Self Interest, The Enemy Of True Affection

Many films or dramas about love always make me impressed by the power of love. Love can evokes people’s various emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger. Love encourages people to accomplish what they think is impossible or impracticable. In addition, love is an intense and direct feeling that I experiences the most in my life. It is Antigone and Death of a salesman that are the two plays which impress me with the expression of strong love among the roles. The play, Antigone, ends up with tragedy and creates two tragic heroes—Antigone and Creon. Arthur Miller takes advantage of memories, dreams, arguments and conflicts to make up the last day of Willy Loman’s life (Lifcharts.com). Love reflected in the two plays is various, complex and full of tragic feature. Haemon shows his love to Antigone by revolting against his father 's authority and committing suicide; Linda shows her love to Willy by defending him and protecting his American dream, and my friend shows love to his parents by quitting school to support his parents ' company.

These assumptions are clearly present in Shakespeare's work. In Merchant, financial language and romantic language are inextricably linked, suggesting that money is a source of both power and sexual desirability, particularly for males. The opening scene depicts Bassanio asking Antonio for money so that he may woo the beautiful and wealthy Portia. Bassanio is penniless and, it seems, made weak, unattractive, and perhaps less masculine by his poverty.

    Antonio feels closer to Bassanio than any other character in The Merchant of Venice. Our first clue to this is in the first scene when, in conversation with Antonio, Solanio says, "Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, / Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well: / We leave you now with better company" (i. i. 57-59). Once Antonio is alone with Bassanio, the conversation becomes more intimate, and Antonio offers an indebted Bassanio "My purse, my person, my extremest means" (137). We find out later that Bassanio needs money to woo Portia, a noble heiress who Bassanio intends to marry. And though Antonio is not in a position to loan money at the time, he does not disappoint

Envy is often described as psychic tumor, where it can be destructive at times. That temptation of jealousy can overwhelm the most humble of people and ruin not only the life of that person, but the lives around them. This cancer of the character is prevalent throughout the play The Crucible, as many characters become jealous of people around them, and such action of envying not only destroyed the people who succumbed to envy but also the people anywhere near the epicenter. In the play The Crucible, Miller’s use of compare and contrast between Abigail William and Mr. Putnam brings out the similar motive of their desire for power, which is envy. As a result of their lack of will and contentment with the hand they were dealt, many innocent people perished, thus becoming a cautious tale of the dangers of envy.

Selfishness has been the bane of humanity since the beginning of time. Many great civilizations have fallen due to greed. Humans were separated from God by the heinous power of selfishness. Selfishness can tear people apart from one another, and it thrives in every society; the town of Salem was no exception. All throughout Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, characters falsely accused each other to save themselves. In the beginning of the play, Salem was displayed as a perfect and strictly religious town, but the audience soon realized that Salem was just as selfish and disheveled as any other society. As a blanket of hysteria cloaked Salem, friends and family were torn apart by the selfish gestures of others. The Selfish actions of Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, and Judge Danforth led to the deaths of many innocent people.

Throughout The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, there were many complex situations that were displayed. There were many different instances throughout the play of relationship struggles. The multiple characters in the play were all linked somehow through one relationship or another. The central use of the relationship struggles is to make the storyline more complex during the trials and accusations. The relationships change, develop, and manifest themselves in multiple ways.

In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, each character possesses their own unique motivation through different character relationships. Abigail and the girls, Abigail and Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail and John Proctor are proven to have different types of motivation throughout the play. The girls follow Abigail for the sake of fear and the fact that Abigail is more mature than the rest of them. Abigail also inhibits a different type of motivation shown through the hatred and selfishness felt upon Elizabeth Proctor. Lastly, the differences in character motivation are shown through John Proctor, but this time through a more “loving” characteristic that happens to be love itself. Overall Miller shows how each character possesses their own unique motivation through different character relationships.

