Shakespeare's play Othello and Good Will Hunting directed by Gus Van Sant are two such texts, exploring the human condition through the archetypal idea. In Othello, we see a black man driven to mad jealousy, and the demise of his world as a result. In Van Sant's film Good Will Hunting, we explore an intelligent man struggling with issues of his own. In both texts, the complexities of love and trust, and segregation are explored through the outsider archetype. Shakespeare's England was not a very accepting society when it came to foreigners.
who hides and what is hidden? how does deceit function in the world of the play, and how does it help the play comment on life in general? a central motif in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. counterfeiting, or concealing one's true feelings, is part of this motif. everyone seems to lie; good characters as well as evil ones engage in deceit as they attempt to conceal their feelings: beatrice and benedick mask their feelings for one another with bitter insults; don john spies on claudio and hero; don pedro and his 'crew' deceive benedick and beatrice.
Iago feels that the best way to do so is by manipulating Othello telling him that his wife is cheating on him with Cassio, who Iago coincidently hates as well. Iago reveals, “That thinks men honest that but seem to be so, and will as tenderly be led by the nose as asses are. I have ‘t. it is sengender’d. Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the worlds light” (Shakespeare 1.
Xuan Pham Bakula 4 English 10 December 8, 2011 Discrimination in Of Mice and Men How would you feel if you were treated unfairly because of your skin color? If I was in the Great Depression period and treated unfairly by society, I would feel upset and angry. I would question for myself that society is human and I am a human too, we are the same then how they could treat me so unfairly. During the Great Depression, racial discrimination still existed. Society treated people with different skin color, particularly African Americans, awfully and treating them like slaves because they believed that African Americans were inferior to upper class.
As stated in the following quote “You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, before you visit him, to make inquire of his behaviour” (2.1.3-5). Polonius was ordering the servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes, and to secretly look after him. This type of logic that Polonius is using shows the distrust and fake appearance that he portrays to his own son. Another method of deception used by Polonius would be concealment. After Hamlet had staged the play, and noticed Claudius’s reaction, Gertrude was willing to speak to Hamlet about the play, and how Claudius is furious about it.
Outline the Nature of the Tragic Hero in Act One of Othello In the play 'Othello', the writer – William Shakespeare – uses many techniques in order to outline the nature of the tragic hero to the audience. As a result of the hero's absence in the first scene, the initial presentation of the tragic hero is one based around the villain's bitter discontent and disdain. Othello's negative portrayal to the audience leads them to believe that he is an evil, cunning, immoral thief. Shakespeare achieves this effect through Iago's use of racist, dehumanising language: “an old black ram is tupping your white ewe”. Throughout the first scene, Iago and Roderigo also never refer to Othello by name, however, the audience quickly learn that both characters hate 'the moor', as this – amongst other derogatory terms, including 'thick-lips' – is the only title given to him.
It discusses other ideas associated with racial prejudice such as the effects of a social hierarchy. Mississippi Burning, likewise to Wild Cat Falling, explores how the ‘coloured’ people were being racially discriminated and prejudiced against since the white Americans too, had an ethnocentric perspective on their coloured neighbours. A quote that supports the concept of ethnocentrism is, “he wasn’t doing anything except be a negro”. The diction of negro creates a tone of anger in the quote which helps illustrates the same concept of, if you’re black then you will be excluded, denied public facilities and racially prejudiced by the white society. Furthermore the tone creates an authentic voice which helps illustrate to the audience the African Americans anger and frustration towards the concept and from being racially prejudiced against in general.
The first act of Venice Preserved introduces the central dilemmas of the play in two main lines of dialogue, both of which form dichotomies and illustrate a society with contradictory or opposing sociopolitical perspectives. The act begins with the introduction of Priuli and Jaffeir, Belvidera’s respective father and husband; Priuli claims that Jaffeir has “stole(n)” his daughter from him (I.52.pp.1691) despite his hospitality (I.19.pp.1691) and Jaffeir counters that she has grown to love him and therefore belongs to him (I.50-51.pp.1691). Here Otway presents the opposition between romantic and sensible love, the progressive against the traditional. Fathers at the time of Otway’s writing had a strong, if not final, influence over who their daughters married (Porter 24); customarily, fathers in this time period arranged marriages for their daughters, and daughters had no social right to object to the marriage set out for them – the decision of
The black man has been stereotyped in society from the ancient time period to present day. The physical attraction and the actions pursued by some black males have been used against the specific population as a form of ridicule and humiliation. How have the black men in society been portrayed over the last decades? The answer is negative. These stereotypes are not set in stone facts but only assumptions throughout society that the media substantiates and worsens the brighter picture.
Because of racism, some people have become diffident with their origins and their skin color and have identified his or herself more with the culture they think is socially superior as for the case of Caliban in Nalo Hopkinson’s the Shift. This is a story about a black colored man of equally white and black descent who constantly seeks his identity throughout white, blonde women. The main character himself dislikes being black and is even racist with other black colored people. Caliban’s identity crisis is a problem viewed throughout the whole story which is mainly caused because of the racism that exists in the Caribbean and because of his racial hybridity. “Cultural identity is in terms of one, a shared culture, a sort of collective one true self hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common.” (Hall 223) This previous definition gives a direct relationship between Caliban and cultural identity.