Banquo is juxtaposed to show how an honest man would react to fair-surrounding predictions. Macbeth’s “aside” clearly reveals him to be a man who is morally flawed and susceptible to temtation. Shakespeare’s use of imagery with the three witches makes us realise that the witches only want bad things for Macbeth. They test his character to see if they can corrupt him from his natural state of mind into their evil ways. As such Macbeth is morally vulnerable to them.
Hypocrisy, the Ungodly Sin Above all others The question of sin is a reoccurring theme in “The Scarlet letter”, where various sins, from Hestor’s adultery, to Dimmesdale’s cowardice, or Chillingworth’s revenge are put on display to be judged by the Puritan society, and also by the reader. In his novel, Hawthorne uses these smaller sins to display a deeper sin; the sin of Puritan hypocrisy. From the beginning of the book Hawthorne ridicules the Puritan society. As one of the first buildings in their new town, the Puritans build a prison. For a culture that is based strictly on the bible that teaches forgiveness, strangely the Puritans are quick to punish, and Hestor also becomes a victim of this.
As the play goes on, Macbeth slowly looses his morality as he strives for more control whilst Lady Macbeth steps into a frantic stage of guilt. After killing the king, Macbeth starts to plot other evil undertakings as he becomes nervous that someone will take away his power. At one point he goes from wanting to needing the sovereignty, which makes him loose sight of his integrity. As Macbeth begins to immorally act in order to achieve what he hungers, the line between good and evil starts to fade. “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (3.4.136-138) In this quote, Macbeth is telling himself that because he has stepped into evil so deeply, it will be hard to go back to morallity because he will never be able to rid of this guilt brought onto him.
The idea of being unable to cleanse the mind and the spirit is closely tied to the play’s themes of order and disorder and light and dark. The killing of Duncan has upset the spiritual order of the world and the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. This confusion is mirrored in the character of Macbeth who, quite literally, has replaced order with disorder on every level, including the spiritual order. This mirroring reinforces the themes of appearances not being what they seem, but also foreshadows the madness and suicide of Lady Macbeth, which is bound to flow from such an unnatural state of affairs. Consider Lady Macbeth’s pathos, reflected in her sleep-walking speeches, “out, damned spot”.
However in order to evaluate whether it is an immoral story we must first consider whether it is consistent in this view that art need not have a purpose. The portrait itself acts as ‘the most magical of mirrors’, revealing to Dorian the destructive effects of immorality upon his soul. Furthermore the yellow book that Lord Henry gives to Dorian becomes a symbol of the consequences of immoral art; Dorian bases his life and actions around it and its influence leads to the corruption of his soul and ultimately his death. To critics this may well suggest the contrary of Wilde’s preface, the yellow book emphasises the powerful
In William Shakespeare’s play, Henry VIII, a bitter tone, structured figurative language, and biblical allusions are employed by the author in the process of conveying Cardinal Wolsey’s complex response to his dismissal from court. Shakespeare’s use of biblical allusions brings emphasis to the extent of Cardinal Wolsey’s downfall to that of Lucifer’s, the author reflects Wolsey’s lack of hope. This allusion serves as a tool to help establish the idea that Cardinal Wolsey has fallen from a grace he shall never return from. He expects himself to live in a life full of shame and misery after his dismissal. Through the use of figurative language a powerful understanding of Wolsey’s despair is established.
How is audience meant to react to this very negative presentation of Othello, given we are also clearly meant to distrust and dislike Iago? Roderigo - calls him the ‘thicklips’ - ‘the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor’. ‘An extravagant and wheeling stranger’. Uses language very similar to Iago’s, and shows how heavily influenced he is by him. Brabantio.
These comments presented by Hamlet are vicious in nature illustrating that he views himself as, “dull,” and, “pigeon-livered.” The self-criticism apparent here provides an explanation for Hamlet’s inaction, as he sees himself as too much of a, “coward,” to be capable of undertaking the ghost’s directions. Here, Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s
Quotes on Themes * Revenge and Destiny * “But a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours” Hamlet * Imagery: the corruption in Denmark * “How all occasions do fall against me” Hamlet * Hamlet feels he is not born for this task * “O, for this time fourth My thoughts are bloody or be nothing worth” * Rhyming couple: resolving * “No place indeed should murder sanctuaries, revenge should have no bounds” Claudius * ““o cursed spite” that ever he was born “to set it right” * Fortune is “a divinity that shapes our end” * “prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell” * Action & Inaction * “O what a rouge and peasant slave am i!... Am I a coward… But I am a pigeon-liver’d and lack gall… Why, what an ass I am” Hamlet * Metaphor: His lack of action * Parallelism between the three sons (H, L, F) * “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” hamlet * “The plays’s the thing Wherin ill catch the conscience of the king” Hamlet * Meta-theatre: hamlets steps to take action * Appearance and Reality * “The spirit I have seen may be a devil” Hamlet * “With devotions visage And pious action, we do sugar o’er The devil himself” Polonius * Actions can hide a darker side * “God haith given you one face And make yourselves another” Hamlet * “an antic disposition” * “seeming” * “I am north north west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handshaw” * Life and Death * “ To be or not to be” * Rhetorical question wanting to escape * “Alexander died and Alexander was buried” Hamlet * The physical reality of death, death is inevitable, and we all have the same fate no matter how great we are * “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” hamlet * “there’s a
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last, when other petty grief’s have done their spite But in the onset come; so shall I taste At first the very worst of fortune's might, And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, Compared with loss of thee will not seem so. This shows us a lot of hate that Shakespeare used in his sonnets along