Shakespeare sees rhetoric as one of the most powerful forces in the world; able to topple kings and crown them. The play, Julius Caesar, examines what gives rhetoric its power by putting Brutus's speech against Mark Antony's. Shakespeare shows Antony's rhetoric to be superior by the effect he has on the plebeians. To be sure, Antony does not have it easy. He is already a man distrusted by the conspirators for his friendship with Caesar.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest centers on power struggles and how various characters in the play try to dominate or control others. The lust for power is widely shared by the characters in the play. Caliban wants to regain his island from Prospero; Prospero wants his status back as the Duke of Milan. Sebastian also tries to kill his brother Alonso, so that he will be next in line to the throne. The play consists of a series of treacheries and conspiracies against authority.
Connections in the texts such as the representation of Richard and his pursuit of power, notions of conscience and the use of language are indicative of the values in the respective societies. In Shakespeare’s text, Richard, one of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic and disturbing villains, outlines the consequences of separation from fellowship and God in a providential society. Shakespeare is critical of Richard’s individualistic nature; Richard lll enters ‘solus’ in the opening of the play that denotes his isolation. This concept derives from the end of 3HenryVI, “I am myself alone” and continues throughout The Tragedy of King Richard lll. In the opening soliloquy, he conspirers to the audience, further suggesting his isolation through the use of personal pronouns, “But I…I that am rudely
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare reveals Caesar’s arrogance and warns the reader of Cassius’ sly personality and jealousy of Caesar’s power, which allows him to lead a group of conspirators in the murdering of Julius Caesar. The play has a very organized structure in which the first act introduces the main characters and foreshadows the assassination. In Act I, scene ii, lines 202 to 220, Caesar explains that he sees a "lean and hungry look" (204) in Cassius that clearly indicates the man has great ambition, which could be dangerous, foreshadowing Cassius’ conspiracy to kill him in order to seize more power for himself. In the middle of his comment on how dangerous Cassius is, Caesar uses parallel structure to point out the traits that make Cassius a dangerous man. Caesar states that “[Cassius] reads much, / He is a great observer, and he looks / Quite through the deeds of men” (211-3).
On a general level, the play focuses on ambition, power, treachery, and magic. In my perspective, the play manifests one imperative meaning. Given a deep evaluation of the play, it is evident that it is a manifestation of human greed, and ambition (Kerrigan & William 234). The play indicates the manner in which these vices impede one from succeeding in life, and realizing the apparent elation, and bliss. Dramatic devices such as Hamartia, Perpetua, tragic hero, and nemesis support this assertion.
The devices make a suspenseful, shocking, spine-chilling play. This book is nothing short of ironic; Shakespeare uses the rhetorical device irony all threw Macbeth. For example the thane of Cawdor is killed over committing treason and treachery against the king, only to give the title to Macbeth who plans to commit worst things to the king. The king even goes on to state after killing the thane of Cawdor that “There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust” (I.IV.15). To then put his trust in Macbeth only to be betrayed by him.
A short essay cannot investigate all instances of this occurrence in all works of the author, but could provide the reader with the major categories. This way, deception will become more recognizable and appreciated as a major element and a spine of the particular story. In two of the most famous Shakespeare’s plays where deception appears as a building block of the story are Hamlet and Othello. In Hamlet the prince uses deception as a tool to distract attention and hide better his strange but vital moves and activities necessary to gather enough information regarding Claudius. The deception comes in the form of fake madness.
Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, it tells the story of noble, honorable, and ambitious man named Macbeth, who when giving power, lives out this quote. Through the greatness and power promised in the predictions of three witches, the destiny of the ambitious Macbeth turned into a nightmare. The result of the ambition leads to the deepest corruption. The expanding lust for power and the increased influence of others is all a result of ambition that leads to more corruption, as well as the guilt from the events taken place to fulfill this ambition caused him to loose his sanity, leading to greater corruption. When put into a position of such power and leadership, lust can easily consume even the wisest of men.
As the play moves on, the audience observe the hasty crumbling of his devotion to God and the King. Macbeths longing to becoming king leads him to misjudging the prophecies. He sees them as an excuse and a form of consent- making it seem to him an acceptable action to kill the king in order
The Pursuit of Power Providing a Crowning Corruption Ambition for power is a classic driving force that creates depravity in a character and can sometimes even lead to his/her ultimate downfall. This lust for power can lead even the purist of characters to turn into a degenerate. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the desire to obtain and protect one’s power and the change it brings to a person’s character is a pivotal theme, which is especially epitomized by Macbeth. Through Macbeth, Shakespeare argues that power transforms the individual who assumes or desires it into a corrupt and manipulative being. The beginnings of Macbeth’s fall into corruption occur when Macbeth starts to consider the prophecy of the witches and envisions his rise to