Shakespeare's plays

writings that someone with little knowledge of his work could easily recognize it. Shakespeare’s signature is his use of the tragic hero: A person of nobility with several redeeming qualities that inevitably meets his or her own destruction due to a judgment error or character flaw. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the tragic hero in “The Tragedy of Hamlet” exemplifies his tragic flaw through three main scenes; The play within a play, Claudius in prayer, and his escape from death in England which…

Shakespeare was known as one of the worlds most notorious play writers. Shakespeare wrote so many plays in many different types of theatre. Shakespeare is known to most for a few specific plays/stories that he authored. To name a few of his works there is Julius Cesar, Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest, Midsummer Nights Dream, and Hamlet. Specifically speaking Shakespeare liked to write about tragedies and comedies. One of his most famous plays was Hamlet and it still is. In Hamlet there are many…

In the Shakespearian play ‘Hamlet’, the portrayal of madness is one of the driving themes, which widely affects all characters and the main plot. The representation of madness is not only complex, but was cleverly planned out, as the madness between the characters are linked. Because of how intricate the play was written, there is much speculation to be made. There is a debate in the audience over whether Hamlet was truly mad or not - something that will likely never get a definite answer as…

Skepticism of Shakespeare's Authorship of His Plays Over the years, countless people have expressed doubt as to William Shakespeare being the true author of all of his works. These doubts are as old as his plays. Henry James, an American author, once said, "I am haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the biggest and the most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world.” Alternately, an author by the name of Calvin Hoffman was certain that Shakespeare was very likely "the…

Hamlet is subversive at the beginning and middle of Shakespeare’s play because he pushes back on various intersectional forces, such as gender, class and religion. Although he is subversive for the majority of the play, he inevitably gives in to these intersectional forces and becomes subservient to them. Shakespeare shows us different characters such as Fortinbras and Laertes, who exemplify what the typical roles look like for their gender and social class. Observing these characters, we…

Downfall In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is responsible for the downfall of his own actions despite the influence of others. Macbeth follows the story of Macbeth as he deals with the consequences of killing King Duncan. Macbeth is responsible for the downfall of the play because he has thoughts of killing King Duncan, he kills Banquo, and lastly when he thinks that Macduff cannot hurt him he still makes plans to kill him. As the play progresses, Macbeth…

How Macbeth Changed Throughout the Shakespeare play Macbeth, the main character changes over the course of five acts. In the beginning, Macbeth could be considered a hero, following his duty as a soldier and killing people for the sake of his king. Yet after meeting the three witches, whose prophecies would eventually lead him to murder King Duncan, he changes. Throughout each act, Macbeth 's character gets darker and darker, going from someone who only killed when it was required of him to…

Imagine someone pushes a snowball down a hill as it rolls down the steep hill someone else give it an extra push. Who's fault is it when the snowball, massive in size, hits a pedestrian and injures them? The one who initially pushed the snowball down the hill or the one who gave it the extra push? This is what happens in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the witches gave the initial push to Macbeth while Lady Macbeth gave an extra push all leading to the murder of many. Before all of this,…

century Scotland, and his ambition to become king which ultimately leads to his demise. Macbeth is seen as a character with numerous weaknesses throughout the tragedy but, he is also seen as a character with distinct strengths at particular parts of the play. These strengths and weaknesses acutely affects the credibility of Macbeth’s actions in that he is seen as character incapable of overcoming difficult moral situations and as a character who is easily influenced by others. One way that…

Regardless of the betrayal Hamlet constantly complains about, a majority of the pain he experiences is self-inflicted. Written at the beginning of the 15th century, “Hamlet” coincides with the Renaissance’s heightened interest in human nature by diving into Hamlet’s profound mindset. In, “Hamlet”, Shakespeare crafts Hamlet to be paralyzed with existentialism in order to show a more adolescent side of him struggling to take action. Hamlet’s soliloquies are great tools to peer into what Hamlet is…