... camera to begin with but then quickly zooms in on his face making it much more uncomfortable for the viewer as the attention is all drawn to his face which is in great close up. It was effective in incorporating the viewer into the scene though ... as it shows Hamlet's inertia and inwards-looking nature and therefore widens the audiences understanding of the character himself. This was incorporated well with, and heightened by the dark, protruding, black background which can be reflective of the deep emotional void he's experiencing in ... point of the shot, heightened by the dull backgr...

• Word Count: 718
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... presented effectively and have an amazing impact on his audiences. Shakespeare basically summarized human emotion in sixty page poems. Readers are provided with the opportunity to step into the lives of his characters; to feel their emotions and understand their motivations, which is a very rewarding experience for students. Although Shakespeare wrote his plays more than 350 years ago, the relevance of their ... themes and subjects still exists. The morals and values presented in his works speak to the audience, often offering a new ... perspective on the world today. Students are affec...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a consequence of his abandonment of power. Lear has given away his position of power, but still hangs onto the symbols of power, such as the company of knights. In the storm and at the hovel, he throws off his clothes, symbolically the last remnants of power, so he ... the power structure of the kingdom. It is also through the characters of Edmond, Gonerill and Regan that the responder learns that the pursuit for power is intoxicating and attempting to sabotage the natural order for personal gain will result in disaster. Essentially, Lear and Gloucester begin with power and end ... sabot...

• Word Count: 1753
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... text. When King Lear was originally written, most audiences would have interpreted it through an Elizabethan perspective. The Elizabethan society believed very strongly in social order and structure. Everything in life had its place under God in what was referred to as the "great-chain-of-being", and essentially it was a theocentric (God centered) age. Elizabethans believed that if anyone, particularly someone high up ... in the social hierarchy, disturbed the great-chain-of-being total chaos would result. So when Lear, the King, decides "to shake all cares and business from our age, co...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Lear says, "Through tattered clothes great vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all"; if people are high status, does this automatically mean they are naturally good people and appropriate for the position, or has false language just granted them their title (as in Goneril and Regan's case)? It is ironic in some ways that many of the characters in King Lear, who own or ... receive positions of high authority (Lear, Goneril, Regan, Edmund) are very flawed, and the last three could even be described as "evil". Whilst the two characters which return ... leave them and return to na...

• Word Count: 991
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of the play are viewed differently from each responder. Critics have taken many varying viewpoints from these debates and expanded on their portrayal of Othello's main themes, ideas, language and characters. In the handout called "Othello", there are two different viewpoints on the character of Othello, you might say that they are conflicting views. One of them being the "Noble Moor" approach ... dramatizes for us the two most terrifying things about the conditions of our existence, that we are not ultimately in control of the way we live, or of when and how we die." Fred Langman's anal...

• Word Count: 986
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the social niches of women as being either angels or whores. Shakespeare enhances this classic stance by challenging this hegemonic view and introducing the element of a woman being neither. In Othello the female characters of Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca are each assigned these roles. Desdemona's is the angel with her obedient and submissive nature, Bianca is the whore with her promiscuous disregard ... play. Shakespeare uses Desdemona to illustrate the proclivity of society to place women into two binaries as they place Desdemona on a pedestal, as an angel. Bianca represents the whor...

• Word Count: 616
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Othello's trust as a respectable ancient. Othello is vulnerable due to his insecurity in his relationship with Desdemona and his ever-present violent and misogynistic nature, he turns to Iago for help. Iago then manipulates Othello into believing his wife Desdemona had been unfaithful ... to him which results in disastrous tragedy – death. Othello is set in a highly patriarchal world, women must do what men say and are unable to have an influence against it. Desdemona breaks these societal expectations ... during the start of the play. She is able to use her voice to confront the patr...

• Word Count: 944
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... by Richard III. Satan: Milton's Paradise Lost In the epic poem of Paradise Lost by John Milton, Satan who is one of the characters is also depicted as a villainous character that is up to causing rifts and disturbance due to his quest for power and authority (Milton 58). He is the main villain of the great heroic poem presented as the epitome of evil ... incarnate. Satan disobeys God, and the uprising led by him in the Heaven results in the fall of Satan ... whose only aim is to harm others. His physical appearance is also similar to Lucifer's description of a dreadful dragon that pull...

