Twelfth Night, As You Like It by William Shakespeare

People tend to judge others based on many aspects. Sometimes they may try to force people to act upon certain rules that define their place in society. They often try to meet expectations that society has made for them based on gender and social status. William Shakespeare reinforces these ideas in his play Twelfth Night, which introduces many meaningful messages about situations that still occur in society today. He clearly develops important themes worthy of analysis. A few of these strong themes are about stereotypes and society’s expectations and rules, which he proves to be irrelevant most of the time. Many situations in the play falsify commonly held stereotypes about gender and social status by showing how they are sometimes invalid. He also shows how these stereotypes can affect the way people behave towards and judge others.

Love was very important to the Shakespearean audience. There is not a play written by Shakespeare that does not contain some form of a love relationship. These plays usually end happily, however in the case of “Macbeth”, the relationship that carries this important function, that is love, is conveyed in a way most peculiar. Instead of the average “happily ever after” ending an audience would expect, Shakespeare offers the audience, a villainous duo. One would expect that their relationship is an average husband and wife relationship, but there are many similarities and differences in the relationship which makes it even more enjoyable for the audience to watch the course of it.

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play. Hamlet is the main character who contemplates the thought of suicide many different times throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weighs the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknown life with the dead. Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it, mainly because it is a mortal sin against God. Hamlet continues to say that most of humanity would commit suicide and escape the hardships of life, but do not because they are unsure of what awaits them in the after life. Hamlet throughout the play is continually tormented by his fathers death and his

The concept of suicide is one that is greatly contemplated and discussed by Hamlet and other characters in William Shakespeare's play. It can be seen through two of Hamlet's soliloquies and his overall demeanor throughout the play. Hamlet has many issues that he must deal with such as the death of his father and the marriage of his uncle and mother. These two incidents led Hamlet to consider the extreme act of suicide to escape the fate that he had been bestowed. Although Hamlet did not commit suicide, in the end the path that he took inevitably led to his suicidal intentions and his eventual downfall. The contemplation of suicide threatens Hamlet and various characters in the play leading to the

Hamlets contemplation of ending his life shows an inward conflict within himself. In his first soliloquy, he debates whether he should commit suicide. "To be, or not to be- / that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them" (3.1. lines 64-68 Shakespeare). He questions why he should live with all of this chaos but overcomes this internal conflict because he acknowledges that in his religion suicide is a sin. “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, / or that the everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst (self-slaughter). O God! God!” (1.2. lines 133-136 Shakespeare). This soliloquy signifies the reality of Hamlet s internal conflict and also shows the reality of his external conflict with the society he is surrounded by. This declamation establishes

In two of his soliloquies, Hamlet questions whether life is worth living. With characteristic ambiguity and indecision, he wavers as he considers both the Christian and the classical perspectives on suicide. Much of the debate surrounding Shakespeare’s treatment of suicide in Hamlet develops from interpretations of those soliloquies. Focusing primarily on his most famous soliloquy at the start of act three, much critical debate has arisen over the subject of his ruminations, whether on suicide or revenge, as critics draw parallels of development in what is seen as the oppositional thematic relationship between self-murder and murder of the king. Although Hamlet’s spiritual conscience and his

Without differentiating the characters he sends a very potent message. He discloses that all young love is the exactly identical. They all love with a fiery passion just to get hurt. Then easily fall back into their love without question. He also spreads the message that life without love is not worth living even if you have to go through some hard times. He writes “Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth” (I.i.134-136). This is not the only play of Shakespeare's that deals with challenges with love. Many of Shakespeare's plays spread this simple but powerful message.

Through rich imagery and a comic context Shakespeare uses characters to explore his ideas about love and marriage, using relationships to show the trials of love. In his play Shakespeare makes Beatrice and Benedick the critics of love and through them the modern audience is shown how Elizabethan society maltreats the female role and how the male code of honour and pride can lead to devastation.