Via the Historical fiction play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s Red Scare, I can share to you and present examples that support my thesis of human nature being blinded by greed, and the longing for individual wants rather than wanting the success of a greater group. We can see throughout the play that Miller sets up many parallels from his life in the 50’s into his play. Some of which that can be identified being his relationship with his wife and the second one with Marilyn Monroe being a direct parallel to the character John Proctor's marriage with his wife Elizabeth Proctor in the first

Love plays a dominant role behind people’s actions. This is proven in the play called, “The Crucible,” which takes place during the 1600s in the town of Salem. The book, based on the infamous Salem witch trials, illustrates the absurd and chaotic nature of the events which all started with a single love affair. The affair between Abigail and Proctor, paired with Abigail’s desperate desire to take Elizabeth’s place, sparked countless different conflicts.

“People that know they are important, think about others. People that think they are important, think about themselves. ”~Hana F Hansen. In the historical play The crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Parris demonstrates that being self centered is something one should not be proud of.

Jealousy, to William Shakespeare it was a ‘green-eyed monster’, to B. C. Forbes it was a ‘mental cancer’ and J. P. Kennedy even asserted that ‘more men die of jealousy than cancer’. Jealousy is a complicated emotion which is a feeding of resentment against someone because of that person’s success or advantages. It is the worst aspect of human nature that can cause betrayal of trust, obsession and even crimes of passion like murder. This emotion has plagued mankind beginning with Cain and Abel and has continued unabated to the present day. Covetousness played a significant detrimental role in Shakespeare’s play Othello and it’s a root cause of many crimes of passion today.

Interestedly, instead of Shakespeare using the word bond as a way to tie Portia and Bassanio and their undying love and promises. We find Bassanio discovering out about Antonio’s situation in a letter telling Bassanio about his lost ships and Shylocks intentions of taking his pound of flesh. The news incites a since of guilt from Bassanio which prods Portia to offer and pay twenty times the original sum. After reading the letter aloud to Portia she suggests Bassanio go to his friends aid and go back to Venice by his side. (3.2.314)

Shakespeare uses the character, Portia, to display that even when you do love someone you do not always have full trust in them. Portia, despite her love for Bassanio, tested the loyalty and trustworthiness of her husband. She dosesn't know if she can fully trust him to keep the vows and the promises he made, in marrying her and to the ring of their love, in his time of trouble. When Bassanio leaves to try to save Antonio from his debt, Portia begins to talk to Nerissa and hatching a plan: “Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand / That you yet know not of: we'll see our husbands / Before they think of us.” (3.4. 50-61) Through this passage, we see it's clear that Portia does not have complete trust in her husband. She makes a secret plan with

From the very beginning of The Merchant of Venice, we see the comedic element of lovers being separated time and time again. First, Jessica and Lorenzo are not permitted to marry or see each other because of their different religions and her father’s fervent hatred for Christians. “Lorenzo certain, and my love indeed / For who love I so much?” (2.vi.30-31). Jessica and Lorenzo and certain they are in love, despite the distance that separates them. Later, in Act 3, Bassanio must leave Portia to return to Venice where Antonio is waiting to see him one last time. “And then away to Venice to your friend! / For never shall you lie by Portia’s side / With an unquiet soul” (3.ii.317-19). This separation between Bassanio and Portia allows the audience to connect with the irony of these young lovers’ struggle. These separations between lovers lead to another element of comedy--costumes.

Even though some might consider The Merchant of Venice a tragedy, it has always been known to be categorized as a comedy. Comedies are not always plays that generate laughter. They usually involve normal, everyday problems where families are looking for resolution to the problems, often almost suffering a tragedy before they are successful. The comedies always have a happy ending and usually end with couples resolving their issues and falling madly in love, and then getting married to live happily-ever-after (Schnell). The love story of Bassanio and Portia plays an important role in The Merchant of Venice. There are struggles they must overcome to come together. Bassiano’s lack of funds was the first obstacle to overcome in this love story. He had met Portia on an earlier journey to her land and wanted to return to seek her hand in marriage. His dear friend, Antonio, made a bond with Shylock the Jew to secure the funds for Bassanio to travel to Portia’s homeland. If Antonio forfeited the bond, he would owe the Jew a pound of his flesh in payment. It never entered Bassanio’s mind, or Antonio’s either, that the bond would have to be paid in this