Comedy Of Errors

In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, two young lovers take their lives after their family feud reignites . A variety of decisions along with circumstance no one person could account for set the story of Romeo and Juliet up to be a tragedy. Many of the decisions in the play are made quickly and while emotions are running high, so frequently they result in bad outcomes. So, the rash and impulsive decisions made by men in Romeo and Juliet create the problems within the play.

We know that Antigone and Ismene lost their father in war, and then their brothers died in battle at the hands of one another. The one brother, Polyneices, was left on the field to die and unburied. This was because Polyneices, decided to fight against Thebes in battle and chose Argos. The brother Eteocles fought for Thebes and Creon. The two sisters are all that is left of Oedipus. Now in the play you feel pity for the two sisters having lost so much at this stage in life and that they have experienced so much death and in such horrible situations.

In the tragedy written by Shakespeare the main characters make many poor decisions due to the fact that they are in an intricate situation. The first problem

This contrasts both Phaedrus’ and Aristophanes’ descriptions of love. She broadly states that “a lover does not seek the half or whole” unless it is “good” because people will even amputate, or separate, part of their own body if diseased (Sym. 205E). Aristophanes argues “love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness” but Diotima explains this cannot be true if the other half is bad, even if it seems to bring wholeness, such as bodies with a temporary veneer of beauty (Sym. 192E). So, love must be explained by separating it to an upwards trajectory, rising towards the concept of good. Otherwise love is only an impermanent “promise” (Sym. 193D). Therefore, Aristophanes’ lack of separation from the concrete cause love to come from incompleteness and a fallen condition (Dutton Lecture). Likewise, Phaedrus’ speech lacks a removal from the present and therefore fails to explain love’s effects, as seen in his Achilles and Patroclus example. To Phaedrus, Achilles still dying after Patroclus passes is love, for “no one will die for you but a lover” (Sym. 179B). But, Diotima claims this love is unhealthy as it fails to represent the abstract notion of beauty. Since beauty is something to be indirectly experienced, it is unmeasurable and instead “preserves”

In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare explores the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Set in the Northern Italian cities of Verona and Mantua, tells the story of Romeo and Juliet and their love for each other, even though their families are enemies. For generations the Capulets and Montagues have been at each others necks over everything, but this does not stop the two star-crossed lovers. Meeting one another at a masquerade ball and falling in love overnight. These two lovers do countless things behind their parents back and keep numerous amounts of secrets from their loved ones. Making multiple decisions without thinking of the consequences leads them to their tragic ending. So,

As human beings, it is in our nature to possess strong emotions and feelings, more specifically, love. Love is the most profound emotion that has the ability to alter our entire perspective as it blinds us and unconsciously dominates and obscures our perspectives, causing us to impulsively react in a way to please our desires. Some actions we get away with scot-free, but that is not always the case, our actions possess certain repercussions that often lead to failure. In the tragedy, “Antigone,” a play written by Sophocles, both the protagonist and the antagonist of the story suffer a great downfall due to their overwhelming emotions. During the play, Creon, the current king of Thebes who obsesses over authority, had previously commanded Polynices

One of Shakespeare's earliest plays (its first recorded performance in December 1594), The Comedy of Errors has frequently been dismissed as pure farce, unrepresentative of the playwright's later efforts. While Errors may very well contain farcical elements, it is a complex, layered work that draws upon and reinterprets Plautine comedy. Shakespeare combines aspects of these Latin plays with biblical source material, chiefly the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Epistle to the Ephesians. While Menaechmi is the most frequently cited classical source for Errors, Plautus' Amphitruo is just as relevant an influence; Shakespeare's treatment of identity and its

“Love always overcomes hate, but love’s effects and hate’s effects are no different in magnitude.” -Anonymous. No one ever doubts the power of love or the power of hate. For as long as time has existed people have loved and people have hated. Strong emotions persuade everyone to act on their inhibition. Everyone wants to be a hero in every situation whether it be trying to save someone or the simple act of finding a winning lottery ticket. These actions are what lead to love overcoming hate even if they are the simplest of acts. The mistake people make is them trying to hard to be the hero. This leads to one traveling great lengths to achieve their goals, but at what cost. Throughout Shakespeare’s most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, his main

