William Shakespeare 's Othello And Hamlet

During the Elizabethan era, misogynistic tendencies were common and women were considered as weaklings in a patriarchal society. Against all the negative stereotypes of fragile women, playwrights such as Shakespeare and Middleton have provided the female characters of their respective plays with intelligent minds. Inspired by the Roman dramatist and philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca as well as feeling concerned towards the common negative portrayal of females during the Elizabethan period, Shakespeare and Middleton have constructed powerful masterpieces by interweaving these two issues. Their presentations of females as victims of revenge in ‘Hamlet’, ‘Othello’ and ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ share similarities in the use of theatrical devices

William Shakespeare wrote several of his most famous plays during the Elizabethan Era. During this period of time, the men are seen as the dominant gender while on the other hand, the women are seen as weak and inferior. In this Era, a woman’s role is to obey orders and serve their superior without any hesitations, they depend on the men completely and they would have no will or choice of their own. During the late fifteen hundreds to the early sixteen hundreds, this behavior is completely acceptable in numerous areas and is seen as the proper way of living. In his work, Shakespeare depicts the reality of what the women would deal with during the Elizabethan Era and how men would act in order to get exactly what they want. A closer examination of several details

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, it is clearly evident Prince Hamlet is overcome with “madness” due to his father’s murder and other malicious actions taken against him. Throughout the play, there are many examples of how Hamlet displays his insanity due to certain situations he experiences and how he handles them. Hamlet shows his madness through the killing of Polonius, his treatment of Ophelia, his thoughts of suicide, and the treatment of his mother Gertrude.

In this world there are two different types of people. There are those with a fixed mindset and others with a growth mindset . Each of these mindset involve different personality and characteristics. This may create a different outlook on life, meaning different morals and actions. Which happens to come into play while reading shakespeare 's Othello. Most of the characters , maybe even all fit into either categories. Characters like Iago, Othello’s bearer, Desdemona , a venetian lady, Cassio Othello 's second in command and Othello Himself. Throughout the book they all encounter different situations and problems. That mostly happened because of the actions he or

Seeking revenge can cause a person to turn insane and blindly seek retaliation. Shakespeare’s Hamlet contemplates revenge throughout the story. Madness and revenge are similar themes in the movie, The Lion King, where the main character, Simba, is faced with the death of his father, leading him to do whatever it takes to seek revenge. This is where madness usually is introduced as a problem within a character, and this problem leads to the character doing things that they don’t usually do, sometimes dangerous things. The fathers of both Hamlet and Simba die, and the only one to blame is someone trusted amongst them. They seek revenge for their father’s unjust deaths. Betrayal, love and loss drive both characters to seek revenge. The death of their fathers leads them to go mad, and this mental state leads to them questioning the motives of close people in their lives.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare begins to show the basics of Hamlet’s mind, striving to show, as to why he remains inactive and unsure throughout majority of the play. Firstly, “…but know, thou know noble youth/ The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown” (Act I. v. 39-40). As the Ghost tells Hamlet his father’s real murder, Shakespeare begins to show the reader, that the protagonist is encountering the Shadow archetype, which represents unknown characteristics of the main character. The reader is shown with the presence of the Shadow archetype, that Hamlet’s concealed suspicion regarding the death of his father, which was considered as an accident, turns into an urge to seek revenge. This archetype reveals to us Hamlet’s inner desires to kill his Uncle Claudius. Furthermore, “…your noble son is mad:/ Mad call I it, for, to define true madness,/ What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?” (Act II. ii. 92-94). Polonius tells the Queen and King that Hamlet is insane for Ophelia, as a result, the Anima archetype is represented by a member of the opposite sex. As for Hamlet, it is a sign of feminine desires he once had for Ophelia, who were once lovers. However, he ignores the affection he has towards Ophelia, in order to focus on his pursuit for vengeance. Moreover, “I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,/ Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me” (Act V.ii.379-380). Fortinbras and Hamlet’s motive is to avenge their

4) In the text spoken by Horatio it seems to follow the idea that fear is pervasive. Horatio claims that all ghosts are bad in the city, who talked bad about one another after the death of Julius Caeser was assassinated. Evil diction is present in the passage as

Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare’s greatest work, and the soliloquy to be or not to be is equally as famous. Hamlet is one of the greatest dramatic characters of all time and the role of Hamlet is one that many actors strive to play. Shakespeare wrote the character Hamlet in a very specific manner and it is because of this that few have found success in performing this role. Moreover the soliloquy to be or not to be has been one that has defined the level of success of an actors role of Hamlet. Famous actors like Lawrence Olivier, John Gielgud, Jude Law, Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant, etc. have stepped into the shoes of hamlet and into the world of Shakespeare. However, only Tennant, Gibson, and Branagh have

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet is a unique character due to his unpredictability. He is attempting to discover the truth in a way that no other character of Shakespeare’s has done. We find Hamlet in a state of deep melancholy due to the death of his father, as well as the very sudden and lewd marriage of his uncle and his mother. Hamlet is inspired by the player giving the speech about Hecuba witnessing the massacre of her husband, Priam. He goes off on his own, and he is bewildered at how this player can show an enormous amount of passion to something that doesn’t exist. Hamlet contemplates on the reason of how he has not been able to act yet, and he feels like he has stalled for far too long. Hamlet’s main issue isn’t that he is a coward, but a truth seeker. He is skeptical about what is true, and that is what plagues him with his duty to avenge his father.

Often, and justly, referred to as the greatest story to have ever been told, Shakespeare’s Hamlet never ceases to cause debate amongst two individuals. The complexity within the play’s characters allows every individual to perceive a different variation of them, instigating these endless debates. Consequently, one of the most famous debates, questioning Hamlet’s antic disposition, has split the population into those that believe he was not mad, merely acting, and others who believe he had gone completely mad and his occasional “sane” episodes were just a coping mechanism to deal with the insanity. Standing with the latter side, my perception on the play is somewhat different as I believe that Hamlet’s vulnerability had exceeded not just to

In one of AMND’s most enduring passages, Lysander states (Act one scene one, line 134) ‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’ The conflict that is inevitably born out of love is a central theme at the heart of Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and Hamlet, but is extended by Shakespeare not only to romantic relationships, but to familial bonds as well. The conflict is ultimately resolved in diametrically opposing ways in each play, according to the conventions of their respective genres. Hamlet is a tragedy, and therefore can result only in death, but AMND, as a comedy, uses the traditional method of marriage to resolve its conflict.

Shakespeare and Webster represent the female characters in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The duchess of Malfi’ by using general themes such as the patriarchy and the social control, the female identity and its independence, this institution of marriage, the expressions of sexuality and finally women shown to be either conformist or transgressive. Men were firmly in control in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, and the expectations for women were to stay home, cook, clean and raise a family. Women’s status and roles were subject to the Tyranny of patriarchy, they were given strict disciplinary rules to follow whether by law or unspoken norms to prevent from rebellion. Women’s rights were restricted, legally, socially and economically, unlike today were women are more powerful and independent. Today women and men are seen to be equal and women can do pretty much everything a man can do (voting, working, becoming president) although there are many people still today who disagree with women having these rights.

We would all like to believe how we perceive somebody to be a truly accurate interpretation of their character. How a person chooses to act around a certain group of people can be out of courteousness or his or her bad nature. William Shakespeare does not only shed light towards this topic but allows his audience to distinguish appearance versus reality. Shakespeare's Othello and sonnets 93 and 138 demonstrate being who you are in reality triumphs over appearance and what you seem to be.

In William Shakespeare Hamlet and Othello, the author creates two similar yet vastly different protagonists. The major source of contrast lies within each characters approach to decision making and premeditated action. As David Nichol Smith puts it, Hamlet “is not a character marked by strength of will or even passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment.”(Smith 288) This very refinement of thought is what characterizes both Hamlet’s indecision and forces him to act when he renounces indecision. In contrast

Shakespeare and the members of the Elizabethan era would be appalled at the freedoms women experience today.  The docility of Elizabethan women is almost a forgotten way of life. What we see throughout Shakespeare’s plays is an insight into the female character as perceived by Elizabethan culture.  Shakespeare’s female characters reflect the Elizabethan era’s image of women; they were to be virtuous and obedient and those that were not were portrayed as undesirable and even evil.