Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. In Act 5, it is evident that Lady Macbeth is experiencing somnambulistic attacks, or sleepwalking. She wants to be relieved of her guilt because several suppressed ideas of an emotional nature enter into this scene and are responsible for making her act this way. Lady Macbeth is desperately trying to wash away invisible bloodstains on her hands as it is a reminiscence of her experience with the murder of Duncan. She also refers to the murder of Banquo and Lady Macduff while in her somnambulistic state.
(5.2.295-297) Gertrude’s lustful pitfall is also resolved when she sacrifices herself for her son by taking the poisoned drink. The play’s purpose is met and the characters no longer endure suffering from unfinished business. Their tension and contempt for each other are released with the vengeance dealt. Shakespeare has continuously stressed this powerful concept of justice in which the wrongdoer receives what is due to him and by the culmination of the play the tensions are dispersed due to this. The other prevalent theme, death, floods the inner recesses of Hamlet’s psyche as he develops a fascination with the subject.
After first being separated from Psyche then becoming bitter from not seeing the same things as Psyche once reunited, I realized the tragedy was that not only did Orual never found the “love of the Gods,” she also never learned to love her life and accept herself as the person she was. While she is described by her subjects as "the most wise, just, valiant, fortunate and merciful" of all rulers, Orual feels that her actions are only a mask of her inner ugliness. She despairs of ever overcoming her hideousness inside. She says, "I would set out boldly each morning to be just and calm and wise in all my thoughts and acts, but before
Throughout the tragedy, one may develop sympathy for the character of Cassandra. Ultimately, in mist of Clytemnestra seeking justice in the play and Cassandra thus suffering, Aeschylus makes Cassandra a character worthy of compassion from the audience. She is primarily an innocent victim taken as Agamemnon’s prisoner while cursed by Apollo for not bearing him a son as promised. She is fully aware of her impending death and encounters her death at the hands of Clytemnestra courageously. The play would not have the equal dramatic effects, gory details, and overall impact on the audience with the absence of Cassandra’s role, and therefore, she is crucial to the intense
How does Jean Rhys create a sense of foreboding in Part One of Wide Sargasso Sea? Throughout the novel Rhys foreshadows Antoinette’s eventual decision to kill herself by creating a sense of unease and discomfort which climaxes in her suicide. One of the first instances that a sense of foreboding is suggested early in part one when Antoinette who narrates this section tells us how Mr Luttrell becomes so depressed and disillusioned with the state of affairs in post-colonial Jamaica he kills his dog and himself. Possibly due to the innocent tone that Rhys creates through Antoinette’s narrative, the actual suicide is rather understated. We are not explicitly told that Mr Luttrell, a character who represents the last social connection the family have, actually ends his life but instead it is strongly implied by the simplified and to an extent childlike way in which Antoinette says that ‘he swam out to sea and was gone for always’.
Many times during the novel Of Mice and Men Steinbeck creates contradiction: Curley’s wife’s red wardrobe compared to the brown, mucky, ranch. Even George and tall Lennie are conflicting themes in the novel. These are only two small examples, looking deeper in the novel one finds the importance in Curley’s Wife’s death. The passage describing Curley’s wife’s death is the most emotionally wrenching for the reader in the novel. Steinbeck elicits contradictory feelings in the reader: sympathy for the recently murdered woman as well as sympathy for his murderer.
This discord is only amplified by Lady Macduff who exemplifies the Shakespearean belief of how a woman should be. “Macbeth” also made a strong statement when first written as there are strong associations between Lady Macbeth and the English Queens of that time. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” presents a representation of a Shakespearean woman, which would not be accepted in that time period, and the supposed results of undermining the accepted hierarchy of the time. The Shakespearean period of history was a time when women had very little power over their lives let alone any power in any form of Government. This was why women often placed many of their hopes and dreams in either their husband or sons as only they could gain any power.
His actions1 reflected hatred and disgrace in the eyes of his citizens. The events following Oedipus’s actions brought shame on Antigone and Ismene, which she mentioned in the following lines “Then mother destroyed her life with a twisted noose. Then the third disaster: our two brothers... shedding their own blood”2 This angered Antigone, compelling her to go against her uncle, which lays the background of the play. Likewise, a few characters set the background of The Cherry Orchard and help us understand the nature of Mme. Ranevsky.
In the play, Medea says “They died from disease they caught from their father.”(Line 1339) and “Is love so small a pain, do you think, for a woman?” (Line 1340) This shows that she has a desire to revenge because she is hurting by Jason. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello kills his wife by accusing her loyalty to him. For example, When Iago tries to send out rumors of Desdemona’s unfaithful relationship with Cassio, Othello commits the crime to revenge by killing Desdemona in bed and trying to send Iago to murder Cassio.
It serves as the overall catalyst for the exile of Hamlet, the fencing match between him and Laertes, and the sudden string of deaths. It foreshadows what is to come later on in the play. The themes and allusions expressed in the exchange completely reflect the anger and intensity of Hamlet towards his mother. The critiques by Gregory Harrison support my case. Much to the surprise of his mother, Hamlet began to berate her for her actions involving Claudius following King Hamlet’s death.