How Shakespeare and Browning Present Disturbed Characters

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In this essay I will explore the ways Shakespeare and Browning portray a range of disturbed characters throughout their literature. It is vital to remember that Shakespeare’s audience (in the 1600s ) and Browning's audience (in the 1800s) would have been highly intrigued by plays that involve the concept of 'witchcraft' and many other notions that raise suspicion. Likewise the modern contemporary audience who would be fascinated and aroused, embracing the characters motions and ambitions. On the other hand Shakespeare's and Browning's audience were more interested but fearful of the 'unknown'. In their day and age these characters would be judged by many factors including social and cultural backgrounds, crimes committed and personal traits. Both of these writers seem to conjure their audience into a state where it compels them to relate to certain characters. Lady Macbeth certainly loses or suppresses her feelings of cowardice. Throughout her appalling invocation to the spirits of evil to “unsex her”, proving her ambition to attain her goal. In Jacobean times women were seen as inferior and even in the Victoria era, thus she required external forces to crush her conscience to allow her to fulfil her ambition. Yet she is afraid her feminine qualities will prevent her from achieving the murder of King Duncan. Which would gradually lead to her mental breakdown. Regicide was considered a mortal sin in Jacobean times, one God couldn't forgive. Whereas Browning’s protagonist in The Laboratory sustains her feminine qualities this is reflected in the line “The colours too grim” in which she is referring to her dislike of the colour of poison and that it needs to be 'brightened' up in order to convince her victim to drink it. She also assumes a strong element of jealousy within her “They laugh at me” “He is with her, and they know that I know” these quotes can be
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