To begin with, in the novel, Hamlet is very devastated following the death of his father. He becomes so depressed that at one point he even decides to kill himself in order to “take arms against a sea of troubles” (Act 3, Scene 1, Line

In many of Shakespeare's plays, there is a theme of love and quite often marriage. This may lead one to the question of whether the great William Shakespeare effectively or ineffectively uses and depicts said theme. One can be lead to believe that he, indeed, does effectively depict and employ the theme of love and marriage by examining this theme in both Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet.

There are many different types of love in this world, thus there are many different ways of expressing love. What revolves around that love, and the many different circumstances, trials, and tribulations that a love might face can greatly influence the outcomes of that love. These trials and tribulations can also be seen as different literary elements when used in plays. When looking at Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, he used many different themes and elements to provide complexity to the love story. Shakespeare cleverly takes the main theme of the play, love, and ties in other elements such as time, stage imagery, and language to pull the whole play together in a way that makes one think about the play on other levels.

Throughout the story of two star-crossed lovers and their struggle with love we as the audience experienced many emotions from hate, envy, love, tears of both joy and sadness, and even relief from laughter. All of those emotions were brought on by dramatic, situational, and verbal irony that Shakespeare embedded into the play knowing he wanted to be different and please all people. This he was successful at and people today still are being affected by this beautiful piece of

William Shakespeare is known all around the world for his literature. Shakespeare was a very successful writer and we still see his work from 400 years ago today. He wrote 154 sonnets throughout his life. Shakespeare sonnets tell us what was happening in that time of his life. It is very easy to determine Shakespeare’s feelings and emotions through his sonnets. It is still a big mystery on his personal life, no one really knows much about him besides being an amazing writer. One shocking thing I learned is that he was in fact gay. He was in love and admired The Prince. In many of his sonnets he mentions the Fair Youth and how he is attracted to him. Shakespeare reveals his feelings towards the Prince in his sonnets. Overtime his feelings grow stronger for the youth and they begin to change. Shakespeare’s attitude towards The Prince changes overtime and is shown in sonnet 20 and 126. His feelings for the youth is very different from sonnet 20 to 126.

Throughout the entire play, Hamlet becomes engrossed, obsessed and fascinated by death and what happens after death. The uncertainty of the afterlife, an overarching theme throughout the play, pushes Hamlet to act in certain ways. In his soliloquy in Act I, Hamlet describes death as nothing more than someone decomposing in the ground and that the body will eventually become nothing more than bones. Yet, Hamlet displays an uncertain fear of dying. Throughout the play, Shakespeare mentions the fear that Hamlet has of uncertainty of not only the future but with death as well. Hamlet’s curiosity with what happens after death and how his choices will impact where he ends up plays a huge role in his character development. One of the ways that Hamlet discussed death dealt with suicide. Throughout the play, Hamlet stated and believed that he was out of control of his life. He believed that suicide was the only way out of the negative situation. Yet, he never actually took his own life, which connected back to his fear of uncertainty and of the future. Not only was Hamlet impacted by suicide but Ophelia actually committed suicide after her father died ( Act IV. Scene VII ). Suicide became intertwined in Hamlet’s struggle to avenge his father since he viewed death as a exit strategy. Hamlet’s rational and irrational beliefs revolving around

Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered to be some of the greatest and most eloquent poems in all of English literature. So by analyzing his genius in poetry and style, scholars and ordinary readers alike, try to understand the genius in the poet. There is very little known of Shakespeare’s personal life or feelings he had about himself. This being so a lot of scholars focus on his style and way of saying things to try and get a better understanding of Shakespeare the person. Many scholars have tried to get an insight into shakespeare by analyzing how and what he wrote. Many poets use poetry as a way to express their feelings and emotions, so readers of Shakespeare should be able to start to grasp a picture of who he was by reading his poetry and paying attention to the similarities and unique differences of his work to the norm of the day.