“We know what we are, but know not what we may be” spoken by William Shakespeare. An ironic quote written by the man who would become one of the most famous literary figures of all time. Born into the early Elizabethan era, William Shakespeare affected the world around him, and the future. Shakespeare absolutely knew what he was in his time, but had no idea the impact he would make in the upcoming future. William Shakespeare, a revered poet and playwright, has astonished the literary world for years, and will continue to do so for centuries to come. Everyone who has climbed the ladder of success started from the ground. This can also be applied to one of the most accredited, and despised, authors of all time. William Shakespeare has both …show more content…
One of the most recognized poetic elements, iambic pentameter, was exclusively used in Shakespeare’s work. Plays including, but not limited to, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Midsummer’s Night Dream are written in the now immensely popular writing style (Dickinson 1). When discussing Shakespeare’s works, most people realize the shear amount of literary elements he has packed. Known for using multiple similes, metaphors, and rhymes, all in the same stanza, Shakespeare differentiates his work from others. Scholars debate over whether Shakespeare plagiarized the plots in his work, but it is unique to him from the literary elements placed everywhere. There is also the fact that Shakespeare nearly invented his own language. Most of the words written in his plays never were spoken in that era. The English language owes Shakespeare a debt of gratitude for inventing almost 1700 words. Words that we continue to use …show more content…
Some of the most famous phenomenons have been run through with conspiracy theories. Take for example, ‘Area 51’. Anyone who loves to talk about aliens has a new theory about what is at ‘Area 51’. Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster has been argued over for decades with no solutions. Even one of America’s worst events, September 11, was not spared from theorists. William Shakespeare is no different from the rest. After the 1800’s, wild theories begun to arise, mostly pertaining to the idea that Shakespeare ever existed. The first known doubt of Shakespeare’s authorship started in 1848, and it all stemmed from a parody that a group of men started, only to see if it would catch fire. Little did they know how big that fire was going to
Instead of Macbeth being Thane of Glamis, he is a high-class chef of a well-renowned restaurant in the middle of London. The environment in Shakespeare Retold has changed from a Shakespearean era to the 21st century. Both Macbeth and Joe have high positions that will eventually lead to their downfall. Both the play and the film emphasize on the same values and they demonstrate how ambition and greed drive a human to their insanity and madness. For example, in Shakespeare Retold, Joe was introduced as a kind, jovial person who as a chef himself taught his fellow cooks how to properly make food. His desire to secure his throne, in this case, the main chef, made him disoriented and was breaking plates, and burning food, something he wouldn't do before. The loving aura changed and it was just filled with chaos, in which the environment was not a place where his workers wanted to be. The change of scenery from the kitchen to an ominous night was effective in such that viewers could see that it meant something bad was about to happened. Lastly, at the end of the film, the kitchen in a highly renowned restaurant was not as luminous as before. The lights were turned off by Joe, and this is where we could see that he was beginning to shut himself down.
Michael Hoffman’s 1999 film version of Shakespeare's midsummer night’s dream was able to modify the audience experience of the play. Michael Hoffman had successfully turned the play into a film and was able to show a visible expression of the characters to the audience. He had also made some changes, like the settings and made his version modernized. Though the film was based on the Shakespeare’s play, the audience’s experience is still different.
Have you ever wondered why Shakespeare uses so many descriptive words that could really be said in one? Or why some characters speak in rhyme and sometimes not? Shakespeare writes in this way to show how the characters feel through the rhythmic and descriptive words that they use. How the characters speak also shows how sincere and loving they are. Shakespeare had a way of writing that informed us about the characters and what we needed to know about them and also makes it interesting to read.
Although many Shakespearean plays are very similar to one another, two stand out from the rest as sharing a great deal in common. Specific, solid parallels can be drawn between Shakespeare's plays "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet." The themes and characters are remarkably similar in many aspects. Firstly, both plays highlight the stereotypical young lovers - Hermia and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Romeo and Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet." Secondly, both plays are very ambiguously categorized. By this I mean that each could have been a tragedy just as easily as a drama (with a few minor modifications). By definition, a tragic play is a play in which the main character has a fatal flaw that leads to
“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare and “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens are two classic pieces of literature with the most unforgettable stories and characters. Two characters included within these books are Madame Defarge of “A Tale Of Two Cities” and Lady Macbeth of “Macbeth” ,both posing as prevailing female characters. Madame Defarge has been created as a stong but unchanging character, whereas Lady Macbeth was formed as a stong but compelling character. Though these characters may be portrayed differently, they are developed the same way, through the same technique. In the books, “A Tale Of Two Cities” and “Macbeth”, the most common way the two characters, Lady Macbeth and Madame Defarge, were characterized was their attitudes and how their perspectives changed with given circumstance throughout the book. Though the two have traits on the opposite spectrum they both were developed the same way.
