Things that appear true and honest may be evil or deceitful in reality. Many of the characters within the play hide behind a mask of falseness: Ophelia, Polonius, and Hamlet. Ophelia tells her father of Hamlet. ``No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied``(I,ii,105-106). Ophelia was in love with Hamlet but she further reveals that due to Polonius’s orders, she has cut off all contact with Hamlet and has refused his letters.
Hamlet portrays falsity when using rage against Ophelia after discovering she has been apart of a plot of revenge. He uses this as an opportunity to deny his love for her and degrade her until she felt horrible about her self. “I did love you once but you should have not belived me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.”(3.1.114-119). It becomes clear that Hamlet did truly love Ophelia, yet hid it because he was a coward.
(Stabs herself) There rust and let me die.”-P. 579 lines (169-171). It’s really sad that all of this could have been avoided if Juliet would’ve just left with Romeo or if their families gave up their hatred for one another. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet’s personality drastically changes. At first Romeo was love-sick and Juliet didn’t want anything to do with marriage. Then they meet, fall in love and get married.
I believe Gertrude from Hamlet, is a depthless individual who only thinks about her body and external pleasures. Like a child, she longs to be charmed and delighted by the men in her life. Gertrude is also a very sexual woman, and her sexuality may have been the reason that Hamlet turned so violently against her. Hamlet was already outraged with his mother for her marrying his uncle just a short time after his father's death. “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, -- O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power so to seduce!--won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.”
He pushes them into a hasty secret marriage, without the knowledge or permission of their warring parents. This sets the stage for the secrets that create the tragedy to come. Unable to face the banishment for killing Tybalt, Romeo seeks the advice of Friar Lawrence who scolds him for his despair, “Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself, and slay thy lady that in thy life lives by doing damned hate upon thyself?” (3, 3, 116,) then when Romeo is at his lowest, Friar Lawrence cheers him up, suggesting a comforting visit to his Juliet and then his escape. “Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed.
/ O, much I fear some ill unthrilly thing” (5.3.129-140). As the watch approaches, the Friar grows selfish and flees from the scene leaving Juliet who now realizes that Romeo killed himself. She then kills herself which could have so easily been prevented by the Friar. Time and time again his irresponsible behavior gets the best of
“No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures: the problem of what is to be done with her afterwards.” (Shaw, 65) Mrs. Higgins shows she doesn’t see the girl as some experiment un like the men in the play who do not seem to view women as the same value. Having a women who respects and has morals for other women is very important for this play. “Do without, I’m afraid, Henry. The girl has a perfect right to leave is she chooses.” (Shaw, 84) This is Mrs. Higgins explaining to her son that he can’t control the young women that she has some rights of her own, and he is to blind to see this on his own. Making the role of women important to see that the young Liza Doolittle has some rights of her own.
Shakespeare had to make recourse to a wholly artificial device in order to show Hamlet in action, or inaction – the soliloquy. Another strain that goes through Hamlet, and a disturbing one, is the abuse by Hamlet of his former beloved and his mother, Ophelia and Gertrude. In his scenes with Ophelia, Hamlet is relentlessly cruel, charging her with a lustful nature, a dishonest heart, a dissembling appearance, and so on. He builds up, in scene three, to an utterly misogynistic rant, beginning, “I have heard of your paintings well enough.” Men in the English Renaissance were obsessed with women’s make-up, which they took to be a symbol of feminine wiles, excuses, manipulations, artifices, and hypocrisies. Shakespeare, especially, has a long rhetorical history with this line of vitriol; it shows up in many of his plays and features strongly in his Sonnets.
In the play king Lear, mercy is an insatiable trait which is surrounded by so much hate and malice every time love is given it makes those moments so much more enjoyable. In the begging of the Play King Lear, Cordelia the king’s daughter, is outcast, cheated of her inheritance accused of being a wicked child and one that nature is a shamed of (I,i,215-219). Even though at the beginning of the play king Lear disowns his daughter and she has every right to be unloving to him; when they are reunited King Lear offers to harm himself but Cordelia turns that idea away and forgives him when she asks to take a walk with her father (4,VII,83). People want to see mercy, they want to see those that deserve worse receive compassion and mercy Lear deserved to be turned away but Cordelia showed tenderness to her aging father and
Albany suffers from the classic case of blindness. Albany is blinded by love. Although Albany disagrees with Gonerils cruel actions towards her father, he only half-heartedly argues his case against her. Albanys fear of upsetting Goneril is exemplified in his response to her demand that Lear dispose of his knights. ’cannot be so partial, Goneril, / To the great love I bear you (I, iv, 309-310).