Abstract This paper looks at the references to animals within Shakespeare's "King Lear" and attempts to understand the choice of animal motifs and the role they are intended to play in conveying the playwright's message.
From the Paper "In his discourse with the king, the Fool refers to an animal again in the lines, "Fools had ne'er less wit in a year/ For wise men are grown foppish/ They know not how their wits to wear/ Their manners are so apish" (1.4.152-155). Here, too, the fool is making fun of the king's paying heed to wrong advise and people by comparing his behaviour with that of an ape's propensity to imitate. In other words, the Fool is implying that the king is imitating other foolish people instead of retaining his own counsel.
The Fool, as is already evident, is very fond of drawing comparisons to animals to make his point. And so, again we hear him say, "For, you trow, nuncle/ The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long" (1.4.207-208). The fool uses the analogy of the hedge-sparrow feeding the cuckoo too long to King Lear's decision to carve up his kingdom between his daughters, implying that the King was doing more for his children than he should."
Tags: dragon, metaphor, mongrel, dog, creature, literature, king, ass
Abstract This paper discusses the primary theme of the play "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, which is that mankind's insatiable need for both love and revenge can only be satisfied after one stops trying to force them to be satisfied through control and manipulation.
From the Paper "In The Tempest, Shakespeare not only tells an intricate tale of greed, revenge and love, but he also conveys a message about the consequences of immersing oneself in these emotions. The play is therefore not merely an adventure story about a group of people stranded on a desert island, as it may initially seem. It is, in all actuality, a model for the complexities of human behavior. "
Tags: analysis, characters, plot, Prospero, Miranda
Abstract This paper reviews the plot of the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare with an emphasis on the thread of evil throughout the play. It analyzes the actions of the characters and their relationships with one another. Examples of evil given include the actions of Claudius, Gertrude's incestuous marriage to the new king and Laertes? unusual vendetta against Hamlet.
From the Paper "Throughout the play, evil is shown through the actions of Claudius, the newly appointed king. "The old King Hamlet" was one of the greatest king's of Denmark, but "Claudius is a corrupt politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his skillful use of words" (Phillips 10). When "the old king", resting peacefully in his orchard, suddenly dies of an unknown cause, suspicions start to rise. Hamlet is approached by Horatio, and told of a ghost resembling his father. Subsequently, Hamlet goes out to find the ghost, and meets him near the castle gates. Hamlet and the ghost of his father begin to converse, and the truth of King Hamlet's death is revealed."
Analyzes the character of Desdomona from Shakespeare's play "Othello". Paints a picture of Desdemona as a feminist hero victimized by life in an era hostile to women.
1,125 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 1 source, 2001, $ 39.95
From the Paper "The character of Desdemona in Shakespeare's "Othello" is one of the most puzzling and challenging characters in the entire Shakespearean canon. This is so partly because of the curious dramatic fact that, unlike other Shakespearean heroes and heroines whose soliloquies give us entrance to many aspects of their personalities, Desdemona is "known" more by what others think about her than for what she says or does. For instance, her saintly virtue is referred to throughout the play (II.iii.23; III.i.34; IV.i.14 to cite but a few) by everyone except her father and Iago."
From the Paper "Renowned to the Parisian theatergoers and the members of Louis XIV's court for his farces and comedies, as a writer, director and actor, Moliere surpassed all his contemporaries in the mid-seventeenth century (Mander 16). His popularity can be attributed to his ability to entertain them in all aspects. Facing a diverse audience of the city's upper and upper middle-classes, the aristocrats, court officials and the royal family, Moliere's works present a cast of characters which mirrors his audience (Mander 18). Furthermore, he tapped into the spirit of his age by capturing realistically the lives of his audience and incorporating it into his art.
In addition to entertaining his audience with the realistic portrayal of Parisian life, Moliere also sought to illuminate the inherent hollowness of the existing conventions of high society..."
From the Paper "Greek tragedy and Japanese Noh drama offer interesting points of comparison. Although they are separated by nearly two millennia, by thousands of miles, and by cultural differences too numerous to mention both were theatrical traditions involving masked performers, the frequent use of music and dancing, on-stage choruses, and historic-mythological themes and stories drawn from traditions with which the audiences possessed some familiarity. Both theatrical traditions had important spokesmen and the perpetuation of the traditions, as well as later centuries' understanding of them, depended in large part on Aristotle's Poetics and Zeami's essays on Noh drama. But the two writer's approaches indicate the principal difference in the two traditions as well. Aristotle, as a thinker rather than a playwright or actor, contributed to the transformation of Greek..."
From the Paper "Beaumarchais' play Figaro's Marriage was very controversial, and was banned by Louis XVI for three years, because it looked at class differences in a new, perhaps revolutionary way. The plot involves an aristocrat, Count Almaviva, who is tricked by his valet, Figaro, who is shown to be a better man than his master in almost every way. The play questioned the value of noble birth, praised self-determination, raised questions about sexuality and desire, and generally looked at the social order in a new and liberal fashion. In an even more interesting way, however, the play also seems to open up the world to women who, once the opportunity is presented, turn from being relatively passive, and limited to their own private spaces, to the active pursuit of their own interests in public."
