Honor And Bloodline In Two Plays Of The 17th Century

Introduction Paragraph. Romeo and Juliet with the elizabethan era language and its separation between the two families. “Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife.” Romeo and Juliet with the elizabethan era language and its separation between two families.

Many people believe that Shakespeare wrote his own plays and many people do not. The author of article Read claims, "Some of Shakespeare's plays took place outside of London but Shakespeare never traveled outside of London. Shakespeare only had a few legal documents with his handwriting and his plays were written by a different hand. Also people say that the plays was wrote by a scholar and there is no proof that Shakespeare ever attended school" (Fraser). People who do not believe it was Shakespeare who wrote the plays think it was Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or Edward de Vere. So the real question is: did Shakespeare really write his own plays or did someone else? It is Edward de Vere that wrote Shakespeare.

It is undeniable that intense passion permeates Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. Yet on a closer examination it is also evident that the characters, do not always comply with the expectations placed upon them either by society itself or the authority figures in the play. This can be seen in the flouting of Prince Escales’ edicts, we see it in Friar Lawrence’s unorthodox methods that go against the societal expectations of a member of the church, as well as in Juliet’s refusal to respect her parent’s expectations and authority.

Incest-- sexual relations between people who are too closely related to marry each other. Incestuous marriage became a debatable topic in the 1600’s, and is an evident part of Shakespeare’s playwrights. Many of his characters were involved in incest throughout the plots. William Shakespeare alludes to his disagreement with incest in many of his playwrights. Over half of Shakespeare’s playwrights involve an incestuous relationship that leads to death, betrayal, or torturing of the mind.

Honor is one of those concepts that is seldom defined. One’s reputation is based on his or her honor, integrity, honesty, and purity. William Shakespeare’s Henry IV is a one of his many plays that deal with the varying ideas of honor, as well as issues of courage, loyalty, and ambition, interposing examples of dishonor, weakness, and the deceitful plots among both the drunkards and noblemen. Shakespeare utilizes suggestive metaphors to create illusions, imagery, and to reinforce the different views of the major issues people were faced with in his time and in ours. His plays often focus on the imagery, either on some obvious important symbol, or some image pattern that recurs throughout the work. Readers are

The discourse of “incest” is considered almost universally as taboo and so is the study of the phenomena of sexual relations between closely related individuals in its diverse manifestations. Literary texts at length have tried to explore incest as social and psychological deviance but the discussion moves to the margins of the narrative into unspoken or rather “unspeakable” territory. The mainstream discourse prevents the writers from representing and speaking about the theme of incest explicitly. It remains restricted to a marginal space and can be understood only through a deep exploration of the individual characters and the narrative style of the text.

Romeo and Juliet, one of William’s Shakespeare most famous classic works, is a heart-wrenching tale which is composed of passionate love and anger. It is a timeless piece of literature that has lasted to this century. The beautiful story is set in the remote town of Verona. This play recounts a tale of two star-crossed lovers, forbidden to pursue their inescapable love due to the long history of a violent family feud. Passion is strongly represented in Romeo and Juliet’s undying romance. As the story continues, passionate and uncontrolled anger is clearly expressed, fuelled by the noxious hatred of the family’s feud, intensifying as the plot progresses.

The play Antigone composed by Sophocles relays the dispute between Antigone and Creon, two tragic heroes, and their opposing philosophies on honor. Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, fell on separate sides of the battlefield. Fighting for Creon’s kingdom, Eteocles is to receive a proper, honorable burial. While Polynices, for the rebels, “ is to be left unburied, left to be eaten by dogs and vultures” (131). Although both authority and family are present, the reader can interpret that to Sophocles, family holds more importance over authority.

     When I began my research for this paper, I did not have a good understanding of the term "Renaissance".  Therefore, I thought that it was a good idea to clarify on this before I tried to learn about what family life was like at that time, and I also thought it might be interesting to look at Shakespeare's family.

In Shakespeare’s play, “Henry IV Part 1”, the concept of honour plays a huge role in the characters. Shakespeare’s presents the concept of honour through the characters like Falstaff and Hotspur to give readers a reflection on individual’s personality and values. For Hotspur, honour feelings relate to commitment towards his chivalric duty on the battlefield, an obsession about reputation and good name. Whereas, Falstaff views on honour are totally opposite. Falstaff, a coward man lack the concept of honour.

In Henry IV, Part One Shakespeare revels in the opportunity to suggest the idiosyncracy of character through his command of a wide range of both verse and prose. As a result the play is full of rich and different character parts (Wells 141). Two in particular, Falstaff and Hotspur, hold diverse beliefs concerning the main theme of the drama, honor. In Shakespeare’s time, honor was defined as the special virtues which distinguish those of the nobility in the exercise of their vocation–gallantry in combat with a worthy foe, adherence to the accepted code of arms, and individual loyalty to friends, family, and comrades in arms (Prior 14). Throughout the play, honor plays an important role in

“Honour” In Shakespeare’s play, “Henry IV Part 1”, the concept of honour plays a huge role in the characters. Shakespeare’s presents the concept of honour through the characters like Falstaff and Hotspur to give readers a reflection on individual’s personality and values. For Hotspur, honour feelings relate to commitment towards his chivalric duty on the battlefield, an obsession about reputation and good name. Whereas, Falstaff views on honour are totally opposite. Falstaff, a coward man lack the concept of honour.

Constance Bouchard, the author of Those of My Blood, contrives a well-organized text defining five major ideas that provide the basis of her argument throughout the book. Bouchard clearly examines primary and secondary sources finding conclusive evidence that most of the nobility was emphasized by the male line, however, this does not eliminate women from pedigrees. She also includes in her thesis father-son inheritance was not well-established until the eleventh or twelfth century. She generates her arguments solely based on the role of “family” and questions the origins of old versus new nobility. She continues in the following context by associating women’s functions within the nobility, as well as, political changes in family structure,

In Shakespeare's time, the English lived with a strong sense of social class -- of belonging to a particular group because of occupation, wealth, and ancestry. Elizabethan Society had a very strict social code at the time that Shakespeare was writing his plays. Social class could determine all sorts of things, from what a person could wear to where he could live to what jobs his children could get. Some families moved from one class to another, but most people were born into a particular class and stayed there. There was a chance of being granted a title by the crown. This was uncommon at the time and a relatively new thing for Europe where ancestry always defined nobility.

Family is meant to care for each other, love each other unconditionally, and support each other. Of course, as any holiday at home can prove, complete support is not always possible. Sometimes family members hurt each other and even, in worst-case scenarios, kill each other over issues as important as protecting another or as petty as fighting over a boy. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and The Winter’s Tale, if family members operate with selfish motives, they hurt the hero and contribute to his fall; but if the family supports each other with only love, the hero can redeem himself from his fall and even succeed in finding lasting happiness.