There are more than enough examples from Macbeth and Great Expectations to prove that “subversion of gender roles,” a term that describes someone acting in a way that is not expected from those of their said gender, is evident in both writing pieces. There are a number of connections between the women of the play and novel; this can be seen in their stern, powerful and leader-like and always changing personalities that a number of female characters share. For instance, Miss Havisham’s burning hatred for men that she implemented into Estella 's mind, to Lady Macbeth’s level of ambition to have her husband become king. Others include similarities in levels of knowledge, even though they were considered “commoners” on a part of the social ladder where a lack of knowledge is expected, and examples of how they use their high levels of knowledge to their advantage. This can also be considered evidence of subversion of gender roles; women at the time were not expected to be knowledgeable by society as they are now. Other connections would be based on the topic of visual appearance overall, with connections to how they portray themselves to other characters and the reader throughout. The women of these two works show an exceptionable amount of power, control and capability of holding a family together a number of times throughout the novel and the play. A leading factor in this is their personalities- they spoke their mind, and were not afraid of the consequences. which happen to be
Comparing a play to its movie adaptation is something that is hard to do since there is no tangible way a person can capture the original then change it to make the movie version of it up to par to the original. From the original play of A Midsummer’s Night Dream that was created by Shakespeare in the movie version of it created by Michael Hoffman, there are many similarities and differences that are in the movie some are very stark while others are very subtle differences.
Comparing Two Film Versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Introduction The two films we have been asked to compare are both different versions of ' A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The first was a big screen movie, by Michael Hoffman and made in 1998. This film was set in the 19th
To start from the beginning of the controversy, the earliest actual documentation of such findings began in 1785 by an oxford scholar named James Wilmot. It was here that when James came up “empty-handed” of any evidence of Shakespeare’s plays did he come to the conclusion that it had to have been someone else and that someone was Sir Francis Bacon. James however never reported anything and on his deathbed actually destroyed his writings, but not before telling a fellow scholar, James Corton Cowell, his findings. Cowell would leave and make a presentation to the Ipswich Philosophic Society, and so began the greatest mystery of whether William Shakespeare was a famous playwright or a fraud taking credit for the work of someone else.
In Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, the plays performed reiterate main ideas found within the play. Both plays hold a play within them, in Hamlet actors reenact the scene in which King Claudius murders Hamlet’s father, and in Midsummer Night’s Dream actors act out the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Each show main ideas experienced in the play and show the audience their prior experiences, which evoke different emotions.
Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare's plays, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "Romeo and Juliet". These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of 'lovers', Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few simple changes. A tragic play is a play in which one or more characters has a moral flaw that leads to his/her downfall. A comedic play has at least one humorous character, and a successful or happy ending. Comparing these two plays is useful to find how
Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.
Shakespeare has influenced the way we speak, express ourselves, and enriched the English language is many ways. “Shakespeare introduced nearly 3,000 words into the English language.” (Anderson) Our vocabulary is full of phrases or words from Shakespeare. Without Shakespeare, we would not express ourselves the way we do. “He gave us uniquely vivid ways in which to express hope and despair, sorrow and rage, love and lust.”(Kurlak) The words Shakespeare created are used everyday. “Many words and phrases from his plays and poems have become a common part of everyday speech.” (Popova) Words like addiction, amazement, generous, gloomy, gossip are all commonly used words were all created by and used in Shakespeare 's plays. The list of everyday words from Shakespeare is much larger with words like advertising, blanket, outbreak, and thousands more. “Without him, our vocabulary would be just too different.”(Harris ) As well as words, many of
One of literature’s most distinguished plays, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, was written by the highly acclaimed William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an individual of many talents; among those talents were poetry, acting, and playwriting. During his life, Shakespeare wrote a total of thirty-seven plays, one-hundred-seventy-four sonnets, and invented more than seventeen thousand of the words used in current English. A great number of those plays and sonnets have been translated in over eighty languages, some of which include Chinese, Uzbek, and Bengali. William Shakespeare’s works have been so widely used in the English language that he has become the second most quoted author in English. Because of Shakespeare’s great success, The Tragedy of
Sometimes there are holes in the understanding and knowledge we have of things. To help us understand, we try and patch those holes with what are called conspiracy theories. William Shakespeare's life is one big quilt filled with holes. People all over the world have come up with conspiracy theories to try and fill these gaps in his life. Some are made with educated guesses while others are just wild theories made by people who just happened to stumble upon William Shakespeare. The different theories people have fabricated has caused a major controversy over the authorship of William Shakespeare's famous plays.