Iago, who is known as the Machiavellian villain perpetuates the tragedy by bringing forward a hamartia or a fatal flaw from Othello. As soon as the play begins, Shakespeare used dramatic irony to illustrate Othello’s view of Iago as an honest and trustworthy man through his repeated description of “honest Iago” and “a man of exceeding honesty” to the audience. Of course that is not the case, the audience views Iago to be “Janus-faced” and deceptive through his constant declaration of “I am not what I am” and how he “hates the moor”. This juxtaposition is created so that the audience can empathise with Othello. I know I can definitely empathise with him.
Zeffirelli exceeds in this category as well. When Hamlet was speaking with his mother, the disdain is jumping off the screen. Hamlet attacks his mother and is so wrought with passion and vengeance that he kills Polonius mistaking him for Claudius. This depiction of Hamlet is accomplished in displaying the Passion Shakespeare aspired for. Next, in the scene where Hamlet is essentially breaking up with Ophelia his passion for her is portrayed.
He then goes on to say “I loved you not” (III.I.129.) meaning that Ophelia’s beauty caused him to lie, and not be realistic. Although Hamlet did in fact love Ophelia, he’s attempting to argue that when he said he loved her, it was really her beauty that was cheating his honesty. In this case, appearance conquered reality. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, what “seems” isn’t always the same as being.
Prompt: In what ways does the last scene draw together the central concerns of the play? Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” has long been revered for its clever and witty use of language but it is Shakespeare’s handling of the central concerns of the play that earn him the highest regard. The play delves somewhat playfully into issues of friendship, fortune, faithfulness, and family, while weaving in weightier matters such as hatred, greed and vengeance. While these issues are largely resolved in the trial scene, the contrasting values of love, generosity, and keeping ones word become the final messages of the play. The final scene set in serene Belmont, opens with Lorenzo and Jessica’s playful banter.
The Fool is one of the most alluring characters in Shakespeare’s King Lear. He is a choric commentator whose lines reveal thematic motifs within the play, as well as a character that strategically uses humorous language as comic relief to Lear, but does not diminish the intensity of Lear’s misery. As he alleviates the intensity through humor, he equivocates because he says metaphors that speak the truth like the three witches in Macbeth, but the opposite. The Fool’s role is essential because he is aligned with Cordelia. Like Cordelia, the Fool is honest, but his comical language masks his honesty.
Research Paper Thesis Statement and Sources Hamlet needed an outward monitor and guide as he lost in his father, and has been shown from his choice of the calm, cheerful, and independent Horatio for his friend. They are, in all respects, except common love and reverence, the opposites of each other. There friendship is important to the play, as it is this relationship that gives the audience an insight into Hamlet's character through the entire play. Shakespeare uses this friendship between Hamlet and Horatio as device to let the audience see that Hamlet in reality was a good person. When Hamlet talks to Horatio there usually is a momentary glimpse of the young Hamlet prior to his father's death.
Hamlet’s first soliloquy gives the first true insight into Hamlet’s inner turmoil. By beginning the soliloquy with, “O, that this too too flesh solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve into a dew”, Hamlet wishes that his physical self might cease to exit, expressing the gravity of his innermost grief. Hamlet’s words, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable/Seem to me all the uses of this world!” indicate his intense disgust with the world. He refers this world as “an unweeded garden”, in which “rank and gross” things grow in abundance. Hamlet’s grief over his father sudden death is intensified by his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle whom he considers inferior and venomous naturally.
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. Early in the play, Brutus is shown as a constant and stable character, and obviously wouldn’t take on a radical change like that of a tragic hero. However, as the story progresses, Shakespeare creates such a deep and conflicted character to the point that Brutus can garner both pity and respect from the audience. The archetypal hero is usually born into a society that is usually in a state of conflict, one that will cheer “in the triumph over Pompey’s blood”(I.i.52), as the people celebrate Caesar’s defeat of a former ally. Rome was a breeding ground for trouble within its political body, its people, and the military protecting it.
"Soliloquy” is used for character revelation, by which the dramatist conveys the secret thoughts and/or intentions of the character, to the audience or the reader of the drama, but preserves their secrecy from the other characters of that drama. Shakespeare's soliloquies are projected for the same. In the first soliloquy, Hamlet expresses his pain for his father’s death and his unhappiness towards his mother marrying his uncle, within such a short time of his father’s death. Hamlet expresses his bitter feelings against the disloyalty of his own mother in particular and womanhood in general. he expresses his sourness against the treachery of his uncle.
It provides the story with a point to change character smoothly to the audience and add dimension to the character creating very static characters. In the first soliloquy in Hamlet during Act two, scene two, Hamlet discusses the speech the player has just performed for him, and how angry he is that this player who was able to feel such great emotion for someone who meant nothing to him, when Hamlet couldn’t properly express his emotion and he had something terrible happen to him. This hatches the plan of the play in Hamlet’s mind and he finds out that he will be able to see if Claudius is guilty or not when he watches it. When he questions his character stating “But I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall”(2.2.583) he admits his cowardly behavior and that if he had courage he would have “fatted all the region kites,”(2.2.585). By the end of the soliloquy he comes up with a plan, to make sure that Claudius definitely killed late Hamlet, and the Ghost is not a damned spirit here to taunt him.