The reputations that people carry have a lot to do with their code of honour. Showing honour makes a person respected and strong and dishonour brings shame and misfortune. In the Greek tragedy Antigone written by Sophocles and the Shakespearean tragedy Othello written by William Shakespeare, honou...

Tragedy is defined as a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw . This tragic flaw is inborn to the main character. The tragic hero must be noble, having a higher stature than most men, must have a ...

Evolution of British Literature The historical events and mentality of a time period are a major influence on the context and style of that particular times literature. British Literature experienced many metamorphoses through the year's 449-1660. The literature traveled through four di...

Queen Elizabeth I Many people were skeptical if Elizabeth I could overcome the problems that were inherent in becoming the new queen of England. However insurmountable the problems were, she was able to overcome them and establish a stable and secure government and was capable of achieving finan...

The definition of tragedy in the Oxford dictionary is, "drama ofelevated theme and diction and with unhappy ending; sad event, serious accident,calamity." However, the application of this terminology in ShakespeareanTragedy is more expressive. Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, butin fa...

By 1600, international trade routes, which had been centered around the Mediterranean Sea for centuries, were almost entirely based around Northern Atlantic countries like Spain, France, and England. The economic explosion and widespread circulation of money that came with this were accompanied by ...

'The Tempest', penned by playwright William Shakespeare, as one of his last works circa 1612 is a story about many things: love, revenge, greed, politics, magic, and mystery. Even the notion of time plays a major role, and it is this aspect we shall be discussing in the following pag...

"WHY IS SHAKESPEARE REGARDED AS THE GREATEST IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT HIM AND HIS WORK THAT DISTINGUISHES HIM FROM THE REST" In the process that it took to choose the topic, which I was supposed to write about, I had a couple of choices that I could've written ...

"Hamlet's First Soliloquy" Hamlet. O! that this too solid flesh would melt, Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. Fie on't! Ah fie...

Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle wrote his famous manual for contemporary authors. This guide, entitled Poetics, covered what aspects a tragedy should contain. Of these aspects, one of the most important points in Poetics made by Aristotle is what characteristics a tragic hero, the protagonist of ...

English 102 19 April 1999 Why Romeo and Juliet was so popular in Shakespeare's time and why even today it is still so popular? William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. He was the third of eight child...

Othello is a play written by William Shakespeare about the tragedy of a black army general who is fatally flawed by jealousy. This jealousy is expressed through Othello; his character clearly highlights how someone morally good can also experience dark emotions. He felt guilty about resorting to ugl...

Compare how the opening scene of Romeo + Juliet is portrayed in Baz Luhrmann's 1997 film and Zefferelli's 1968 version. Which version do you think is more successful? The opening scene in most of Shakespeare's plays have a high level of action and a plot that is absorbing, apprehensible and...

Disguises, love affairs, and misunderstandings are some of the words that come to mind when thinking of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Richard Sheridan's The Rivals. The distinct representation of drama and dramatic irony are very similar to that of our modern-day soap operas even...

Tricky Iago Othello, one of the great plays from William Shakespeare, was composed in the affluent period of literature in England. According to Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and dana Gioia. 9th ed, William Shakespeare is known as the great writer o...

A romantic elopement, three marriages, and hilarious disguises are just three of the elements that make William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice a romantic comedy. The Perfection Form Company defines a romantic comedy as "a kind of comic drama that focuses on love. Romantic comedies ofte...

Along with Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, Othello is one of four Shakespeare's greatest play that deals with tragedies. More than anything else, what distinguishes Othello from its great tragedies appears in the role of its villain, Iago. Iago is a character who essentially writes the play&apo...

More Joy in Tragedy Tragedy is defined as a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. All definitions of tragedy and all tragic...

For more than three hundred fifty years, Macbeth has been one of the most steadily popular of Shakespeare¡¯s tragedies. On the stage, it has also proved itself an enduring hit. Innumerable scholars and writers have taken so much interest in Macbeth that they have written hundreds of thousands of b...

Shakespeare: In Love and Reality According to Jeremy Giltzer, Hollywood has "turned to history to create inspired moments of action, drama, and patriotism." It has "provided the movies with some of the most climatic moments and colorful characters imaginable," while making co...

William Shakespeare's Macbeth, a play written for the Elizabethan Theater circa 1606, tells the story of an esteemed Scottish nobleman who rises to the throne by murder and subterfuge, only to descend again into madness and damnation. Critics through the years have heralded Macbeth as one of the fi...

The great flaws of humanity, as defined in the characters of the tragedy, make Hamlet to be considered one of the greatest tragedies ever written. As Emily Dickonson stated, "Hamlet wavered for all of us," humanity can indeed find a likeness of himself in the Prince of Denmark. Thousands of scholars...

How does act 1 scene 1 of king lear set the scene for the rest of the play The beginning of a work often sets the tone for the rest of the entire endeavor. In drama especially, the first scene of a play generally sets up the basic themes and situations that the remainder will work with. In kin...

When reading a story, people tend to identify with the hero. They like to think of themselves as heroes in their own lives and the success of a hero in a story makes them feel better about their chances of success in their own lives. However, a hero is only as great as the obstacle he can overcome. ...

Humans have always felt the need to differentiate themselves from one another. We see examples of this in history, geography, language, and even mathematics. Even less complex is the notion of race. Race is an ideology that has always existed, but only recently, that is within the last 100-200 ye...