In reading Sophocles play Oedipus Rex and William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Othello, I realize the main characters Oedipus and Othello have a great deal of similarities, yet have a few differences. The two plays were written many years apart, and the main characters are both interesting to figure out. Oedipus is well respected, while Othello is respected, but not by everyone in his community. The characters have bad flaws, one is arrogant and the other is jealous. Furthermore, both of the men end up in tragic horror.
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.
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.
Sofia Salahpour Howerter ENGWR 300 14 June 2012 Hamlet’s Love for Ophelia In the play, Hamlet and Ophelia share various scenes together in which it is confusing to determine whether Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is true or if it is just an act of madness. Hamlet claims to love her at some points but at the same time contradicts himself and denies ever loving her in the first place. I believe that in this play, Hamlet truly did love Ophelia, but then after the incident of his father’s deaths he sees and understands certain situations in which cause him to lose his respect towards women, which ultimately leads to Hamlet no longer loving Ophelia. Hamlet shows he once loved Ophelia by his love letters; however, we can clearly see he stops loving her because of his actions towards Ophelia such as calling her horrible things, denying ever loving her, and not showing any remorse for killing her father. In the play, Hamlet is portrayed as a very philosophical character that thinks and analyzes every situation to the extreme.
The colloquial term “bromance,” a portmanteau of the words “brother” and “romance” is used to describe a close but non-sexual relationship between two men – a homosocial intimacy. A famous historical example of such a relationship would be the one between Antonio and Bassanio in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Antonio is well known for spoiling and putting his life on the line for Bassanio, his long-time best friend. However, the favours that Antonio does for him and his constant talk of him imply that Antonio might be in love with Bassanio. Although male friendships in the Elizabethan times were significantly intimate, Shakespeare subtly hints that the connection between Antonio and Bassanio is deeper than what meets the eye.
When Romeo complains about his love towards Rosaline, Mercutio tells him to stop moaning about it “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down” (Romeo and Juliet Act: 1 Scene: 4). Mercutio is also hostile towards female sexuality in general for example when he is fooling around with the nurse or when he describes Rosaline’s body. Mercutio´s dislike towards the female genre could be said to be signs of being misogynist (women hater). His sexual jokes are all were the play. Mercutio is essential to the play he is the Prince´s kinsman, but above all he is Romeo´s best friend and his intimate.
Despite being written in the late sixteenth century, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is a timeless piece and provides great themes to be analyzed for purposes of a book report. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's less popular comedies, having been plagued in recent times with complaints of anti-Semitic themes. The summary of this really has to do with the character Shylock, a caricature of a greedy, Jewish money-lender. The two main characters of the story are a Venetian merchant, Antonio, and his Bassanio, who is in love with a wealthy heiress named Portia. Bassanio wants to propose to Portia but needs money to travel and appear worthy of her.
Mistaken Identity William shakespear use of Mistaken identity is a imporant instrument to the play twelfth night because it provides confusion, mystery and humor to the play. In Shakespeare’s time mistaken identity played a role in his plays when female roles were played by males, and the idea of a male having a female role created a greater comic element. In the play twelfth night many characters have disguises and have their identities mistaken. Many characters in twelfth night have their identity mistaken , begginging with viola who dressed up as a male and assumed the name Cesario in order to succeed and work for the duke. Olivia also had her identity mistaken by her brother's best friend antonio.
Through his use of verbal language techniques and devices, Shakespeare develops loving as an unwanted, painful, disease throughout his play Twelfth Night that ultimately can turn men into monsters. He both conveys this warning to the audience and makes the play interesting and attention grabbing for them by skilfully using metaphors, comparison, emotional language, rhyme and allusion. Twelfth Night is a timeless piece of literature thanks to the intricate verbal techniques that Shakespeare weaves with a purpose into the play. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare portrays love as a “hunger” to show that we are pained by it when we cannot satisfy it, drawing similarities between the ache of loving someone to “hunger pains”. He also uses a metaphor to convey his opinion that the need for love is as great as the need for food.
By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her. Ophelia made one decision and that was to love Hamlet, and now he is using her actions to make her feel inferior and sinful. Up to this point in the play, Shakespeare depicted Hamlet as a mad man hell-bent on avenging his fathers suspect death, however: his cruel outburst at Ophelia is not a turning point in the story in which he goes from being a hero to being a cold-hearted oppressor. Hamlet tells Ophelia that she will have to ‘marry a fool’ because ‘wise men’ would know better than to marry her; he yells at her ‘get thee to a nunnery’, and yet the way it fits into the plot makes it seem almost expected. As the plot progresses Ophelia begins to lose her mind, resulting in her eventually suicide, but at no point his Hamlet called out for his harsh words against her in a significant way.