Shakespearean scholarship

Justice vs. Morality in Measure for Measure and Merchant of Venice   There are many similarities shared between Shakespeare's plays, "Measure for Measure", and "The Merchant of Venice".  The underlying theme of each work is well defined by the phrase "Justice without the temperance of mercy, is power misused".  I will support this claim by drawing upon some of the characters and situations that are consistent in each story. In each story a man's life depends on the interpretation, and

A Gender-Bending Journey      Shakespeare enjoyed writing passionate plays about young lovers, but, after a while, the formula became exhausted and the Bard was forced to dig deeper, creatively speaking. Twelfth Night is an example of a Shakespearean love tale with a slight twist to keep things interesting. This play was the “Tootsie” of its time. Twelfth Night takes the audience on a gender-bending journey, while maintaining all the elements of true love throughout. At one point, Olivia wears

Discuss the relationship between court and forest in As You Like It One of the most deep rooted themes in As You Like It is the contrast between city and country life, which in the play manifests itself as the contrast between life in court and life in the forest. Many of the poets and writers in Shakespeare’s day lived in the court, or at least in the city of London, and they spent much of their time pondering the instability and intricacies of court life, and wondering if a simpler life in the

Much Ado About Nothing:  A Comedy with Deep Meaning      Much Ado About Nothing--the title sounds, to a modern ear, offhand and self-effacing; we might expect the play that follows such a beginning to be a marvelous piece of fluff and not much more. However, the play and the title itself are weightier than they initially seem. Shakespeare used two other such titles--Twelfth Night, or What You Will and As You Like It--both of which send unexpected reverberations of meaning throughout their

The Importance of Wealth in Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest       Wealth and it’s relationship to poverty figures in heavily in two of the plays we have read thus far in class. In both Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest we are treated to characters and situations that deal with wealth and poverty. Specifically however, both plays have visions of an abundance of wealth that seems at times both corruptible and foolish. In Antony and Cleopatra we have their excessive behavior and flaunting

Love and Gender in Twelfth Night        Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, scene 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally male role of wooer in an attempt to win the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesario's beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his "scorn" (3.1.134) only reveals his hidden love. However, Olivia's mistaken

Gossip and Deceit in Much Ado About Nothing Much Ado About Nothing is primarily a play about gossip. Indeed, the title means a big fuss about a trifle, and by the end, this is exactly what happens. All accusations will come to nothing, causing the play to end the same way as if they never occurred at all. Shakespeare brilliantly plays on the meanings of nothing throughout this play. The word "nothing" would actually have been pronounced "noting" in his time. It can mean worthless, a person of

A Feminist Perspective of Hero in Much Ado About Nothing      Unlike the title of this piece suggests, Hero did not undergo her transformation in Much Ado About Nothing through magic.  Rather, Hero was a victim of the double standards and illogical fears that the men of Shakespeare’s plays commonly held.  The following quote sums it up quite well:  In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period

Crawling Inside the Mind of Hamlet      Much of the dramatic action of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet is within the head of the main character, Hamlet.   His wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled, mocking, nature of his mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love, as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishes for consummation and annihilation. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears, and

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