who hides and what is hidden? how does deceit function in the world of the play, and how does it help the play comment on life in general? a central motif in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. counterfeiting, or concealing one's true feelings, is part of this motif. everyone seems to lie; good characters as well as evil ones engage in deceit as they attempt to conceal their feelings: beatrice and benedick mask their feelings for one another with bitter insults; don john spies on claudio and hero; don pedro and his 'crew' deceive benedick and beatrice.
He’s useless tricks display vanity and indicate his wastefulness to the audience. The Tempest is a problem play; Prospero is presented with the opportunity for spiteful revenge but realises the importance of forgiveness. Doctor Faustus is a morality play; he never realises the importance of repentance and banishes any opportunity to save himself, which results in his eternal damnation in hell. In the first act of the play, the audience is confronted with a magic fuelled spectacle. We see Prospero with the help or Ariel conjures the tempest.
Imagery is used to show Plath as an aggressive person, such as through the line “smash it into kindling”. The emotive line “The bloody end of the skein” creates the sense of abandonment and eternal suffering that by no means that one could be aware of. It suggests that Plath’s mind, the labyrinth, was something that Hughes struggled to understand, and propose that her psyche was beyond his control. He also utilises speech in The Minotaur, creating a sense of truth in Hughes’ part. While he is not seen as a saint within the poem (he remarks in a sarcastic matter to Plath in the poem), he positions the reader to empathise with him, painting the image that he is the placid one in the relationship, and the one who encourages her to embark on her creative pursuits “Get that shoulder under your stanzas/ And we’ll be away.”.
In The Crucible, he illustrated society’s disgruntlement towards others and its proneness to hysteria. Both plays dealt with society ensnaring the average, hard-working and diligent man. They also showed a society that was full of deceit and liars. In both of these plays, society was depicted as a depraved thing that would overpower the average person and create an unjust world. The settings and theatrical elements in both plays were dissimilar.
Symbolizing Sight: Knowledge vs Ignorance in Oedipus the King Oedipus, the character of focus within Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, is subject to the greatest of ironies due to the play’s motif of sight: through metaphorical sightlessness, which is a case of ignorance, he condemns himself and uses literal blindness as his own punishment. Having been characterized within the literary work as possessing both knowledge and ignorance of his upbringing, metaphorical and literal elements of sight are constantly used to shed light on Oedipus’s experiences throughout the duration of the play. Mostly metaphorical in its usage within the literary work, the characters regularly utilize the terms of “sight” and “blindness” in order to address levels of knowledge or lack thereof as they gradually unravel the story’s underlying truth. The character of Oedipus is a man considered to have great insight and intelligence due to his success in protecting the city of Thebes from the threat of the sphinx by solving its riddle. This makes the situation even more ironic when the audience learns that Oedipus has been ignorant of the true reasons for his placement as king.
This denial leads to his rage, when he perceives that Regan and Cornwall are being thoughtless of his authority. Lear then descends into isolation, in hopes of redefining who he is. Lear moves through stages in his life before any wisdom can be gained, resulting in his becoming a victim to his own poor choices. It is said denial is "an unconscious defense mechanism used to reduce anxiety by denying thoughts, feelings, or facts that are consciously intolerable (dictionary.com)." King Lear's denial derives from his blindness towards Regan and Cornwall's deceitful actions.
Alienation among many throughout Nathaniel Hawthone’s The Scarlet Letter, the main characters suffer psychological damage as a result of different forms of alienation. The character traits they posses make them more susceptible to certain types of alienation. Since Dimmesdale cannot reveal his secret to anyone, he can not share his pain. All the pent up guilt he has stored with in eats away at him, slowly deteriorating his body and soul. Dimmesdale’s masochistic and pious attributes greatly contribute to the extent of his alienation.
Hale. John Wright doesn’t seem to be a happy fellow. Not much is said about this character, however; an overwhelming feeling of hatred and meanness radiates from him. Its as if he stiffens the very air he stood in. this very discontent feeling would further add to the very isolation the Glaspell is trying to portray.
When he is alone he beats and tortures himself because of the deep pain he feels for not confessing his sin. Dimmesdale also becomes very sick mentally because of the pain he puts himself through and also the pain of guilt that is built up inside him. When Dimmesdale is out in public he is seen as a pure Minister. To the Puritan community Dimmesdale is seen as a saint. This results in Dimmesdale having to hide his guilt when he is out in public, which in return slowly destroys his soul because he usually is not put into a position where he must lie.
John Smith Mr. Jones Sociology 212 3 May 2012 Disenchanted The Politics of Experience is collection of theories and ideas about experience, behavior, and sanity. The book is sometimes abstract, mostly controversial, and always bold and thought provoking. Dr. Laing goes to great lengths to prove that not only is the scientific method incapable of measuring the human experience, but our views on normalcy and order within society are both violent and destructive; that normalcy is in fact, insanity. In this world, we are groomed into beings that are increasingly led to believe in the material, or external world. Forsaken are thoughts of imagination, fantasy, and freedom.