Riverside Shakespeare Company

Hamlet's Idealism       Hamlet is many things: scholar, speaker, actor, and prince. His greatness shows in all of activities, save one: his inability to act. Hamlet is not able to avenge his father's death without considerable delay. There is a flaw in Hamlet's character that causes him to postpone the murder of Claudius - this flaw is Hamlet's idealism. While idealism is normally a good trait, in this case, because of the unusual circumstances, Hamlet's idealism causes great conflicts within

Moth in Love's Labor's Lost     Like much of Love's Labor's Lost, the young character Moth is full of paradox. When Shakespeare has little Moth play great Hercules in the "Nine Worthies," the playwright offers humor in contrasting the physiques of the actor with his role, or as Armado puts it, Moth "is not quantity enough" (5.2.130) to play the Greek god. However, Shakespeare may also be using this contradiction to compare physical strength with mental. Although physical ability doesn't carry

Just as the sun rose the following morning, Shana stood at the patio door and stared out. Yesterday a helicopter flew over this patio trying to figure out where to land. All of this over a painting. She turned as the elevator door opened. "Good morning, Shana," Jeff said. "You're up early." Her cheeks blushed. "I'm an early riser. I guess I beat everybody else." "I doubt that. Helen's already busy in the kitchen and I'm sure Jane's busy too. I just stopped to get the dogs. Drew usually exercises

The End of Love and Acceptance of Loss in “Eveline” by James Joyce and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway At least once in a lifetime, most people will experience the end of a love and have to deal with the difficulties of moving on. The end of a romance can occur either through choosing to leave your other half or being the one who is left. In the short stories “Eveline” by James Joyce and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway there are particularly good examples of

Comparing James Joyce's Araby and Ernest Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place As divergent as James Joyce's "Araby" and Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" are in style, they handle many of the same themes. Both stories explore hope, anguish, faith, and despair. While "Araby" depicts a youth being set up for his first great disappointment, and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" shows two older men who have long ago settled for despair, both stories use a number of analogous symbols

The True Character of Isabella in Measure for Measure       Some critics of Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure, judge Isabella as "a narrow minded but passionate girl afflicted with an irrational terror of sex" (Barton, 546), "a young, immature woman" demonstrating "moral absurdity and cruelty" (Nicholls, 478), whose actions are scarcely defensible. A classmate of mine asked, "Why doesn't Isabella just sleep with Angelo? What's the big deal?" These statements reveal that these people have

In King Lear, Shakespeare portrays a society whose emphasis on social class results in a strict social hierarchy fueled by the unceasing desire to improve one’s social status. It is this desire for improved social status that led to the unintentional deterioration of the social hierarchy in King Lear. This desire becomes so great that Edmund, Goneril, Reagan and Cornwall were willing to act contrary to the authority of the social hierarchy for the betterment of their own position within it. As the

For my play analysis I chose to read King Lear by William Shakespeare. I very much enjoy the works of Shakespeare and I thoroughly enjoyed this work. In the beginning of the play you learn that the king of Britain, King Lear, wants to step down from his throne. He has three daughters that he wants to split the kingdom with. He tests his daughters to see if they are worthy of the kingdom. He asks them to tell him how much they love him. Two of his daughters Goneril and Regan praise him and tell him

In King Lear, blindness is more than just the lack of physical sight, but a lack of judgement and understanding of others’ true intentions. Much of the suffering in King Lear stems from impetuous decisions and beliefs. Both King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester were blinded in their own respective ways. Lear’s blindness was more moral, leading to poor decisions that led to suffering, while Gloucester’s blindness was ignorance to his sons’ true intentions, leading to suffering as well. King Lear’s

A prominent theme of King Lear that is widely discussed in typical analyses is the theme of finding wisdom amongst madness and clarity amongst blindness. These themes focus heavily on Lear and Gloucester: Lear becomes wise once he begins to go mad, and Gloucester gains insight once he becomes blind. This theme, though considerably more obscure, is also present between Edmund and Edgar. Both characters start the play in a state of blindness and have a moment of clarity once their lives are drastically