Essay on The Fool in William Shakespeare's As You Like It

Deceit and trickery play a huge part in the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Deception is a key theme in the play, it also moves the plot along. Trickery and deception is used in the love stories of couples Hero and Claudio, and Benedick and Beatrice, with opposite results. This play demonstrates two different kinds of deceit: the kind whose only purpose is to cause trouble, and the kind that is used to form a good outcome. In the relationship of Hero and Claudio, deception nearly succeeds in breaking them apart forever, while in the case of Benedick and Beatrice, it brings them closer together.

-Ironically, Lear truly is the fool in this story, and even more ironically the Fool is one of the wisest characters.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare "Much Ado About Nothing" in fact has a great deal to say about love and marriage. What is Shakespeare trying to tell us about relationships between men and women? Compare the play's treatment of love with that in "Silas Marner" In "Much Ado About Nothing" there are many different forms of love and relationships that range from youthful infatuation to parental love. Shakespeare makes many comments about men and women and shows the audience a variety of both romantic and platonic relationships.

“better a witty fool, than a foolish wit” (1.5.327). Here, Shakespeare uses Feste to articulate his

Complete mastery of a language is challenging for most people, but if one does master it, it can be useful in life. However, it is not in the case for Cyrano, the protagonist in the famous comedy, Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand. Cyrano is a French soldier who can create figurative language with a blink of an eye and De Guiche, Cyrano’s colonel, is also a witty person, but is not respected. In this play, Rostand argues that a person with the power of wit cannot conceal their own insecurities.

Thus, the English translations were insufficient because nuances in French meaning help develop the play’s excess in many of its most central scenes. Ambiguities and connotations, which sometimes go beyond what was possible in English, allow for simultaneous decadence in simplicity — much significance found on occasion in only one term — and decadence in meaning. In the original text, many words become integral to the play due to their second and entirely separate meanings which add a whole other reading that is largely inaccessible for non-French readers. These secondary meanings lend themselves thematically to the play’s profligacy; and

Concentrating on Mercutio’s third sentence here beginning, “He fights as you sing prick- / song…” this paper will explore how various linguistic devices, including metaphor, a number of rhetorical figures, and parody come together in this effusive and highfalutin description of Tybalt’s fighting style to convey important information about Mercutio’s character, Tybalt’s fighting style, and fashions in fencing, ultimately attesting to Shakespeare’s impressive ability to manipulate language in order to create layered meaning.

“Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a

William Shakespeare was a very talented man known for his various works of literature. His works include poems, plays, and sonnets. His works are then broken down into tragedies, comedies, and histories. Shakespeare left this world centuries ago, but his writings continue to live throughout the world today. He has greatly impacted the world of literature and his existence will forever be remembered.

Act one, scene two takes place in the “presence chamber” of the palace. The archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Ely convince Henry to go to war for his rightful claim to the French throne. One of the strongest reasons for him to claim the French throne was that Henry’s great-great-grand mother named Isabella was French. She was supposed to become the queen of France but because of the “Salic” law she could not be crowned. The “Salic” law meant that ladies were not allowed to become rulers of the country. The archbishop of Canterbury encourages the king in the quote “When a man dies, let the inheritance descend unto the daughter”. This quote explains the archbishop is urging the king from the bible that he has a right to become the king because of Isabella. The archbishop of Canterbury was forcing the king because invading France meant that the archbishop was going to become more powerful in wealth. King Henry V agreed with the archbishop and thought that invading France was a great idea. King Henry calls the French ambassador, the French had sent Dauphin. Dauphin’s delivers an insulting message, he gives the king tennis balls saying that he is too immature to become a king yet. Henry V becomes insulted and says in the quote, “Hath turned his balls to gunstones, and his soul

This idea is evident in the play as several characters who are isolated from The Court are able to deepen their understanding of identity. Shakespeare uses the character of Duke Senior to illustrate such an idea. The Duke is banished from the court by his younger brother and placed into exile in the Forest of Arden. It is through this displacement into the natural world and his experiences in “tongues in trees, sermons in stones, books in running brooks and good in everything”, that the Duke is able to truly develop his identity. The personification of nature as the ‘teacher’ implies that the Duke has been taught about a new sense of identity. This demonstrates that the Duke’s alienation from the court has allowed him to become a part of the natural world and in turn enrich his own identity and sense of self. In a similar way, the character of Jaques is able to deepen his understanding about the values of belonging through his alienation from the court. However, this alienation is by choice not force. As the rest of the group prepare for marriage with dance and food, Jaques chooses not to return to the court believing he is “for other than for dancing measures”. This juxtaposition of behaviour illustrates to the audience the deeper meaning Jaques is determined to find not only in himself but in a world away from the court. Not belonging has allowed Jaques to understand the truth about the court of “painted pomp”. The use of the alliteration highlights to the audience the realisation that Jaques has come to about the artificial nature of the court. Shakespeare uses this melancholy character to demonstrate that not belonging to a place allows an individual to gain a better perspective of the world and their purpose on it. It is through the alienation from the court that the Duke is able to develop his identity as part of the natural world and Jaques is able to gain a better

One should notice the importance of the Fool very early in the play. In Scene 4, Lear asks for his Fool twice. The second time is just a few lines after the first. He seems to need his Fool urgently. Yet the Fool has been pining over the loss of Cordelia (1.4. ). Yet Lear orders the Fool to come to him.

In Elizabethan times, fools were used as entertainment in royal courts, with a specific role to entertain the king. However, in “King Lear”, the fool plays a much more significant role than comedic relief, as he, ironically, is able to provide insight into human nature and draw correlations between the play and everyday life. This is most evident when he talks to King Lear about what he has done wrong or what he has overlooked.

In William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, it is ironic how many times the fool is said to be dishonest, when, in fact, his role proves entirely opposite. Though sometimes the characters do not realize his hidden messages, the reader can instantly comprehend Feste's figurative language, which is evident in every scene in which the fool appears. Whether he is singing to Orsino, arguing with Malvolio, or playing around with Viola, Feste always manages to sneak in a few symbolic foretokens before his exit. His keen eye and fast wit help him to actively partake in the portrayal of the story, however, the fool is merely present to express that which cannot be fully expressed through the

William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida is a play filled with marked variations of tone. The language ranges across the gamut from satirical to anticlimactic to dignified to tragic. This explains, to some extent, the level of difficulty that commentators have had in classifying the work. A close reading of the word choice and sense of tone in the play contributes a great deal to a better understanding of its meaning. Analysis of particular word choice should be, in fact, a very important consideration when attempting to understand Shakespeare's works. He is known to often make use of neologisms and his style thus reveals a familiarity with the intricate emotional weight that diction brings to literature.