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Examples Of Transcendentalism In Moby Dick

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MOBY DICK AND SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

Moby Dick is a revenge tale about the revengeful quest of a wounded man for the powerful force of nature; Moby Dick; and the perishing memories of the questors and the wounded questor into the deep perils of the sea, who engulfs all; leaving one as the sole survivor and witness to unveil and unfold the awful revenge tragedy of stubbornness that outlived the American imagination. Richard Chase in his book describes Moby dick as “the most startling and characteristic products of American imagination. ( Gayatri N 2014 :244)
Herman Melville felt that American literature could acquire new depth and dimension by achieving a Shakespearean quality in their literature. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are often the …show more content…

Macbeth,king Lear, hamlet, Romeo Juliet, Othello, all the tragic heroes face death and are forced to accept defeat, which is seen with Ahab. No matter what happens the one tragic flaw in the protagonist ruins his and other people’s lives.
It contains many examples of alliteration, allusion, similes, and metaphors; it also presents an ironic argument against Transcendentalism and the power of man. The influence of lear and Macbeth is felt as one beholds Ahab and listens to his speeches and soliloquies.( Alfred hazing :1962 ‘chapter 5) The language and metaphor of Shakespeare make themselves strongly felt in Moby dick. It can be clearly seen that “Moby Dick leans very heavily on Shakespeare, even in the diction of some passages.” (Walter Arnold Kaufmann :18)
In Lear Shakespeare has brought poetic and dramatic conception of the play as the center which is grasped by Melville for his Moby Dick ( Charles olson 2007 : 170)HERMAN MELVILEES MOBY DICK EDITED BY Harold bloom. ( Charles olson).
According to Matthiessen the most important effect of Shakespeare’s use of language was to give Melville a range of vocabulary for expressing passion

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Macbeth by William Shakesphere, has numerous allusions throughout the entire play. Two examples would be, “His silver skin laced with his golden blood.” and, “We have scorched the snake, not killed it.” Both allusions have many important meanings that help develop the plot, characters, and meanings of the play as a whole.

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522 Words | 3 Pages

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth truthfully expresses that life is ultimately repetitive and meaningless towards the actions that lead to death. Claiming that life is short and easily extinguished from his reaction towards Lady Macbeth’s apparent suicide. Shakespeare applies rhetorical elements to emphasize Macbeth’s responsiveness to the concept of life and death. Initially, Shakespeare commences with repetition of the word “tomorrow” thrice to accentuate the hopeless future Macbeth perceives.

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“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare entertains the audience through use of character, language and drama. The plot focuses on the theme of conflict and consequences, using deep characterisation, descriptive language and high drama to entertain. Act 3 Scene 1 focuses on a brutal feud between two enemies and Act 3 Scene 5 follows the patriarchal society’s approach to women marriage and societal expectations. Shakespeare forces the audience to engage with the idea of conflict and what it must have been like to live through this time. Shakespeare cleverly utilises a changing atmosphere in Act 3 Scene 1 to expertly entertain his audience.

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1277 Words | 6 Pages

Sean Smith Mrs. Anthony Senior English 8 March 2018 The Danger of Ambition In Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, the author proposes a perpetual loop of struggle through his use of fate and imagery of the character’s deaths in order to express the consequences for one’s actions if they are foolish enough to make these decisions. “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a uniquely portrayed concept of fate, internal struggle, and paradox; the story depicts a human with intentions to receive power.

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1574 Words | 7 Pages

MIP Rough Draft The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare and the book, “The Handmaids Tale” by Margaret Atwood, both create a fall of power in society and this loss of leadership opens the door for corruption to take over. Both authors have created this instability in society and use the motifs: loss of power, religion, and relationships to explore characters’ innermost selves. This exploration of characters proves that one will submit to anything in order to obtain stability in a corrupt environment. Both Shakespeare and Margaret Atwood immediately pull the rug out beneath from the characters in their work, creating instability not only in the character’s mind but in the reader’s mind as well.

