‘Henry IV Part 1 explores the relationship between public and private personas.’ Discuss. Set in the 1400s, William Shakespeare’s historical play, ‘Henry IV Part 1’ is used to display the disunity of England that occurred. The 1400s for England was a time of rebellion and war, which created tension and dispute within the country. In this society it was common for individuals to have a public persona along with a private persona. A public persona is the image that one presents to the exterior world whilst a private persona is the individuals behaviour in the interiors of their life.
6. What kind of "tempest" does Prospero stir up? Explain the storm metaphor for this play. For example, what does the storm at the outset of the play do to notions about rank, worth, and so forth? 7.Act I is full of challenges to authority (Boatswain to king/courtiers; Antonio’s overthrow of Prospero; Ariel and Caliban question Prospero’s right over them; Prospero accuses Ferdinand of wanting to take over the island).
Shakespeare’s 1599 Tragedy, Julius Caesar, is a dramatization of an actual historical event and is, in general, a reflection of the anxiety felt regarding the succession of leadership at the time. Through the action of the play, and in particular the viewpoint of those involved, Shakespeare explores a variety of perspectives and through the dramatic medium comments on political power and how it may be wielded. Adding a further perspective of this situation is the speech made to the public by Barack Obama on 2nd May 2011. Obama’s address follows the death of an extremely controversial leader – Osama bin Laden. Through an examination and evaluation of these two texts, it will be seen how composers are able to manipulate perspectives through the specific representation of ideas.
Shakespeare shows Prospero’s use of Miranda to be more blatant however. When she accuses him of causing the storm and then is distraught by the fact that someone might have gotten hurt, he distracts her quickly with a bit of hypnoses followed by the story of how they came to be on the island in the first place. It is not directly stated that he used hypnosis on her, but he opens the story by telling her to “Obey and be attentive”, and the language he uses is both hypnotic and
“The isle is full of noises. Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.” Discuss the presentation of harmony and discord in “The Tempest” Discord and harmony seem to be the central themes of the play “The Tempest.” Discord and moral chaos predominate the first half of the play. Bitterness, hatred and suspicion are always close to the surface. The discord exists between the boatswain and the royal party, between the Prospero and Antonio and his accomplices. The discord also exists between Prospero and Ariel and Caliban.
By casting Richard (a York) as a villain Shakespeare is affirming to his Elizabethan audience of the emergent middle class and the nobility of the Tudor’s legitimate right to rule over England. The play also reflects the tension between providentalism and the growing secular interest in free will. This shift from God’s will to free will is particularly evident in the character of Richard as he fights for power and leadership, disregarding his conscience and religion. Al Pacino’s 1996 documentary Looking for Richard produced for an American audience that fails to see how Shakespeare is relevant to the world around them “It has always been a dream of mine to communicate how I feel about Shakespeare to others”. However like Richard III, Looking for Richard was set after another significant conflict in the Cold War.
Greatness tends to come with power and this tale is all about power. In The Tempest, the Bard shows aspects of coming to power and losing power, but they are also displayed with the Indian concept of karma. Karma in basic definition means “what goes around comes around.” This means that whatever you do can come back to either bless or haunt you. How exactly does Shakespeare demonstrate the concept of karma in The Tempest one may wonder? The romance style play starts with the characters Alonso who is the now king of Naples, his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand, Antonio who is the brother of Prospero (the former Duke of Milan), and Antonio's counselor Gonzalo.
In this essay I will be comparing how power and control is portrayed in Shakespeare and heritage poetry. The play I will be using from Shakespeare will be Macbeth and the two heritage poems I will be using are Hawk Roosting and Ozymandias. William Shakespeare presents the ideas of power and control in Macbeth through Macbeth’s ambition to attain power. Macbeth acts as his own adversary shown through his paranoia and insecurity that ultimately leads him to be a corrupted individual because of his greediness to obtain more power. Shakespeare uses a good range of language devices to show Macbeths shifts in power throughout the play.
Contrast Preserved: The Opposing Ideals of Venice Preserved’s First Act Through his construction of dichotomies and pairings, Thomas Otway manages to create a play at once united and at odds with itself in the form of Venice Preserved. As such, the play poses some ambiguity, which is eased but not rectified in relocating the play’s conceptual base from Venice to then-contemporary England. This is scholarly maintained to be a proper move, given that political and social instability persisted at the time of Otway’s writing Venice Preserved, and that a direct commentary on England would risk a charge of treason or the play’s censorship; English playwrights frequently changed religious or national identifiers in their works, so this was not altogether uncommon. Once observers have perceived this contradiction between setting and social commentary, they may more confidently compose an historical interpretation of the play. 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.
Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" focuses on many different themes and issues. The one I am going to focus on for this essay is the theme of "order and disorder" Order and disorder is referred to a lot throughout the play and this could be due to the amount of political issues in the play and the fact that politics were in ruin in real life England at the time Shakespeare was writing this play. The Tempest was probably written in 1610 or 1611. At this time royalty could scarcely rest secure. The possibility of counter claims to the throne or of conspiracy was often present, witness the discovery of the Gunpowder plot in 1605.