Riverside Shakespeare Essays

Oedipus the King Oedipus the King, the masterpiece of Sophocles, is considered a great tragedy filled with ironies and contradictions between the characters and their personalities. Oedipus is the major character in the story who tries to find out the murderer of Laios who was the king of Thebes. By the time he struggles to solve the problem he is unaware that he is going to find out his own biological father and going to be claimed as the murderer. Actually, this is the main question in this play;

Why does Hamlet delay in his revenge upon his uncle Claudius? Hamlet's dead father's ghost tells him that Claudius not only killed the king but in the two months since the murder, Claudius has also crowned himself king and married his wife and Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. Hamlet realizes the truthfulness of these facts by watching Claudius’ reaction to the play within the play, “The Murder of Gonzago”, which depicts the way Claudius murdered his brother with poison. After witnessing Claudius’

Character can be broken despite how strongly it is shaped. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello, Othello was a brave Moor who was quick to marry his lover Desdemona. His sinister ensign Iago deceived him into believing his loyal wife had committed adultery. Although Othello believed the alleged accusations, he also gave up his moral character to Iago. Regardless of the lack of trust from Othello, Desdemona did deceive her father prior to the situation. She went against her father’s will and

The concept of Heroism is viewed in the character of Yossarian who portrays aspects of an anti-hero through his cowardice and his selfish desire to stay alive. In Catch-22 Yossarian is constantly criticized for avoiding dangerous situations because he only cares about saving his own life. However, this interpretation fails to explain the true purpose of his role being the anti-hero and the significance of his obsession to staying alive. As the novel continues the true purpose of Yossarian being

Demonstrations of Courage in Cyrano de Bergerac Many people ask what the true meaning of having courage is. Many may say it’s the quality of having no fear or being extraordinarily bold. But, what is the nature of true courage? In the play, Cyrano de Bergerac written by Edmond Rostand, true courage is a quality demonstrated by each of the four main characters -- Cyrano, Christian, Roxane, and de Guiche. To begin, the first main character to show courage in the play is Cyrano. Courage is one of the

King Lear, written by Shakespeare is a play that mainly portrays the consequences of flattery and how wrong choices can lead into big issues causes deaths and sufferings. King Lear made his wrong choices by not choosing the wrong heir to his fortunes as well as not listening to his loyal friend, Earl of Kent who was devoted to him. This further lead to The Earl’s banishment. Selfless and true to the king, the Earl disguises as Caius to protect the unwitty king. However, throughout the entire play

Manipulation of Character Character can be broken despite how strongly it is shaped. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello, Othello was a brave Moor who was quick to marry his lover Desdemona. His sinister ensign Iago deceived him into believing his loyal wife had committed adultery. Although Othello believed the alleged accusations, he also gave up his moral character to Iago. Regardless of the lack of trust from Othello, Desdemona did deceive her father prior to the situation. She went against

willingly marrying Paris. This causes her to reveal that she would rather die than marry another man whom she does not love at all; Juliet feels that she would be betraying Romeo if she does. Besides showing how Juliet’s age affects her decisions, Shakespeare also emphasizes how love can be confused with infatuation.

Talking about intertextuality it is very difficult if you don’t know the origins of the stories related to that one. Romeo and Juliet, from Shakespeare, is one example of story that remains in other works. The famous Shakespearean story about a young couple’s tragedy is remarkable, and also the inspiration for different kinds of work. As result, ignoring the similarities between this famous play and other works is almost impossible, firstly because of its renowned recognition, secondly because of

My parents are from Guerrero and I am Chicano, born in the city of Rancho Mirage. Rancho Mirage is where I started my life and have remained locally in the valley. Although, for my parents this is where they decided to settle after giving up cherished belongings such as: their petite taco restaurant, a taxi, and their families. For the first few years my family, which consisted of: my mom, dad, two sisters, brother and me, shared a 2 bedroom apartment in Palm Desert among 2 other families. Shortly

“You’re a blank, a cipher… a zero.” (Albee, 1962, p.18). With these words, Martha the main character in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” showed her husband, George, that he was nothing. Edward Albee, the writer of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” talked mainly about Martha and George who pretend to have different identities just in order not to face reality. Moreover, Arthur Miller, the author of “A View from the Bridge” presented the idea of identity in a different way. Miller used the character

To protest that some fairly improbable people, some people who could not possibly respect themselves, seem to sleep easily enough is to miss the point entirely, as surely as those people miss it who think that self-respect has necessarily to do with not having safety pins in one’s underwear. There is a common superstition that “self-respect” is a kind of charm against snakes, something that keeps those who have it locked in some unblighted Eden, out of strange beds, ambivalent conversations, and

Shakespeare presents death as an inevitable act of life, noting that all that is living must eventually come to an end. Due to “Hamlet” being a Shakespearean tragedy, the theme of death recurs throughout the play. Additionally, Shakespeare can be seen as using revenge as the main motive of a character’s murder, which makes “Hamlet” a revenge tragedy. The tragic nature means that by the end of the play, majority of the characters would have died. In this case, many of the characters have died due

In the film Raging Bull, the main character Jake LaMotta goes through a long and grueling conflict with himself in the search for sanity. The victories and titles that he spends his whole life searching after wind up ruining his life and destroying the relationships he cherished the most. The problem that Jake faces the most is his lack of humility and his personified arrogance, also known as hubris. As Jake’s life and career progress, his inability to control this hubris lead him to rock bottom

The Tragedy of King Richard the Second is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1595-1596. It is the first in a four-part, “tetralogy,” (Bevington, 2014). As a whole, the plays tell the story of the political turmoil in England between 1390 and 1485. The other three plays in this historical chronical are the two parts of Henry IV and Henry V. In part, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second is a play about how King Richard II failed his country through poor leadership. Richard believes he has been

explores the question of whether Shakespeare and his works are still relevant to the culture of today. Shakespeare remains relevant through the themes of love, identity, and death, and relate to the issues and feelings of the modern world. Love can be related to how people act with their partners, mainly regarding sexual love, and can be seen in the innuendoes and scenes Shakespeare used and those used today. Identity can be related to modern times by how Shakespeare used the plot device of having

Courtly love in the medieval romance story of Lancelot (also known as The Knight of the Cart) is the driving force of this famous romance beloved for generations. This proves to be an interesting subject, seeing is a lot of other medieval stories do not focus on love and instead, show it in a rather negative light. This was obviously seen in another medieval story, Njal’s Saga, where not only were marriages arranged and sometimes unwanted by one or both parties, the relationships between men and

Its common knowledge that Shakespeare is one of the best writers in the world. He has created numerous plays with some truly memorable and touching plots, along with a handful of distinguished lead roles. And one of them being Hamlet, Shakespeare 's creation of Hamlet is insane, loving, and determined. Shakespeare appealed to a part of the human mind that isn 't influenced by its innate culture, and this is why many actors have tried their skills on Shakespearean plays, from high-school kids to

Topic: Characterization of Judge Brack through Stage Directions and Dialogue in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler Title: Speech and Stage Direction: Characterization in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler 1. Introduction a) The stage directions in a play can be used to give directions to the actors and illustrate multiple features of characters. b) Henrik Ibsen utilizes this technique, alongside dialogue, to shed light on the characterization in his plays, especially in Hedda Gabler. c) The play tells a tragedy about

Repercussions are natural when one encounters a traumatic incident. Psychological effects are the resultant of this, which makes a person destructive, thus leading them from their utopia to a dystopia. This research paper is to show the consequences of trauma by the application of trauma theory on the play “the Cherry Orchard” by the Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov. This play is about the return of Madame Ranevskaya from Paris after her son and husband died, and how her estate will be sold soon