Hamlet starts to act as a madman to avenge the death of his father by his uncle. Ophelia on the other hand, goes mad after the death of her father. Shakespeare uses both these characters to affect the main plot in the play and their relationships with other characters. Many people debate whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Shakespeare incorporated the theme of madness to serve a motive for Hamlet in order to deceive others.
Hamlet has been instructed by the ghost of his late father to avenge his death by killing King Claudius. This is what brings mistrust and eavesdropping into the picture. Claudius has suspensions about Hamlet’s peculiar behavior, and has summoned his school chums, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, to spy on him. Before they even start their expedition of eavesdropping, the King and Polonious have already made plans to hide being a wall hanging during Hamlet and Ophelia’s exchange of love gifts. King Claudius is determined to discover an alternative motive to Hamlet’s madness besides depression.
Antonio is comparable to Lucifer. Antonio seeks glory for himself by usurping his title from his brother, much like Lucifer steals Faustus' control over his own thoughts. Antonio continues his labor for power by endeavoring to induce Sebastian to kill his brother for the kingdom of Naples. Lucifer clings to his power by continuously preventing Faustus from returning to God at crucial points in the story. Although in the end of The Tempest, Antonio does not prevail, Lucifer does triumph in Dr. Faustus.
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
MMacbeth Vs Brutus Macbeth and Brutus are the tragic heroes in the plays Macbeth and Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Both of them murder their ruler and have tragic flaws. In Julius Caesar, Brutus helps the conspiracy assassinate the Roman leader, Julius Caesar because he is afraid that Caesar might misuse his power, but later realizes that the murder was not essential. Macbeth murders the King Duncan of Scotland in order to become the king himself. Both characters show signs of guilty conscience later in the play and eventually die for their tragic flaws.
The role of fate and free will is much more complex in Shakespeare’s King Lear. A quick perusal of the plot gives a story of good and evil characters exercising their own free wills. King Lear foolishly divides up his kingdom to his two deceitful, older daughters and ignores Cordelia, his honest, dutiful daughter. The older daughters have evil plans to overthrow their father. There is a similar subplot involving the Earl of Gloucester.
It seems that most people believe that Macbeth is the real villain of the play, after firstly killing the King but then Banquo and Macduff’s family but through Macbeth’s own ambition and desire for power, Lady Macbeth was able to manipulate and evoke weaknesses in Macbeth’s character to cause his respectable needs as a loyal solider, to turn into evil motivations. In the course of the play Macbeth’s mind changes from thinking logically to thinking unreasonably and acting impulsively on every thought that comes to his mind. The ideas that Lady Macbeth had and the prophesies from the witches came together to lead Macbeth into the conflicted character he become, going from a loyal, respected soldier into a tragic flawed hero. Before Macbeth’s character shifted into villainy he was a loyal and respected thane. His desire for power grew throughout the play and begins when he first encoumis, then they hail him the thane of Cawdor, which he didn’t yet know of, to him soon would be his next, second title.
Iago has many rather theoretical reasons for his revenge, one of which being his failure to receive the spot of lieutenant, and the other being that he “suspect[s] the lusty Moor” of sleeping with his wife, Emilia. Iago, being a very jealous and icy man sees that the only way to be “even’d with him” is to go “wife for wife”. Iago’s revenge is a carefully plotted strategy that involves many intricate details and occurrences. This extract tells the reader a lot about Iago’s plan that has previously only been assumed. Iago is so emotionally detached that he claims his ‘love’ for Desdemona exists predominantly “to diet [his] revenge”.
Iago not only attempts to seek out his own personal revenge, but he manipulates several other characters in order to help him reach his own goal. He plays on the other characters’ weaknesses and personal tragedies to help him reach his own ultimate revenge. As is proven by the end of the play, Shakespeare is clearly stating his personal belief that revenge is improper. This can be seen through the ultimate downfall of Iago and all those involved. In his play Othello, Shakespeare uses the plot, characters, and ultimate destructive ending to all to show the reader his opinion that all revenge is improper.
Shakespeare exposes Othello’s hamartia which is his self-control of jealousy. Othello’s character is completely transformed as jealousy changes him into a monster whom tragically kills his faithful wife. His assertion of himself “not being so easily jealous” when Iago begins to manipulate Othello’s state of mind is negligible as the responder views his transformation of character due to jealousy. Through Iago’s cunning manipulation, Othello is convinced of Desdemona’s infidelity as he exclaims “blood…Iago..blood” which shows his utmost intention of killing her. Hence it is evident to see how jealousy has consumed Othello and how it is described as the “green eyed monster”.