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Critical analysis of twelfth night
Analysing twelfth night
Related studies Portrayal of Masculinity William Shakespeares play
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There are many people who have a strong ego. Egotism is when someone thinks excessively about themself. The characters that Shakespeare gave strong egos to helped shape the story, by giving it depth. In the book “Twelfth Night”, Shakespeare presents a few characters with a strong ego. Egotism can have many forms and are shown through people in a very full of themselves kind of way.
In his play, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare has his characters participate in the practice of deception and dishonesty of others - after all, the foundation of Shakespeare’s play resides within a lie. One of the major deceptions in the play is executed by the Illyrian countess, Olivia, as she repeatedly claims to need solitude to mourn her brother’s death in order to avoid Duke Orsino and his obsession towards her. This deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole by adding the thematic message, deception and dishonesty is sometimes the better option when it comes to love. From the beginning of the play, Olivia is introduced as the grieving countess that has recently lost a brother.
Throughout the Elizabethan era, Christianity played a pivotal role in the development of government and support (or lack thereof) of individuals. The Puritans attempted to close theaters, and, according to scholar R. Balfour Daniels “sought to circumscribe life and hold it in with a stern and austere restraint” (Daniels, 41). Additionally, Elizabethan England had three contradictory and competing forms of Christianity. The Anglican Church, also known as Protestantism, was used in government and the official religion of the Queen, and any who criticized it were often killed. Puritans opposed the Protestants, and Catholics, the more traditional sect, was practiced by a significant minority (Raffel, 38-39).
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet struggles to cope with his late father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage. In Act 1, Scene 2, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Hamlet are all introduced. Hamlet has just finished publicly speaking with his mom and the new king, and after he is interrupted by his good friend Horatio, who reveal the secret about King Hamlet’s ghost. Hamlet’s soliloquy is particularly crucial because it serves as his initial characterization, revealing the causes of his anguish. Hamlet’s grief is apparent to the audience, as he begins lamenting about the uselessness of life.
Edmund’s villainous ways add to the theme of madness and betrayal of King Lear. One thing that any reader can be sure of when they begin reading King Lear is that there is some tension between Edmund and his brother Edgar. Most of the problems stem from Edgar’s legitimate
The rigid class system in Middle Age Europe was a primary factor that determined the course of events. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, there are underlying issues throughout the plot involving classes of the characters, and their roles within their class. While for the time period, it was common for those in lower classes to be looked down upon, Shakespeare uses many mediums to slyly challenge this idea. Throughout the play, Shakespeare makes the class differences obvious, yet creates certain character dynamics which challenge preconceptions. Twelfth Night is centered around a distinct and rigid class system, yet Shakespeare comments on its negative impacts, and yearns for a more fluid system, in order to create a more just and fair world.
The anti-lynching movement was a civil rights movement in the United States that aimed to eradicate the practice of lynching. Lynching was used as a tool to repress African Americans. The anti-lynching movement reached its height between the 1890s and 1930s. On President Abraham Lincoln's birthdate in 1909, Ida Wells and W.E.B. DuBois helped organized the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in response to the lynchings of African Americans. In 1919, the organization published Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States: 1889–1919 to call attention to the issue.
For years, people have been debating whether cheerleading is a sport or not. On the year 2016, the debate has come to an end when The International Olympic Committee declared to be cheerleading as an official sport. Cheerleading is a well-known sport around the world especially in the Philippines. The word “sport” has no definite meaning.
Hamlet understands that the king now has no shame no guilt and feeling, living with the word honor written by a green pored marker, and when Hamlet understood this he have never called him by the name of a king again. He sees no right for him to be honoured even if he married his own
William Shakespeare’s works, written primarily from the late eighteen hundreds to the very early sixteen hundreds, have long been the subject of academic debates and analysis. Potent with double entendres, metaphors, and social commentary, it is easy to apply queer theory to Shakespeare’s plays, notably Twelfth Night, written in 1601. Though Twelfth Night’s ending pushes its characters into traditional heterosexual romances and binary gender roles to satisfy the genre and placate conservative Elizabethan audiences, the characters in the comedy defy tradition by exploring homosexual love and expression of gender. The most apparent homosexual themes are present in the relationship between Antonio and Sebastian.
In this love-hate, heart wrenching finale, Nick is released from prison. He has a plug, dough, and a home to share with the woman he loves down to the bone, his beloved Olivia. Now she’s of legal age to decide what she wants. She and Nick could have it their way with no one to come between them.
Shakespeare’s renowned play Twelfth Night centers around love, both in platonic and romantic instances. Characters display elements of self, brotherly, amorous, and friendly love towards one another; however, of the relationships portrayed, the strongest ones are those between men. In contrast, relationships between men and women lack depth and sincerity due to the lapse of communication between the opposing genders. Men are able to express their feelings to one another more freely, which gives their bonds strength that heterosexual relationships fail to display.
In the twenty-first century, the plays of William Shakespeare may at first appear dated and irrelevant: they use archaic language, are set in the age of Kings and Queens, and the Kingdom of England. However, it would be plainly mistaken to construe that Shakespeare’s works do not still remain integral to a twenty-first century society. Shakespeare’s plays gave the words and expressions one uses every day, revolutionized the art of theater as it was known, and forewarned about issues that would unknowingly still apply centuries later. Therefore, Shakespeare has had a profound effect on our lives by enriching our language and culture, as well as providing ideas that would still apply five centuries later, and it would thus behoove us to learn from his works and life.
Edmund plots against his legitimate brother Edgar and wants to get what is his “Edmund the base/ Shall top the legitimate. I grow, I prosper:/ Now gods, stand up for bastards” (Shakespeare 1.2.20-23) Another thing that should make Gloucester suspicious towards Edmund is that he planned to send him away again “He hath been out nine years and away he shall again” Although Gloucester should be aware of the envy that Edmund feels towards his brother Edgar and the hatred that he might feel towards Gloucester himself he doesn’t see these feelings as a possibility and trusts Edmund when he presents the letter which he claims is from Edgar and in which he supposedly conspires against his own father. This is a foreshadowing about the physical blindness that shall befall Gloucester later in the Play, because he couldn’t tell which of his sons he could trust and because he was blind towards the greed and envy of Edmund.
In the play Twelfth Night, through the depiction of Orsino’s and Viola’s desires for romantic love, Shakespeare portrays how adjustable and self-delusional human romantic attraction can be, especially when blinded by wants and needs. Viola, who puts on the appearance of a man, makes everybody think she is a male. Her disguise becomes a sexual confusion throughout the play for several characters, creating an odd love triangle where Viola loves Duke Orsino, who loves Oliva, which then on the other hand loves Viola, in disguise as Cesario. On the other hand, Malvolio dreams of marrying his beloved Olivia, and gaining authority over his superiors, like Sir Toby. Shakespeare uses disguise in the play to show several confusions and internal conflicts between the characters, proving how malleable and deluded some human attractions can be.
