Free Essays on Shakespeare to Get Inspired & Learn by Example

English

“By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.” This quote from the play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare depicts the whole idea of the duality of the protagonist’s inner world. In this essay, I would like to analyze the inner and outer travelling of the main character of this play, the reasons for his way and the consequences for him and for his surroundings. By the example of Macbeth, we shall look through the problems of travelling character, which main aim is to find himself through the way of either constructive endeavor, or of destruction.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

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Like all of Shakespeare’s plays, there is a common element that connects each play. In the plays, “Hamlet” and “King Lear,” the matter of madness is a major theme. Shakespeare shows the characters as they ease into feigned and true madness. The characters Lear, Edgar, Hamlet, and Ophelia all display signs of madness in the two plays. Lear’s madness is gradual in its descent, while Hamlet feigns his madness. Ophelia represents female madness. The stages of madness that she experiences are similar to that of Lear and Hamlet. Ophelia is struck by the actions and behavior of Continue reading...

Our reality relies on the balance of charm, influence, fortitude, and sometimes luck to be prosperous.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the skill of persuasion is used as a method of personal advancement that results in deadly consequences. Macbeth convinces himself and other individuals to pursue immoral acts because of his own ambitions to become the King of Scotland.  Through the witches’ premonitions and Macbeth’s vision of the dagger, Macbeth believes he will become king and begins to act to make these visions come true. Macbeth’s largest provoker is his spouse, Lady Macbeth, who exposes his weaknesses and Continue reading...

Analysis of Macbeth’s soliloquy “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”

“Nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content.” This line from William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” describes the inner world and emotional experience of its characters. Shakespeare is famous for his characters’ unmasking soliloquies through which they depict their emotions and fears. Macbeth’s soliloquy “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” exposures his absolute devastation and ruin, though his strength of mind is not broken. This monologue had influenced his follow-up actions, which changed a possible denouement of the play. In this essay, Macbeth’s reaction and its style will be investigated by the example Continue reading...

Gender roles are consistently changing in society. Whereas women in Western society today have the opportunity to make their own choices, including their own career, who they will marry, and whether to have kids, this was not true in Shakespeare’s Othello. Women were property men were allowed to abuse. Men were expected to act certain ways as well, by being the strong warrior. While the play speaks to gender stereotypes in a way only Shakespeare could, the characters Othello and Desdemona both defy gender roles, and yet manage to fit them perfectly.
The character of Othello is what Continue reading...

The William Shakespeare play Hamlet has often been the object of much discussion among critics and literary scholars; while most consider it one of the greatest plays ever written, T.S. Eliot himself criticizes the play in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems.” His central issue, in essence, is that it lacks an appropriate objective correlative – namely, a personification of the emotional state of the character in the form of “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events” (Eliot). Eliot attempts to argue that Hamlet has no objective correlative, and therefore the play fails to convey Shakespeare’s Continue reading...

Despite the fact that the world depicted in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is unequivocally a masculine world, the female characters Ophelia, the lover Hamlet, the prince of Denmark and the male protagonist, and Gertrude, Ophelia’s mother, are significant characters and contribute to the meaning of the play as a whole. These female protagonists retain significance because the males portrayed in the play do not fully understand them. Prototypical tragic heroes are often ascribed a brand of masculinity that is predicated on and constructed around a plethora of fears and anxieties regarding maternal corporeality. Indeed, both Ophelia and Gertrude Continue reading...

1. In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Claudius kills his brother King pouring poison into his ear during his sleep in the garden. Prince Hamlet learns this from his father’s Ghost: “With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,/ And in the porches of my ears did pour/ The leperous distilment”(1.5.62). Hamlet asks actors to play the scene of his father’s murder during the play before the King, the Queen and court. He wants to see Claudius reaction to prove his guilt.
The symbolic meaning of pouring poison into someone’s ear is telling lies and Continue reading...

William Shakespeare’s early plays were published seven years after his death, in 1623 (“The First Folio of Shakespeare”). The Folio edition included thirty-six plays and consisted of a compilation by Shakespeare and two of his contemporaries, Henry Condell, and John Heminges. Of these, the plays were categorized into three primary groups, tragedies, comedies, and the histories, also referred to as the ‘English history plays.’

What is a Shakespeare history play?

Historic plays date back to Athenian theater, when historical facts merged with mythical elements (Colette Hemingway). Shakespeare’s historical plays, although primarily based on historical information, used considerable poetic license. Shakespeare’s earlier plays Continue reading...

Introduction

Hereditary kinship was one of the main causes of chain deaths and murders in Shakespeare. Kinship could only change hands on the death of the sitting king and the immediate heir would be his son. In the story of hamlet, we are encountered with one of the strategies that were used by the king’s relatives to transfer kinship to a different family through murder. The murder was done in a clever way that will not be suspicious and at the same time prompt revenge. However as it happens, the late king appears in form of a ghost and Continue reading...