The main representation of madness is within the character of the protagonist, King Lear. Through him, Shakespeare shows us true insanity and how it waxes and wanes due to outside influences such as love and rejection. At the commencement of the play, Shakespeare presents the seeds of madness through Lear’s vain demands for appreciation. Lear states that he was ready to express his “darker purpose” (I, i, ln36) when he begins to divide up his kingdom. From an outsider to the drama’s perspective, is obvious that the ‘darker purpose’ is related to Lear’s mad insecurities, which go
From the start of the play, Iago expresses his jealousy of both Cassio and Othello. He is jealous of Cassio for securing the job of lieutenant Iago feels he deserved, and jealous of Othello not only from the promotion of Cassio, but also from his belief that Othello has slept with Emilia. This insecurity and jealousy he feels leads him to commit acts of revenge. As he becomes fixed on the idea of revenge, Iago speaks in a soliloquy he will not be satisfied "Till I am even with him, wife for wife, or failing so, yet that I put the Moor At least into a jealousy so strong that judgment cannot cure". Roderigo’s jealousy also starts from the very beginning of the play.
Romeo has a lot of conflict, which he approaches with different, changing attitudes, which we know as contrast. For example at the beginning of the play when we first meet Romeo in Act 1 Scene 1 we learn about his very self centered, immature character as Shakespeare portrays him as. Romeo is revealed as a depressed and melancholy person. This is because of his love-sickness for Rosaline. More importantly, she does not love him back, which fuels his depressing mood.
How does Shakespeare make Act 3, scene 3 of Othello dramatically effective? The plot of the play is basically about a black, high ranking general in the Venicen army who is manipulated by his ‘friend’ to such an extent that he kills his wife and has one of his very good friends killed. In Jacobean times the characters would have probably shocked a lot of the audiences that viewed the play as the main character in the play was black which was unusual as black people weren’t normal place society as travel was very limited. Before Act 3 scene 3 the audience would have discovered that Othello’s marriage was a secret one and that Desdemona, Othello’s wife, had deceived her father to marry Othello, that Cassio looses his position in the Venicen army after he is accused of starting a fight with Roderigo while drunk when in fact Roderigo started the fight and Cassio’s drink was spiked to make him appear drunk, then we discover Iago’s plan to take a position of power in the Venicen army, originally he is trying to get Cassio’s position but after Cassio loses his power Iago wants more power and so tries to take Othello’s position. Desdemona then has a conversation with Cassio about getting his position back which because of Iago’s silliliquies is known to the audience as dramatic irony as the more she asks Othello for Cassio’s position back the more Othello is going to be suspicious that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair.
It is obvious from this first soliloquy that Shakespeare has moulded Richard to look almost monstrous and noticeably deformed. From the beginning of the play we are aware of Richard’s feelings about his body and how much contempt and disdain he has for being given such a repugnant body. “Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished” (1.1.19-20) Richard draws the audience in, and endeavours to attract our sympathy by addressing his deformity. By doing this he is clearly trying to manipulate the audience. He talks about how he has “no delight to pass away the time” (1.1.25).
Presentation of Othello in Act I How he is presented through other characters Iago: first speech is about Othello (so he is seen as important) and he makes allegations of unfairness and pomposity in his appointment of Cassio instead of Iago as lieutenant. Uses offensive language - ‘his Moorship’s ancient’ - by not using ‘lordship’ links Othello’s origins with his authority and thus questions it. His language about Othello when with Brabantio highlights his ‘otherness’ and gives him an animalistic sexuality (he is determined to anger Brabantio in order to hurt Othello or have him arrested). However, within 40 lines of opening, it is made clear that Iago is a very deceptive and evil character and is determined to destroy Othello. How is audience meant to react to this very negative presentation of Othello, given we are also clearly meant to distrust and dislike Iago?
There is much evidence in the play that Hamlet deliberately feigned fits of madness in order to confuse and disconcert the king and his attendants. His avowed intention to act "strange or odd" and to "put an antic disposition on" 1 (I. v. 170, 172) is not the only indication. The latter phrase, which is of doubtful interpretation, should be taken in its context and in connection with his other remarks that bear on the same question. To his old friend, Guildenstem, he intimates that "his uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived," and that he is only "mad north-north-west." (II.
On the other hand, Shakespeare hints that this is a façade. Beatrice mocks Benedick’s military chauvinism, calling him ‘Signor Montanto’-Montanto being a fencing term for an ‘upward thrust.’ The fighting reference coupled with the sexual innuendo implies that Benedick is shallow and grotesque. However, it is a fictional and ridiculous name, thus implying that his misogyny is also fictitious. Benedick himself seems to admit that it is false when he asks Claudio: ‘would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant of their sex?’ The word ‘custom’
The Prologue also portrays The Miller as an unattractive figure: a man with a hairy wart on his nose and nostrils that are black and wide. Chaucer further expounds upon The Miller's uncomely appearance in the prologue when he depicts The Miller as drunken and disheveled. Chaucer portrays the miller as the deadly sin of lust when he describes, explicitly, that the carpenter’s wife committed adultery with The Miller. Chaucer also views The Wife of Bath negatively as well as The Miller. For example, The Wife of Bath is intentionally described in an explicit way to provoke a shocking response.
The themes of ‘Macbeth’ revolve around supernatural, difference between kingship and tyranny, corrupting nature of unstrained ambition, enchantment, and witchery. This playwright reflects on the era of the 16th century, where religion, witchcraft and superstition were taken very seriously. Shakespeare makes the playwright ‘Macbeth’ appealing to the audience by his use of energetic words and his powerful script. Throughout the whole play, but especially in act 3 scene 4 the different way Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can be seen. At the beginning of ‘Macbeth’, with our first confrontation of Macbeth we get an image of a courageous, brave, respected and a very loyal noblemen of King Duncan, the letter that Macbeth wrote to Lady Macbeth also tells us that he had a great deal of love and fidelity .