However there is a change in tone of the final stanza. Courtly love is a central motif in “Les Grands Seigneurs”, evoking knights, castles, damsels and troubadours. However, courtly love is ultimately acknowledged as only “play”, which has to give way to the serious reality of marriage. There is an ironic tone to the poem, and a hint of black humour. This is a light hearted view of the gap between what we expect of relationships, and what we actually get.
Your place in society was extremely important and made a huge impact on who you married. Upper and lower classes were not to be mixed and if done so, you were looked down upon. This concept is shown when Lady Bracknell interviews John before allowing her daughter, Gwendolen, to be with him. She has no interest in approving of John until she finds out that he is in fact from a very wealthy background. Wilde also does a good job of mocking the way men and women think of each other.
The Shakespearean lover can be seen in many of Shakespeare’s plays in many different forms. However while the forms may be different the role of the lover is still easily recognisable. In the excerpt from Shakespeare’s Richard III Richard of Gloucester can be seen playing the role of the lover in his speech to Queen Elizabeth, as he attempts to persuade her to be his ally in securing her daughter, Elizabeth, as his future wife. In the excerpt from the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the role of the lover is played very differently by Hermia and Lysander, who plan to elope, the only way to get around the obstacles that their love is facing. These two excerpts from the plays, while both recognisably depicting the Shakespearean lover, are doing so in very different forms, with language and theatrical issues creating different forms of ‘the lover.’ Several distinctions between Richard’s exchange with Queen Elizabeth and Hermia and Lysander’s conversation easily highlight the differences between the Shakespearian lovers.
We see the lovers Lysander, Hermia, and Demetrius, who have a love triangle problem such that the two males are in love with the same woman. The problem is further complicated by the fact that Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, or to be put to death. Although the problem seems a bit excessive with the father wanting his daughter’s death, it is still plausible. Shakespeare also notes that Demetrius was once in love with Helena creating more tension to the love triangle. This entire problem is brought in daylight before the duke, Theseus.
This may have been the case as in the 14th to 16th century when the poem was set, women were treated like this and a man would choose his wife taking great consideration into the wealth of her and her family. This is shown in the poem when the Duke mentions the dowry in line fifty one ‘no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed’. This suggests how it is very important to the Duke that his new wife has a considerable amount of wealth. Due to the way in which the Duke is described he is portrayed as a controlling and self-centred man. The reader interprets that he is a lot happier now that his duchess is dead and all he has left of her is a painting which is the best scenario for him.
Comment on the Importance of Love and Marriage in Act I of Romeo and Juliet In this essay I will comment on the importance of love and marriage in act one of Romeo and Juliet. To do this, I will look at the different types of love demonstrated in this act and also examine the importance of marriage and what it meant for people in this time (around the 16th century). By taking a closer look at the different characters in the play, we can understand the importance of this theme in the story. One of the first mentions of love is when Montague and his wife are discussing their concerns about Romeo. They think that his recent behaviour has been strange as he has been very unhappy and seems to be avoiding the daylight.
The theme of feminism in King Lear Although the main character in King Lear is typically a man, the female characters are a driving force in the plot. Their responses to their father’s request for them to declare how much they love him, influences the rest of the play. The fact that this happens in the first scene of Act One underlines the importance of the female characters to the plot. Shakespeare typically chose a male protagonist as the title character for his play but as in his other plays he has created strong, powerful female characters. Throughout the course of the play, the female characters are seen as powerful figures who are more ruthless than the men.
Many of these gender roles can be identified through careful readings of the literature produced throughout the Renaissance. Sometimes the roles are clearly defined, while in other instances the characters move fluidly between them. In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Renaissance ideas of men and women can be easily identified. However, Rosalind possesses many of the traits typically associated with maleness as she manipulates Orlando and woos him as an outsider. Orlando is also forced into submission by his domineering older brother, Oliver.
These romantic comedies all share a common element of the roles that women and men portray. The romantic comedies of that time attracted audiences because the male/female roles were often exaggerated and comedic to watch. The men and women may not share equivalence of social standing or money in a post war era, but in the romantic comedy realm, women are trying to make a change. The woman character is usually stronger and more likely to take initiative. She depicts the “madcap heiress” role; rich and spoiled like Irene in My Man Godfrey.
It shows this in certain quotes that describe and show off a character’s personality. It shows conflict that will unfold later on in the play and things that characters say display their personality and relationships with other people. In this scene Othello defends his love for Desdemona and why she has fallen in love with him, as her father believes he has used charms and spells to seduce her. Othello reveals to Brabantio that Desdemona fell in love with his stories of war and his differences to anyone she has ever met. This shows Othello and Desdemona’s devotion and commitment to each other and gives the audience an insight into the character of Othello and his origins and life of war.