King Lear Masculinity Analysis

Shakespeare’s and Pacino’s texts both depict Richard’s downfall due to his lack of conscience and virtues in his ambitious quest for power to reflect the beliefs of a Providential and secular society respectively. As such, Shakespeare's use of stichomythia and rhetorical question “Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won?” accentuates the lack of compassion and morality in Richard’s persuasive abilities to emotionally manipulate Anne to accept him as a suitor in his path to attain greatness. With Richard’s gratification of his achievement, Shakespeare illustrates the tyrant within Richard as his moral conscience diminishes due to over-ambition, hence reflecting the harsh Machiavellian politics in the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s underlying message on over-ambition is further exemplified through the dissolution of Richard’s unjust reign and mental stability through the death imagery in “It is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. What do I fear? Myself?”. Richard’s unstable mind in the ghosts’ precession, encapsulates Shakespeare’s message of the ramifications of sacrilegious acts whilst asserting God’s divine retribution on any form of theomachy ambition. In accordance to Shakespeare’s illustration of the fall of man due to ambition,

    According to many, Shakespeare intentionally portrays Richard III in ways that would have the world hail him as the ultimate Machiavel.  This build up only serves to further the dramatic irony when Richard falls from his throne.  The nature of Richard's character is key to discovering the commentary Shakespeare is delivering on the nature of tyrants.  By setting up Richard to be seen as the ultimate Machiavel, only to have him utterly destroyed, Shakespeare makes a dramatic commentary on the frailty of tyranny and such men as would aspire to tyrannical rule.

A prominent and permeating theme in Macbeth is the roles and characteristics of masculinity and femininity. Throughout the play Shakespeare presents the audience with strong and sometimes conflicting views of these gender roles. What exactly defines being a man or a woman? How does an individual’s grasp of these roles effect their actions? Shakespeare shows that a clear and accurate understanding of the concept of masculinity is of critical importance in the success of a ruler. In particular, he illustrates how Macbeth’s acceptance of a perverted, violent view of masculinity leads his kingdom into chaos and turmoil, and leads Macbeth to his inevitable demise. Moral order can only be restored

To establish the sinister intentions of Richard the actor, Shakespeare makes reference to his moral and physical impediments that leave him cursing “I that am not shaped for sportive tricks…I that am curtailed…”. Through the subtle use of anaphora and repetition of ‘I that am’, which is fleshed out by a definitive tone, the audience is made aware of how Richard is led ostensibly “to prove a villain” and thus, adopt a disguise. Moreover, Richard’s theatricality is stressed as he embarks as a ‘master’ of his own fate, for he perceives himself as “subtle, false, and treacherous”. His sinister intentions are exemplified by the use of tricolon, evocative word choice and short sentence patterning that create a sharp staccato effect. These intentions allow Shakespeare to subtly resonate Richard with the Vice from the medieval morality plays as well as the Renaissance Machiavelli who actively sought power, caused mischief, practised deceit and cynically gloats over his success. Moreover, Richard’s acting allows him to confide in his audience as he is paradoxically honest about his dishonesty, whilst also encouraging his audience not to detest him, but rather, take delight in his cleverness as the ‘director’ of the play. Thus, the opening soliloquy of Richard III offers an insight into how Richard manipulates the

Historically, roles of men and women were established to ensure the power of the head of the household. In the early centuries, the head of the household was always male. Shakespeare reflects and at times supports the English Renaissance stereotypes of women and men and their various roles and responsibilities in society. In Macbeth, Shakespeare supports this idea by developing the constant theme of power through masculinity. The idealistic role of men in society goes along with the idea that significant power results in higher ranking in the social hierarchy of this time period.

Alternative characters in the play contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's twisted perception of a man by allowing their emotions and not giving in to traditional gender roles. When taking a look at masculinity in Macbeth, MacDuff’s is an aforementioned character. Shakespeare gives MacDuff phrases, which contrast the misguided ways of Macbeth and his Lady, and also show that there is hope in masculinity. It is obvious that MacDuff is Shakespeare's ideological adaptation of a real man. MacDuff knows himself and he performs his duties, as he knows he must and settles his feelings with the stability a man needs. As he is told to take the news of their murders “like a man.” He retorts, “I shall do so, / But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.

“King Lear”, a play by Shakespeare tells us how kingship and power or the loss of power are expressed. Lear, king of Britain decides to retire and shares his kingdom between his daughters; he later discovers what it is like to lose the power and authority that came with responsibilities. In the play, power is related to flattery, appearance and anger.

