He’s useless tricks display vanity and indicate his wastefulness to the audience. The Tempest is a problem play; Prospero is presented with the opportunity for spiteful revenge but realises the importance of forgiveness. Doctor Faustus is a morality play; he never realises the importance of repentance and banishes any opportunity to save himself, which results in his eternal damnation in hell. In the first act of the play, the audience is confronted with a magic fuelled spectacle. We see Prospero with the help or Ariel conjures the tempest.
Beckett challenged the traditional structure of comedy developed by the Greeks which was order, disorder, new restored order. Living in a post war generation and a time where modernism was evolving literature he utilised certain elements to reform traditional comedies. He incorporated elements of Vaudeville and Absurdity to transform the repetitive and comparable nature of the comedies that preceded Waiting for Godot. Waiting for Godot contains two identical acts in which ‘nothing happens...twice’ however the literary devices that Beckett uses often creates drama and excitement within the dialogue and stage directions rather than the action itself. He writes using a long stream of consciousness causing the language to lack any real sense of coherent structure when it is first read.
‘Still Angela’ by Jenny Kemp and ‘Ruby Moon’ by Matt Cameron are plays that evaded the norms of conservative and often straightforward theatre, into a dreamlike, surreal state. They portray life as a routine; and to escape it, the characters pursuit their own inner self journeys. Both playwrights Cameron and Kemp use contemporary theatre forms, which has created an interesting approach on story telling. However the theatrical techniques of Ruby Moon and Still Angela are completely dissimilar. Unlike ‘Still Angela’s’ jolted time frame, ‘Ruby Moon’ has a very distinct progression, as it is highly episodic.
Commonly regarded as Euripides’ most controversial work, Medea is a powerful story of how one’s impassioned love can turn into furious hared. As a tragedy, it is completely unlike the Aristotelian work, yet it has a nerve jarring impact due to the unforseen climax. Throughout the play, Euripides has positioned minor characters to subsidize the major characters. The clever work of Euripides also suggests that the less significant characters are used in the play to develop the plot of the play and also to reveal and recall the events that could not have been shown. As a result of this, secondary character present dramatic importance throughout the play.
There is a widespread view that 'Shakespeare's Caesar, so little speaking and seen, is to a large extent the creation of the personages around him. Shakespeare polarises his [Caesar's] strengths and weaknesses: Cassius condemns his weakness; Antony celebrates his strength...' To what extent does this view align with your understanding of how Shakespeare and other composers use and manipulate acts of representation, such as the choice of textual forms, features and language, to shape meaning and influence responses. Everyone see’s the world in a slightly different way, nobody has the same eyes, or the same mind looking through them. In Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar is less characterised by what he says and does than what is said about him by other characters. His strengths and weaknesses are contrasted in the funeral speeches of Antony and Brutus.
Deception and overhearing is a device commonly deployed in typical Shakespearian comedies such as ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Comedy of Errors’, and both play a vital role in the play ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ The title of the play is reflective of the content as the word ‘nothing’, when it was first performed in 1598 would have been pronounced ‘noting’ which had several meanings; it can mean to take notice, eavesdrop, or to observe, however, these aren’t necessarily accurate. A character can misunderstand a meaning, mishear, or misreport something, in the process of noting, too which can lead to tragedy or comedy depending on the actions a character takes. The situations that result from noting, significant comedic features, are the basis on which the entirety of Much Ado about Nothing is built upon. When the character Claudio is introduced he is said to have performed ‘in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion’ which instantaneously presents his unstable nature and his potential for violence and foreshadows the denunciation of Hero in Act 4 Scene 1. He is a young character and therefore impressionable, easily manipulated and naïve.
Many people today, make careless decisions based on their impulsive and rash emotions which usually leads to disaster. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo Montague was a great example of this. His rash emotions and decisions caused him suffering and ultimately his own destruction. The fact that Romeo is overly dramatic, impulsive, and stubborn proves that he is nowhere near being admirable nor is he heroic. Throughout the play, Romeo exemplifies many instances of where his emotions take over.
There is a struggle of seeing past this outer shell; it’s the first thing a person sees. Or for Cyrano it’s his “magnificent” nose. In Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano De Bergerac, Cyrano degrading and repulsive self-perception makes him manipulative and over confident relationship in his with Valvert and Christian. We all are a bit different in the way we appear and who we really are, and who we hide from others. In the play, Cyrano appears heroic, possessed of an extraordinary wit and a dizzying array of skills which is evident in his actions in the beginning of the play in the theatre demanding Montfleury to get off the stage, CYRANO.
Critical Lens Love is irrational, love is oblivious, love is stupid and unknowing. People make uncharacteristic, unrealistic, and odd decisions when trapped in the cloudiness of love. They see only what they want to, that is why couples in love are commonly told to be blind. Geoffrey Chaucer once said “Love is Blind.” This quote explains how lovers do not think dearly and do absolutely stupid things when their love between one another, takes over. This unknowingness and unrealistic-ness is shown many times in different texts, including the romantic tragedy play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and the short story “Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst.
Creon becomes too vain that he assumes Haemon “is hopelessly on the woman’s [Antigone’s] side” (224). Creon’s ignorant qualities evolve him to make imprecise choices. Creon is the “real tragic hero” in the play Antigone because of his insensible defects and his destiny which evolves