• Word Count: 4910
• Approx Pages: 20
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... it aims to both educate and entertain. Pacino states: "Our main goal with this project is to reach an audience that would not normally participate in this kind of language and world". Looking for Richard is used as a teaching tool; it celebrates the power of the actor and common person to interpret and absorb Shakespeare's ideas. Through inter-textual ... each text. The characterization of Richard is a universal feature of both texts. Richard is evidently a key character and ultimately the crucial link connecting King Richard III & Looking for Richard. In both he is portrayed as a villa...

• Word Count: 718
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... audience by Shakespeare as a disturbing predator, which takes control and attempts to destroy constancy in love. The jealousy portrayed by Shakespeare is based on pure evil, hatred and the joy for destruction as well as swayed, insecure jealousy. This is achieved through the use of a range of characters; Iago, Othello, Desdemona, who possess polar qualities, and also through a range ... of situation and scenes of commitment, savagery and uncertainty. Shakespeare uses the egocentric, manipulative and malignant character of Iago in an attempt to present a disturbing ... the stage out of l...

• Word Count: 723
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and culture. Empowerment of woman individuality and rising concerns towards racism are beneficial values which ascended through time. However, behaviors of characters in the different contexts illuminated a diminishing sense of duty in the 21st century. In Shakespeare's Othello, the protagonists' supreme motivation to kill Desdemona is to maintain justice and order. Under fear that Desdemona will " ... of Desdemona, applying it to Desi in order to adapt to the 21st context where womanhood is much more profound. Othello's internalisation, contradicts Odin's eruptive nature against rac...

• Word Count: 1401
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... story. And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake: 
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd," This quote demonstrates that the racial difference between Othello and Desdemona is what drew them together. Contrarily, Othello's ethnicity subjects him to the vindictiveness of other characters, particularly Iago, who uses this to fuel the already existing inferno of hatred he ... feels towards Othello. Both Iago and Roderigo's xenophobic attitudes are flagrantly seen in the text. They constantly make demeaning comments about his appearance calling him an "old black ... be denied ...

• Word Count: 1213
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Iago as the villain of the play. Iago is the driving force of the plot behind the scenes in Act 1 as he manipulates the other characters, particularly Roderigo, and formulates schemes throughout the first act. In the first scene of the play Iago is complaining about not having received the promotion to lieutenant that he ... and a schemer. Another piece of information that we learn is the social status that Iago claims to hold. He asserts that he is in favour of the "three great ones of the city". Moreover it too becomes clear that he is the right-hand man to Othello, having the especiall...

• Word Count: 1567
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and that man's scope (line 7)" which is a clear-cut piece of evidence of his jealous tendencies towards other men's belongings. In this case, being the love of a woman, which Shakespeare treasures as wealth, "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings (line 13)." The love of a woman is the sweetest thing that could happen to ... gate. Having been crying to Heaven about his lack of fortune earlier in the sonnet, he is now singing at Heaven's gate motivated by the love of a woman that reciprocates his love for her. Having been an outcast in society, he is now in a happy state within ...

• Word Count: 393
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... lends itself to a major theme in Coriolanus. Nature versus nurture is an issue tied up in unspoken emotion, and an inability for Volumnia to express a healthy love for her son is often cited as the cause for this tragedy. One interpretation for Volumnia's character is that she is emotionally silent through out the play, in the same way that the characters in many of the comedies are silent ... . Viola's love for Orsino must remain unrequited in Twelfth Night due ... to a silence imposed by her masquerade. 7 An inability of Hermia to convey her desperation in her love for Lysander forces ...

• Word Count: 1648
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Macbeth's suicide. Sympathy is shown to Macbeth because of his unwilling actions to murder King Duncan. For example, Macbeth originally stopped his plan and said to Lady Macbeth, "We will proceed no further in this business:He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts ... of sympathy because Macbeth was only doing the deed to prove his manliness to his strong, independent wife. Another example is when Macbeth imagines a dagger in front of him right before he kills the king. He sees blood spots on the dagger as it points towards Macbeth's hand. He hallucina...