At the beginning of “King Lear,” an authoritative and willful protagonist dominates his court, making a fateful decision by rewarding his two treacherous daughters and banishing his faithful one in an effort to preserve his own pride. However, it becomes evident during the course of the tragedy that this protagonist, Lear, uses his power only as a means of projecting a persona, which he hides behind as he struggles to maintain confidence in himself. This poses a problem, since the audience is prevented from feeling sympathy for the king. Shakespeare’s ironic solution is to allow Lear’s progressing madness to be paired with his recognition of truth, thereby forcing Lear to shed his persona, and

Macbeth's primary wellspring of frailty was his better half Lady Macbeth questioning his grit. Indicated when she utilized her appealing approaches to inspire Macbeth to execute Duncan, "When you durst do it, then you were a man;/And be far beyond the man" (1.7.49-51). Macbeth turned into his own adversary when he attempted to demonstrate his masculinity to his significant other and executed Duncan. Subsequently of his weakness of his absence of masculinity, Macbeth's spirit couldn't be cleaned once more. Macbeth demonstrated to his significant other that he was a "man" however the consequence of killing the ruler was the start of the deceptive activity of Macbeth's spirit on account of the feeling of force he had. Macbeth saw his activities

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, there is a big gap between masculinity and femininity. Gendered roles in the play influence the plot by showing who has the most dominant and powerful positions in the story, which is Lady Macbeth’s character. Of course, a reader would think that at the time that the play was written, the men would be strong and tough and the women just be hanging around taking care of kids. Well, there is a mixed answer for that, especially for Lady Macbeth’s character, who begins the play by asking to be “unsexed.” After reading the play, Lady Macbeth had a more dominant position, as she commands Macbeth into committing the crimes and taking control of every situation possible. Men like Macbeth, Macduff, and Malcom,

The masculine meets the feminine through a series of transformations since the beginning of the shipwreck of Viola. It is crucial to remember that female parts were traditionally played by male actors, therefore when Viola was cross-dressed and becomes the character Cesario, the actor would just need to quickly remove his costume. Feste says “four negatives makes two affirmatives” (5.1. 19). Not only does Viola amalgamate the two genders, she somewhat denies it as well and she pretends she is a man who has been castrated, which is Cesario. Viola’s original name is directly connected to her borrowed name which is Cesario. Even though Viola is symbolic for both males and females, she is neither a male or a female. However, she comes off as

In Elizabethan English, society was a rigid patriarchy, as women were revered as the “weaker sex” both physically and emotionally. A woman’s place resided solely in the home birthing children. Men held the power, as they were the breadwinners and possessed political rights. Likewise, author William Shakespeare plays into these gender roles because of his audience. In his play Macbeth, he portrays one of his lead characters, Lady Macbeth, as wielding the power over her husband and occupying the masculine half of the relationship; she is perceived as the exception. However, Shakespeare is essentially arguing that men are meant to masculine and women are meant to feminine; it is the natural order of things. Lady Macbeth’s misplaced masculinity lead to her grisly downfall.

Shakespeare adapts these tenants to construct a power thirsty character. Consequently, while the London elite was introduced to these ideals, Shakespeare shaped the overall plot of the play to exemplify the discussed the power quest introduced by Machiavelli. This results in Richard’s actions that lead him to kill his brother and manipulate his family into getting the throne.

Richard II is an authoritative and greedy king of England, and he is living in a period of transition that medieval knights who are swearing total loyalty to a king has been disappearing and an aristocracy starts to gain a power for their own good. However, Richard II keeps believing the power of kingship, and he also is too confident himself. He overestimates his authority and power; furthermore, he ignores the periodical change. Therefore, he speaks confidently how firm his position as king is to the people in Wales, but his attitude changes when he suffers a defeat by Henry Bolingbroke that he

A general finish of most pundits is that Richard II is a play about the affidavit of a "frail and feminine" ruler. That he was a feeble ruler, will be yielded. That he was a mediocre individual, won't. The understanding to Richard's character and inspiration is to see him as a man reliably acting his way through life. Richard was a man who held extraordinary love for show and function. This peculiarity positively drove him to settle on choices as lord that were poor, and in actuality a maladroit ruler. Notwithstanding this imperfection in character, Richard could be seen as a clever, wise individual, yet illsuited for his acquired occupation.