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167 Words | 1 Pages

Another mythological allusion Melville uses in Moby Dick is another of Greek mythology about the Fates. The Fates are the three goddess who control life and human destiny, their names are Clotho, the one who gives life to one by spinning the thread of life; Lachesis, the one who determines the length one will live by the length of the thread; and Atropos, the one that determines how one will die by cutting the thread. Ishmael makes his boarding the Pequod clear when he says, “I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way…”(Melville 15). The structure of the sentence makes it clear

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886 Words | 4 Pages

Specifically, stories in the bible, especially of the Old Testament. Likewise, Melville was inspired by William Shakespeare’s books in writing his masterpiece Moby Dick. Although, many other references were considered, Shakespeare is the most abundant in this novel. It was his major influence because he wanted to prove the superiority of American Nation as well as American Literature. In this novel he presents tragedy like Shakespeare.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

Through keen use of action, soliloquy, and dialogue, Shakespeare causes any audience to react sympathetically to Macbeth’s negative attributes and perhaps even relate. For instance, Lady Macbeth’s manipulation is an aspect many readers can level with. Once it becomes clear that Macbeth’s mental health is diminishing, the audience inevitably begins to pity him. In his final moments, the desperation Macbeth feels is hard for the audience to ignore. Evaluating Macbeth’s character in full rather than focusing only on his negative attributes inevitably evokes sympathy from the reader.

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

Orson Welles is held in the minds of many as a notable film director and actor, but his work in other modes of storytelling is often overlooked. I intend in this paper to analyze one of those overlooked works, the play he authored and produced in London Moby Dick—Rehearsed, adapted from the novel. It is my intention to demonstrate that this work subscribes to what we may call Welles’s philosophy of storytelling in order to encompass his film, theatre, and radio works—he frames the story of the novel in a way that is consistent with his other works, he himself plays and “transfigures” the role of the “king,” and he parodies the genre of theatre itself. Moby Dick—Rehearsed is not a “straight” adaptation of the novel. Instead, Welles adapts

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1931 Words | 8 Pages

In his work, The Poetics Aristotle reflects on the role of pity and fear in tragedy, stating, “Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and of life; of happiness and misery. Add human happiness or misery takes the form of action… Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions that we are happy or the reverse… The tragic pleasure is that of pity and fear” (Aristotle, The Poetics). Aristotle is probing one to conclude that tragedy is characterized by the pity and fear one evokes when individuals go against their presumed character and commit detrimental acts. Throughout his play Macbeth, Shakespeare, reminisces on the actions that gravitate an audience to render both fear and pity, which characterize a tragedy.

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1731 Words | 7 Pages

There are many whales in the sea, but this particular whale called Moby Dick is the desirable catch for the whalers and captain due to its legendary proportions. In the novel, Moby Dick, it offers an allegorical story of humanity’s dangerous search for meaning. The monstrous, white whale represents that “meaning” humans have been hunting for their entire lives, but at the end one will discover that one can do so much but still end up not finding their answer. The entire plot to Moby Dick is directed towards the final confrontation between Ahab, his crewman and the White whale. At the end, the whale wins the fight and the rest of the crew on ship all die, demonstrating the fact that the whale cannot be defeated, hence signaling how the laws

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

Shakespeare was a famous author and poet that wrote extremely well-known texts, such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet.” Shakespeare lived during the Renaissance when art and science advanced and he was one of the major contributors to this historical period. “Shakespeare Influences the way we speak now” by Hephzibah Anderson, “William Shakespeare’s Impact on Theatre” by Octane, and “How Outrage Built Over a Shakespearean Depiction of Trump” by Sara Krulwich suggest that Shakespeare had a great influence on many aspects of society, such as the phrases we use, style of theater, and is a figure of inspiration to many people. Shakespeare has contributed to many well-known phrases that are still used to this day, showing his significance in history.

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256 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Shakespeare Meets The 21st Century” (297), Michael Kahn believes that all renditions of Shakespeare’s plays are “interpretations” that reflect the approach to acting and producing at the time of production. In recent times the productions of Shakespeare’s plays have undergone changes to the manner of speaking to be more “conversational” while attempting to retain the rhythm and tone of the play. He explains that Shakespeare’s plays were themselves adapted from those of other playwrights. He marvels at the experience of those who originally witnessed and had no prior knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays must have had. Kahn states “I believe all theater artists who approach these plays envy that encounter and explore strategies to re-create

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975 Words | 4 Pages

From the twentieth century on, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has been considered a masterpiece of literature and a landmark in

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738 Words | 3 Pages

Additionally, according to Source B, “Most of what we know about modern storytelling and language can be traced back to Shakespeare” (Octane 1). Therefore, the effects of Shakespeare on language and literature are still as recognizable today as they were in his

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