But have you ever wondered why are we still studying it? Why are we learning about something that is so old and has no use? Well we study Shakespeare’s plays today such as Macbeth because the stories are timeless, beautifully written and has been spent a lot of time on. It traces the minds of an ambitious and ruthless man and his wife, and what happens when the moral lines are crossed. Of course killing the king was a major problem, but Macbeth has the opportunity.
What is in that word honour? Ventured by Falstaff, this query underpins that many philosophical, physical and internal battles in Henry IV Part one. Be it through the baseness of the scoundrels at Eastcheap, the schemes of the rebels, or the regality of the royal court, Shakespeare’s characters exemplify humanities contrasting interpretation of honour. This dichotomy is encapsulated by King Henry and Sir John Falstaff, and the divide between royalty and commonage leaves Prince Hal torn between two influential, albeit flawed father figures. Yet, it is ultimately within this struggle that Hal manages to harmonize their conflicting ideologies.
You Can’t Mask Revenge Oftentimes, people go to great lengths to hide the most unsavory parts of themselves, and don’t reveal to others who they truly are. Sometimes, people who are actually evil and conniving can seem to be the kindest. However, as time goes on their villainous natures come to the forefront. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the antagonists are very talented at hiding their true identities. While Abigail, Chillingworth, and Montresor don innocent guises, their diabolical quests for revenge consume ultimately them.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the noble soldier Macbeth strays to evil when given the opportunity to be king. With the influence of supernatural prophecies and his wife’s constant persuasion, the once loyal soldier is turned into a ruthless killing machine. By the end of the play, Macbeth turns in to a cold hearted tyrant and his once cruel and ambitious wife turns into a puddle of guilt. Through the use of rhetoric strategies, Shakespeare shows his readers the dramatic change in the nature of his characters. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a weak individual.
Essentially, they are both great mean who have a position in society but each has a fatal flaw. Macbeth’s fatal flaw is ambition and Jekyll’s fatal flaw is professional vanity. Shakespeare presents Macbeth’s sense of evil through soliloquy and imagery, and Stephenson presents Jekyll’s evil through different types of narrative non-linear, third person, first person narrative and imagery. At the start of the play the tragic hero Macbeth is portrayed as loyal to the King and a brave solider. Macbeth is portrayed as a "good being" because he fought for his country and for his king.
Tammy Adams Marie Mahon ENG 450 21 September 2012 Play Expert Paper-Macbeth The Tragedy of Macbeth warns of lofty ambitions and ill-gotten gains. A highly respected general faced with a moral dilemma, goes against his previous strengths, and unearths his morbid weaknesses. The active decision to choose good over evil appears evident at the start of the play, yet the once brave general, loyal to the crown and his country seems driven by another force. A force stronger than Macbeth’s valor seems highly unlikely, but the tragic events escalate and Macbeth abuses his position and the trust his King places in him. The turn of events poses, the question of whom or what has coerced Macbeth to surrender his control?
This soliloquy perhaps raises more questions than answers, and the answers may be shaded grey, but it is in that respect that “To be, or not to be” is such a success as a work of art. Hamlet’s soliloquy embodies the question of whether or not it is better to die by one’s own hand than to live a difficult life. Morally, in modern terms, this is still a relevant proposition. Hamlet proclaims “The insolence of office, and the spurns / The patient merit of th’ unworthy takes, / When he himself his quietus make / With a bare bodkin?” (3.1.74-77). When in the throes of trouble, and everything is bleak and it seems as though nothing is able to be fixed, Hamlet proposes that
In contrast, the opening scene of Revenger’s Tragedy appears much more focused and accessible in comparison with Shakespeare's complex opening scene. It is soon clear to the audience that Vindice will play a central role in the play since we are quickly bombarded with his thoughts and opinions. Here, there is no room for complexity. Vindice labels himself avenger for his wife’s death - the ‘old duke poisoned’ her. Very little ambiguity is found within this verse, as Vindice’s motive is clear: revenge.
Blindness and Insight: Torvald’s Tragedy of Pride Pride has been the cause of many conflicts through the ages of time. It is said, that at the center of every conflict is a man’s pride. Pride is a human nature that clouds the thoughts and controls the emotions of people. Pride builds barriers of arrogance and vanity that blinds people of seeing what is really going on around them. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the pride of Torvald blinded Torvald, and gave him a sense of manhood and superiority over Nora throughout the play until his pride was put to the test, and in doing so, revealed a weak and desperate man.
In the world we live in, it seems that every other person is out for self gain They will step on anyone and do whatever it takes to get what they want, but does that make them purely evil? What if in their final moments they go something good? Or if their evil ways are result’s of circumstances that they can no control over? It’s a hard line to draw and in King Lear Shakespeare explains why through the use of conclusions. The most important conclusion Shakespeare has drawn about the nature of humanity in King Lear is the fact that evil is not something the gods have cursed you with at birth but it is something that you choose for yourselfACt .