(Shakespeare 100). All in all, The Comedy of Errors is more frustrating than

Unlike most Greek tragedies, Antigone is not essentially about the opposing powers of good and evil. Instead, the play demonstrates the conflict between one’s duty towards their family and their country and social expectations. “Antigone presents a conflict between family loyalty and loyalty to the state, between demands of the state and the will of the individual” (MacKay, 166). The king

Because of his insistence that the citizens of Epidamnus are all crooks and that a plot was conspired to take advantage as soon as they arrived off the ship, Menaechmus of Syracuse accepts this explanation as to why everyone knows his name and speaks of a life he is supposedly living with them. This allows for the action of the play to continue, instead of Menaechmus of Syracuse coming to the early conclusion that the people in the town must know of someone who looks identical to him and shares his name, i.e. his long lost twin whom he is in Epidamnus searching for and was talking about only minutes earlier. It is also Messanio who finally puts it all together, realizing the case of mistaken identity that has occurred and reunites the Menaechmus

Does a family always find their way back together and can a family bond be broken? In the Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare he shows how a family comes back together even though the distance and the time spent apart. No matter how far a family bond won’t be broken.

Sophocles first displays the failure of love through the war and deaths of Polyneices and Eteocles. Polyneices, the brother of Antigone and Eteocles, has broken familial ties and gone against his own people, as he is a commander in the Argive army that attacked his home city of Thebes. With this background, Sophocles is able to reveal how anger can be a stronger emotion than even love as the two brothers met “face to face in a matchless rage” (195). Here it is emphasized that love can be overshadowed by rage and greed as both brothers neglected their shared blood and history and instead were motivated by a place of hate as they fought for power. Rage not only overtook filial love between Polyneices and Eteocles on the battlefield, but before this. Eteocles and Polyneices were unable to share the crown after their father Oedipus’ death. The fight for power ultimately led to Polyneices being exiled from Thebes. This fight for the crown functions as a smaller internal war between the two brothers. Both the internal and external wars allow for love to be exposed as fickle. Love is fickle as it can easily be transformed into hate and this is shown when to loving brothers are torn apart by a single quarrel. With love comes strong emotions and when these emotions are transformed to hate, such hate is unconquerable just as “love (is) unconquerable” (224).

Romeo and Juliet, a classic play by William Shakespeare, is known to many as a tragedy. But what makes this play tragic? Audiences favor this story because of the emotions evoked from a tale of love that sees two young souls torn apart. However, Romeo and Juliet when under my own definition of tragedy, does not resemble a tragic play. While the death of Mercutio and the deaths of Romeo and Juliet seem tragic, the story does not show one failing when trying to reach their full potential, instead the audience sees a forbidden love and death as a result, which does not demonstrate tragedy. Instead, Romeo and Juliet face flaws from within their families and society, forcing them to stay apart due to conflict. While both Romeo and Juliet try to reach the goal of being together and fail, the flaws of others cause the conflict, not the flaws of themselves. My definition surrounds the idea that the flaws of oneself leads to his or her demise, meaning that the play misses a key characteristic of the definition of tragedy. Both characters seem to die a “tragic death,” however, their death can only be considered sad or upsetting, especially to the audience. This play instead consists of somber scenes that show aspects of a tragedy, but not enough to place this play in a tragic category in the classic definition or in my own definition because the flaws of the main characters do not cause the fall of the characters as they try to reach their full potential. If a character who fell as a

The Greeks considered tragedy the greatest form for literature.  However, the tragic ends for the characters were not ordained or set by fate, but rather caused by certain characteristics belonging to that person.  Such is the case with the characters of Sophocles' plays Oedipus the King and Antigone.  Oedipus from King Oedipus, and Antigone and Creon from Antigone posses characteristics, especially pride, that caused their tragic ends.  As the play progress, other characteristics appear and further add to the problem to such a point that it is inevitable that it will end in tragedy.  Therefore the tragedies were not a result of a plot by the fates, but rather a result of the