From the Paper "Pedro Calderon de la Barca y Henao shows what is ephemeral in existence and, at the same time, demonstrates the divine and eternal aspects of human life in his play La Vida Es Sueno. The title of the baroque Spanish play is usually translated into English as Life is a Dream, but (like all translations) this is somewhat misleading. A more accurate rendition of Barca's intent might be a line known to children in English-speaking countries throughout time and across the world: "Life Is But a Dream." The line from the children's round of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and Barca's play reflect the same essential philosophy about the world, in which spiritual goodness and nobility are the only real things that one can know: Everything else that happens in life is of no true consequence and may be relied upon only as much as we..."
From the Paper "This research examines Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman as a tragedy as defined by Aristotle in the Poetics. The research will set forth the context in which Death of a Salesman has been labeled a tragedy and against which it can be measured based on Aristotle's theory, and then argue that, although Miller's play is undoubtedly a serious drama and undoubtedly shares certain attributes with the classical definition, to consider it a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense would be to misconstrue Aristotle's definition and to grant too much interpretive power to Miller's own view of what he calls tragedy and the common man.
In order to show the relationship between Death of a Salesman and Aristotelian theory of tragedy, it is useful to examine Aristotle's definition of tragedy, which he says is..."
Abstract This paper discusses each of the main factors of the downfall of King Lear in William Shakespeare's play, "King Lear". The author shows that ultimately, the real sinners are those who purposely and deviously try (and succeed) to force their father into a state of madness and eventual death ? Goneril and Regan, and their respective husbands.
From the Paper "Lear's demise during the play is a consequence of his own foolishness and 'sinfulness'. But the decline is also accentuated and indeed encouraged by many other characters in the play. In order to judge the above question we must analyse the balance between these two 'sets' of 'sinners', and understand the difference between the King's foolishness and sinfulness. The second scene highlights the confusion that may arise over Lear's true faults (foolish or sinful?). The King plans to divide his nation into three amounts, relative to each of his daughter's love for him ('Which one of you should we say doth love us most?'). One can class this decision, in context with the rest of the play, as extremely unwise and foolish. He himself describes it as a 'darker' (1.135) purpose, and this episode paves the way for the terrible consequences that fill the rest of the play. By abdicating his throne to fuel his ego he disrupts the great chain of being, which states that the King must not challenge the position that God has given him. This undermining of God's authority results in chaos that tears apart Lear's world."
From the Paper "M. Butterfly is a memory play in which author David Henry Hwang smoothly switches time and place throughout the play in order to reveal a story that is already known to the narrator and central character, Rene Gallimard. The play is constructed as an "evening" in the theater in which the speaker will take the viewers over his story until his "ideal audience" will come to envy him because he has been loved by "the Perfect Woman" (1936). Hwang (and Gallimard) assume that the audience is already somewhat familiar with the outlines of the story. Yet, just in case anyone is not clear on it, a certain amount of suspense is built in to the play. The opening conversations of the people at a party do not specifically state the case. Their remarks could be understood by anyone who knew the story and would offer hints to those who did not. But the gradual revelation of Song Li's..."
From the Paper "William Shakespeare wrote Othello to offer a dramatic exploration of the workings of evil on mortal men. George Brandes states that Othello is the only one of Shakespeare's tragedies that does not deal with national events (127). Instead, it is a "family tragedy" (127). Brandes establishes that Othello was probably first produced in the autumn of 1605 (113). He states that Shakespeare found the material for Othello in Cinthio's Italian collection of tales, the same place he found the plot of Measure for Measure (114). Brandes also argues that, although Shakespeare calls Othello The Moor of Venice, believing that Shakespeare thought of Othello as black is unreasonable. Rather, he believes that Iago's mention of Mauritania as the..."
From the Paper "The View of Marriage in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House
In his analysis of the plays of Henrik Ibsen, Janrek Lavrin asserts that the plays A Doll's House and Ghosts made Henrik Ibsen famous and notorious all over Europe (Lavrin 77). The primary uproar over the plays centered around what was viewed as Ibsen's attack on marriage. Lavrin argues, however, that the problems Ibsen was attempting to address in A Doll's House were not the problems caused by marriage in general but rather the problems caused by modern marriage (77).
Ibsen's initial idea behind the play that eventually became A Doll's House was for a central female character whose dramatic dilemma would arise from the disparity between her innate sense of right and society's laws (Saari 41). He was primarily concerned with the conflict between what he saw to be two kinds.."
From the Paper "The Use of Disguise in "The School for Scandal"
The School for Scandal is a play about the destructive nature of the desire to spread a scandal. Beyond that, however, it also addresses the willful desire to lie and deceive if such behavior will create a scandal. It concludes that good nature never seeks to be disguised but is always simple and apparent on the surface. Sheridan cleverly uses a series of disguises for his players to reveal that innate good nature can never be disguised. First, he disguises his characters by their names. Of course, in the case of many, such as Lady Sneerwell and Mr. Snake, their name in fact reveals their character. However, in the case of Joseph Surface, the name reveals not the true character but the character he chooses to portray. Second, Sheridan allows his characters to disguise themselves to discover the true.."
From the Paper " In Othello, race is an issue in much the way it would be today. Othello is an important general and so is revered and admired, but at the same time there is resentment because he is a Moor and resentment because he has married a white woman. This fact underlies much of the action of the play even when it is not mentioned directly, but race plays a divisive role just the same. Iago understands the nature of race and the way it affects others, including Othello himself, and he manipulates ideas of race in order to further his plot and also, as part of that effort, to affect how othello views and thinks about the world.
Race affects the plot because it generates tension with certain of the townspeople, allows Iago to manipulate various people, and isolates Othello as the "other" in Venetian society. Race affects Othello's psychology in similar ways, making him.."