• Word Count: 707
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... into paranoia and fear, induced by his ambition, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition". Macbeth fluctuates between moments of action, in which he will go to any lengths to secure his throne, and moments of guilt and complete cynicism, as noted when Banquo's ghost appears. Macbeth, although he is ... a great warrior, is irrevocably evil and ill equipped for the psychic consequences of his crime. Thus, Macbeth himself, is responsible for the tragedy within the play. Lady Macbeth uses her sexuality to manipulate Macbeth into killing King Duncan, which...

• Word Count: 882
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of his lover, presumably a girl, and eternalizes it to a great extent. Through the technique of personification in "thy eternal summer shall not fade" and "Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade," Shakespeare's lover embodies summer itself implying that her beauty ... lovely" and "temperate" insinuate that Shakespeare's lover is of perfect balance, unlike nature that experiences "Rough winds." In both the sonnets, different elements of life have been approached to demonstrate the multifaceted comparisons that can be made to symbolize love. Browning's sonnet ... "God", "saints" ...

• Word Count: 1172
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... differences and similarities between two texts. By studying the connections between Shakespeare's play Richard III and Pacino's adaptation "Looking for Richard", the change in context and respective values are made apparent. Shakespeare's constructs Richard III as propaganda in a strict political and religious society during the Elizabethan era. Thus, Shakespeare portrays Richard as an ambitious and evil ... . An example of this is the jump-shot to Redgrave's renowned statement, "the truth is that those in power have total contempt for everything they promise, everything they ledge, and ...

• Word Count: 1029
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the three weird sisters upon an abandoned heath and they give Macbeth two predictions and Banquo one, but Banquo had to ask for his prediction. This shows that the witches were only interested in Macbeth because he must have a side of evil and deceit and therefore the witches could play with his mind. Their language ... is often in the form of riddles and they refer to a "battle lost and won". Macbeth is victorious in the battle against the rebels but he is to lose the battle in his mind as evil deeds and his greed for power corrupt his sense of fair play. This opening ... them properly...

• Word Count: 612
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... above statement with reference to two different readings, one of which must be a production either real or imagined. Ben Jonson once said, "He was not of an age, but for all time". In our present era, Shakespeare's works and poetic visions have transcended its times, becoming contemporaneous with all time. He shaped his material to deal with the issues of human existence ... neutral red room- the colour suggesting the warmth of the family unit and the potential for conflict within it. Lear's exploitative manipulation of his daughters is apparent in his deliberate act of rewarding hyperb...

• Word Count: 1583
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... with lower caste twins undergoing "death conditioning-, John attempts to liberate the workers in line for their daily ration of the euphoric, hallucinogenic panacea for all things unpleasant, soma. He cries out to the people with Miranda's mantra echoing in his mind "O brave new world how beauteous mankind is!- (209) Calling for the attention of the masses, John has all intentions of helping them realize ... to think about people are not forced to deal with any sort of consequences regarding their actions. Love, the basis for action in so many of Shakespeare's plays and many of his sonn...

• Word Count: 1445
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and yet he does these frightful things. Iago, as a representation of evil, has one major motivational factor that leads him to lie, cheat, and dominate other characters. This motivation is his obsessive, almost aesthetic delight in manipulation and destruction. Iago is not simply a man of action; he is an artist. His action is a plot, the intricate plot of a drama, and ... , the cool earnestness, and the hypocrisy, marked in every line weave a web of innuendo and suggestion to entrap and confuse Othello. Iago's insight into human nature; his ingenuity and address in working upon it; his ...

• Word Count: 439
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... expierienced a tragic fall as well. The point of the tragic hero being so noble and of high rank is so that the audience can feel great sympathy for the hero because they fell from such a high place in life, exaggerating their failure. Willy Loman proves to also to create sympathy within the audience much like the classic heroes, perhaps more, because modern audiences ... achieve a simple dream through hard work and dedication. Willy, "the average man", was just a mere victim of societal ideals and expectations much like Hamlet was. In Hamlet's case he was pulled in different directions...

• Word Count: 546
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate