Shakespearean characters

Night has been the basis for countless teenage romantic comedies. Aside from regurgitating the same overused plots for blockbuster movies, public figures can be found quoting Shakespeare in their speeches, interviews, and even on tattoos. In fact, Shakespearean themes and details are so embedded within our culture that the original context is frequently overlooked, ignored, and even forgotten. Individuals may use parts of a work to emphasize a point, regardless of…

feel powerless. Meanwhile, others abuse it to gain overbearing power. Significantly in this scene, Claudius discusses the surveillance of Hamlet and manipulates others as espionages to reveal the truth about his apparent erratic behavior. Several characters in this play are also obligated in order to disperse skepticism or reveal truths. Also, other familial complications are displayed in this scene. In Act 3, Scene 1 of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare reveals how…

elements of comedy and tragedy may provide distinctions between the plays, while parallel characters and parallel relationships from each story provides profound similarities…

Originality is a concept which has changed and evolved over hundreds of years. Indeed, the definition of originality, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the “ability to think or express oneself in an independent and individual manner” , has not always been so rigid. In the Elizabethan era the concept of originality was not concerned with whose idea was whose. In fact, originality was all about how the idea was portrayed, for instance, whether it was performed on stage or by other…

Romeo and Tusi transforms a canonical tragedy into a suburban comedy. Using examples from the text, demonstrate how comedy is used to both celebrate and criticise/critique Shakespeare’s play. Oscar Kightley and Erolia Ifopo’s Romeo and Tusi transform the canonical tragedy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a suburban comedy, specifically targeting a Maori and Pacifika demographic. Romeo and Tusi mimic Shakespeare’s dominant themes of the forcefulness of love and the rivalry between two…

Othello is a Shakespearean tragedy with a central theme of, arguably, marriage. Whilst some critics have determined that it is the antagonist, Iago, who must be blamed for the downfall of our tragic hero (suggested by A.C. Bradley), it is easy to argue that without societies support for the marriage, that it was destined to fail. This extract begins with Iago highlighting to Othello how it was ‘unnatural’ for Desdemona to err from her ‘proposed matches’ and to marry him instead. This highlights…

Sir Kenneth Branagh is a well-renowned actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, with some of his better-known works being various adaptations of Shakespearean plays. He is also known for his role as Gilderoy Lockheart in the second installation of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and as the director of Thor, released in 2011. Movie adaptations are usually a hit or miss. Most often, they are a miss in some shape or form for the audience. That is the case for…

Batman’s villain, the Joker. A similarly destructive attitude is festered in the antagonist; Iago of Shakespeare’s play Othello. Iago is motivated by an undeserved hate toward the protagonist, Othello, which leads to chaos and sparks a classic Shakespearean tragedy. Throughout the play, Iago allows jealous suspicion and anger to fuel a hate for the Othello. From Iago’s perspective, he “hate[s] the Moor. My cause is hearted. Thine hath no less reason” (1.3.312). Iago feels this way for a number…

Frederick shows his ruthlessness when he threatens Rosalind; however, the story concludes that Duke Frederick eventually finds his redemption when he converts to Christianity. Lady Macbeth’s suicidal end is much more violent and fitting for a classic Shakespearean tragedy. These antagonists endings show the difference between Shakespeare 's tragedies and comedies. Though the stories are essentially completely different, there are still similarities within them. They are similar in that they both…

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor, characters in Hamlet, and friends of the young Hamlet from university in Germany. Their part in the story begins when they are summoned by King Claudius to spy and report on the “strange behavior” of the prince, and ends when they die in a counterplot set up by Hamlet himself. Their part in the play is brief and comical at best, and even their deaths are given no worthy development or climax, mentioned only at the end of the play. They play a…