Brutus: Rise of the Tragic Hero William Shakespeare, in his play, Julius Caesar, displays Brutus as the archetypal hero and uses the supporting characters as surrounding archetypes. He supports this by relating Brutus’s characteristics to the traditional hero’s personality, its history, and by creating connections between the evens surrounding and including Brutus to the heroic journey. Shakespeare’s purpose is to create dynamic and relatable characters in order for others to enjoy his play thoroughly. He adopts a very serious and solemn tone for his audience, the viewers and readers of his play. Shakespeare characterizes Brutus in such a way that it initially hides his real purpose and involvement in the story, though reveals his character traits to be very similar to those of the archetypal hero.
Trust in Macbeth As a play about murder, morality, desire, usurpation and treason, Macbeth provides us a lot of food for thought. For centuries, critics have been talking about the sleep, night, darkness, and knocking in the play. In order to broaden the scope of mind, I want to dig something important but neglected by people. As far as I am concerned, the importance of trust in Macbeth is not often mentioned by people. Therefore, this essay will give evidence to show that trust is a vital element in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as well as an indispensable motif Shakespeare wants to reveal.
What is dramatically most interesting about the opening scene of Hamlet? Within the opening scene of Hamlet (written in 1599-1600), the playwright William Shakespeare, incorporates numerous dramatic features to not only inform the audience of background information associated with the plot, but to also compel the audience as the scene progresses onto the next. The variety of forms in which the playwright creates in order to make the scene more dramatic, whether it be through the craft of words or the use of conflict, leave the audience feeling both ambivalent and certain about different characters from the opening scene, therefore allowing the playwright to manipulate the way the audience thinks further on throughout the play. The stylistic device of stichomythia is seen to be used throughout the beginning of the opening scene, a device that had commonly been used in ancient greek drama. The alternating, quick lines of verse exchanged between two characters had often been intended to preserve ambiguity in a play, an effect that Shakespeare commonly presents.
Choices affect life style. What is the purpose of Macbeth? In both Macbeth and Great Expectations, we are presented with a character whose choices shape the plot and direction of the story. In Macbeth, it can be argued that Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s choices in order to deliver a moral lesson – that crime does not pay. It can be suggested that Shakespeare presents this character in a negative light throughout the play in order to have the audience view his choices and actions negatively too.
In most of the plays that were read this term, there is a theme that seems to be prevalent. The theme is honesty will set you free, whereas lies and mistruths will be your downfall. Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Twelfth Night all hold and express that theme. However, if Shakespeare really thought that lies and mistruths were a downfall for his characters, why are there so many dishonest characters in Shakespeare’s plays? Could Shakespeare’s dishonest characters represent Shakespeare?
At the beginning of the play, we get an introduction which fulfills the audience's previous views of Cleopatra. Philo explains, "Nay but this dotage of our general's o'er flows the measure," and "to cool a gipsy's lust" lull the audience into a false sense of security before severely disrupting it and playing with their ability to make judgments. The juxtaposition of scenes contributes a significant amount to the complexity of Cleopatra's character. Also the combination of love and war is tightly knitted together to form an interesting contrast. The dramatic form reflects the chief thematic concerns of the play.
This is also an early use of characterisation which lets the audience know that Macbeth’s character now has a spark of ambition in his mind. Furthermore, we notice that Macbeth generally speaks in “lambic ventonater” which elevates him above the commoner’s “prose”, thusly making, his conflict with himself more important. Through Shakespeare’s development of ambition, he can see how Macbeth is internally conflicted by these powerful thoughts and desires within his heart. Secondly, Gender within the play has been disturbed
Conversely, the idea of hope keeps the audience interested. Shakespeare has written the ending in the prologue but yet given us the idea that there could be hope. For example we think that the letter will reach Romeo about the sleeping potion, and that they will be happy ever after…but when that does not happen, we are again reminded of the disastrous events, which were revealed in the prologue. Shakespeare uses hope to keep the audience engaged and at the edge of their seats. It also helps the audience to understand the emotions felt by a character.
The Foils of Hamlet A minor character, who serves as a comparison to the main character, is a literary foil. For a character to be a foil, they must have things in common with the main character, in order to make differences more apparent. A foil could simply be another character for the protagonist to talk to, in order for the readers to better understand the thoughts and feelings of the main character. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, nearly every character serves as a foil to the main character, Hamlet. Shakespeare characterizes Laertes and Fortinbras in certain ways that draws attention to Hamlet’s indecisive character, making them the two major foils to Hamlet.
It is interesting that a story may contain two foiled characters existing in such a bleak contrast to each other and yet sharing similar events. In William Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece of Hamlet, the foils are played by Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet is the contemplative one, and would often think rather than act; Laertes is quite the contrary, having his inhibitions guide him to acting rather than thinking, the impulse buyer of Shakespearean literature. While these characters may differ significantly, their actions and reactions to the death of their fathers, their ultimate downfall, and their alternative methods of action and contemplation prove that while different, much of their character is parallel. The simplest comparison to make is