Shakespeare vs Dryden

One can hardly argue against Shakespeare’s love affair with classic literature. Within a few pages of his works you are sure to sense an aura of the writings of great, ancient authors, and, of all those authors, Ovid was Shakespeare’s most beloved. The two writers’ connection has been noticed from almost the beginning of Shakespeare's career. Ovid was Shakespeare's master of poetry. Ovid’s influence over Shakespeare’s works is clearly evident in one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragic plays, Romeo and Juliet. Although Shakespeare may have extremely embellished the story, the plot of Romeo and Juliet is extremely parallel to the one in Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe. The two stories share a common theme. And the stories’ conclusion is essentially identical. It is clear to see, apart from Shakespeare’s extra ornate details, that the stories of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are extremely related to each other.

William shakespeare does a great job connecting each and every character to the book.The book has it's own characteristics to the tragedy.the play has it's fair share of love and hate but like every tragedy it dosent fair week for any.3 characters that play integral roles in the tragedy are Friar Lawrence,Tybalt,and the nurse.

In George Frideric Handel’s masterful 18th century opera, Giulio Cesare, one may find many examples of the classic operatic archetype of power, particularly in relation to love and fear in how they are both tools that are oftentimes used to gain power. In this specific opera, Handel heralds the greater power-seizing potency of love when compared to its counterpart-- terror. In this essay, I plan to examine how the Egyptian character Cleopatra utilizes the power of love in order to achieve her own political and personal gains. I shall use text examples from the libretto to show how she triumphs over the darker forces of her enemies, Ptolemy and his great general named Achillas.

The play was predominantly about nine separate acts which were all relatively similar. All acts have distinct backgrounds, but they all involve the two characters striving for true love regardless if the two just met or they have known each other for years. In my opinion, the play went along smoothly and everything was comprehensible, but the only event

Janet Suzman tells the story of how Shakespeare wrote the play about Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Suzman says Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is a horrific story of a formally mighty conqueror who is infatuated with the Queen of Egypt. Antony was so obsessed with Cleopatra and how she led him to his death. (Draycott, 38-44) Suzman said that Cleopatra and Antony had a horrible love story. Schiff tells the story of Cleopatra and Antony very similar to Suzman. However, Cleopatra and Antony’s relationship had its problems. Schiff believed that Antony and Cleopatra had much in common. They were both left out of Caesar’s will. Schiff also tells how

Considered some of the greatest authors in their own genre, William Shakespeare and Li Bo are known as some of the most influential authors of their time. Even though William Shakespeare and Li Bo were born in very different time periods, they still share many similarities in their life and in their works. William Shakespeare was known as a nice guy who loved what he did. Li Bo was known as eccentric and crazy. He was a well known drinker, and was a drunker. William Shakespeare was alive around the late 1500’s and early 1600’s in England and Li Bo was born around the 700’s. William Shakespeare is known for his plays and is considered to be one of the greatest play writers. Li Bo is known

Love can conquer or save us all. The great works of literature often reveal the mysteries of love. Specifically, shakespeare’s comedies always end in marriage, many marriages, marriages that comically examine this powerful force. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Viola shares with the reader the complexities of love; this study will examine Viola’s relationships with the many colorful characters and what these relationships represent about love.

In William Shakespeare’s play Anthony and Cleopatra, Anthony is from the west while Cleopatra is from the east, resulting in a complex and unusual relationship. The principles of east and west are deeply woven into the play. The west, represented by Rome, values the traditional and those who are “brave” and “noble” (Shakespeare 1994: 297). The east, on the other hand, is exotic, having “strange serpents” (Shakespeare 1994: 213), and sexualized, with a queen who can control men’s hearts “by th’strings” (Shakespeare 1994: 246). Introduced by eastern attributes, this sexual theme is pursued throughout the play. For instance, the “sword” (Shakespeare 1994: 199) is commonly used to represent a phallus. I will examine these sexual themes

Shakespeare in Love is a metamorphic representation of Shakespeare’s life and of his play entitled Romeo and Juliet, because there are many changes and distortions of the historical facts. But it doesn’t make the film less; on the contrary it gives a new perspective on Shakespeare’s “lost

Such an assertion--that the danger of Cleopatra's sexuality lies in her Egyptian surroundings--requires further detail here. The Orient represented a strange, but terrifyingly fascinating world to the Elizabethans. While it was decidedly inferior and politically weak, the Orient also held a dangerous mystique. As Lucy Hughes-Hallett attests, poets, playwrights, historians and artists have found the idea of Cleopatra's foreignness, or otherness, a suitable method by which to explain away her dangerous sexuality. In other words, the fact that Cleopatra effectively seduced and influenced two powerful Roman men baffled Western thinkers who could only explain it by attributing it to her foreignness or "otherness." Not surprisingly, Shakespeare succumbs to a similar artistic temptation. In the first ten lines of the play, the surrender of Roman dignity to Egyptian passion is made clear. Philo regretfully tells Demetrius how

For Plutarch peoples actions, however trite, were great indications of a person’s moral character (Plutarch, 1914, p. 225). We can, therefore, assume that Plutarch would have placed great importance on the everyday activities of Cleopatra and Antony in reflecting the character of their relationship. Plutarch wrote 150 years after the events of Cleopatra and Antony and was therefore heavily influenced by Roman views of, not only, the couple themselves but also by Roman’s understanding and expectations of relationships, gender and race.

Love, as an enduring theme in Shakespeare’s work, is often represented in a particular way. Oppositions between passion and reason, romance and reflection, emotion and renitence all facilitate a necessary expressiveness. It tends to result in a carpe diem approach with a focus on intensity and openness, the representation of love and the way lovers interact in the plays is rarely blunt or stale. However, in Antony and Cleopatra a different kind of dynamic emerges. This new dynamic conveys a sense of maturity and could even be described as a lower-key love. The feelings expressed by Antony are without doubt those belonging to a man in love, however they never overwhelm, and this kind of love remains a part of a plurality of voices in the play. In order to achieve a deeper understanding of the subtleties that belong to this representation of romantic love and desire, it is important to analyse and look at the behaviour of the characters in the play; their action, language, and forms of response.

Ben Jonson was an English playwright who in some opinions was better than Shakespeare and is best known for his satiric comedies. Not only did he wright plays but he wrote some that the Queen of England performed in. He went to prison many times in his life yet he was still crowned England's first poet laureate. The purpose of this report is to insight others on the life of Ben Jonson and to show why I believe that Ben Jonson is one of the most interesting poets that ever lived.

This essay is with regards to a statement made on the famous online website, spark notes with regards to the play ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ by William Shakespeare. A critical analysis will be provided both questioning and strongly disagreeing with the statement made by spark notes. Evidence will be provided from the text with further explanation to support claims made within this essay in order to further strengthen the argument being presented.

Throughout Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, readers are constantly thrown in the middle of a battle between Roman and Egyptian values. Antony, a noble warrior for the Romans, is the character that seems to have the most trouble between this dichotomy. He is constantly caught between reason (Rome) and passion (Egypt) and has a difficult time making the transitions. Cleopatra is the character that stays most true to her roots, but begins adopting the other side’s values toward the end of the story. She makes a smoother transition than Antony, which can be attributed to her self-confidence and open-minded spirit. Antony is a constant source of back-and-forth commotion while Cleopatra seems to posses Egyptian qualities until the end of the