of ideas, of people, and of reality and truth. The play overall uses several groups of characters set in two time periods, night and day, to show the progression of love. As Shakespeare questions the validity of love within the play he broadens love to represent much of life’s greater truths and questions. The periods of night and day are also important as Shakespeare equates these periods into two realms of life; the day as reality and reason, and the night as imaginary and irrational. By setting this foundation, Shakespeare goes on to argue the value of genres that show imagination and irrationality and their ability to tell more truth than reality and rationality.
Upon his characterisation of the protagonist, Prospero, Shakespeare leaves various parallels between Prospero and himself through Prospero’s creation of the enigma that is the tempest. A parallel is also made apparent between Prospero and James the 1st in that they were both rulers by divine right and delved into peculiar philosophies. Shakespeare utilises the tempest as an allusion within an illusion. The political relevance of the tempest is very lucid; he addresses the political instability amongst the nobles of the play as a connotation to the current political problems in Jacobean England. The short terse sentences along various repetitions and imperatives serve to denote calamity in the ship.
The history of theatre in England is long and varied. Although with the changing rulers, theatre was at times given patronage and at other times banished altogether, some semblance to a consistent past can be found. The oldest plays were called Miracle plays (emphasising the miracles of Jesus and other angels), Mystery plays and Morality plays, after which came plays of later renaissance by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Morality plays were a genre popularised in the medieval and early Tudor period. The basic ideal was still the one taught in the bible, but now instead of focusing directly on Jesus Christ like in Miracle plays, these highlighted the inner conflicts of individuals.
He had “rather be a toad and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than keep a corner in the thing I love for other’s uses.”(III, iii, 287) Othello evidently portrays love in this play. Later, in the play, Othello starts to hate Desdemona and won’t give credence to a word she says. When Iago’s scheme to split up Desdemona and Othello begins to work, Othello’s love for her gradually diminishes. Desdemona’s “napkin is too little”, for Othello. (III,iii,303) This quote symbolizes Desdemona’s love for Othello.
The readers introduction to Hamlet and King Claudius occurs in Act I Scene ii where the King explains that he has married his sister in law with mixed feelings but he believes Hamlet’s mourning should seize, to which his nephew replies with disdain and offense. This sets the mood for the relationship between the two characters as well as set Hamlet up for his first soliloquy, seen in Act I Scene ii line 133 O, that is too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve into dew! Or that the everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!
Jessica Crupi 2371771 HUMN 3B02 Lee Slinger The Romantic era was a period of war and revolutionary combat. War and rebellion were essential elements that influenced the flow of ideas in this period. An entire generation of European writers, composers, and artists were influenced by these events. War inspired romantic artists to address themes of liberty and democracy, while considering the function of revolution as an opportunity for political and social change. Writers used the spirit of the revolution to distinguish their poetic sensibilities.
This fact reveals that Shakespeare obviously felt that the sub-plot's contribution to the play was very important. It has been mentioned earlier that the sub-plot of the play has a parallel theme to the main plot. The main plot of King Lear revolves around the betrayal of the king by two of his daughters despite the faithfulness of another daughter. The sub-plot revolves around the betrayal of Gloucester by his bastard son Edmund despite the virtue of his legitimate son Edgar. Hence the following parallels can be drawn: Lear-Gloucester, Edmund-Goneril/Regan, Edgar-Cordelia.
The two involve star-crossed lovers whose love is inevitably destroyed by suicide. The general story of star-crossed lovers is an ancient one, and this leads us to believe that both plays come from similar influences. “Like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the tale of Romeo and Juliet has acquired the status of a myth, but credit for this is not due to Shakespeare alone. Before he wrote, there had been numerous versions of
A detailed analysis of the dramatic contribution that Friar Lawrence makes to William Shakespeare’s tragic love story ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Ben Jonson once claimed that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) “wanted art” (lacked skill) and this viewpoint can be instantly refuted by the manner in which Shakespeare handles the role of Friar Lawrence in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The conventional love play, featuring characters who are supposedly doomed from the start and whose “outcome is destined to be lose-lose” (Pam Marshall), can be viewed as a simple story with an outcome which will move the Elizabethan audience. However, Shakespeare can be seen to challenge the ideas of fate, belief through the character of Friar Lawrence and the themes of light and darkness. In this essay, I will look at the role of Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet – in particular, the eventual tragic deaths of the “star-crossed” lovers – and the manner in which Shakespeare uses Friar Lawrence as a means to challenge ideas of fate and light/darkness through his use of language, imagery and metaphor.
Through his use of verbal language techniques and devices, Shakespeare develops loving as an unwanted, painful, disease throughout his play Twelfth Night that ultimately can turn men into monsters. He both conveys this warning to the audience and makes the play interesting and attention grabbing for them by skilfully using metaphors, comparison, emotional language, rhyme and allusion. Twelfth Night is a timeless piece of literature thanks to the intricate verbal techniques that Shakespeare weaves with a purpose into the play. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare portrays love as a “hunger” to show that we are pained by it when we cannot satisfy it, drawing similarities between the ache of loving someone to “hunger pains”. He also uses a metaphor to convey his opinion that the need for love is as great as the need for food.