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...

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero Tragedy elucidated is dramatic composition of serious or sombre character, with an unhappy ending, any literary composition dealing with a dismal theme carried to a tragic conclusion relating to a lamentable, dreadful fatal event or affair, conceivably known as a disaster...

William Shakespeare is a very well known author of many plays, ranging from comedies, to histories, to tragedies. Perhaps one of his most famous play's in the tragedy genre, is Macbeth. Macbeth conforms to the image of the tragic hero by portraying a flaw and dying because of it. His flaw of being l...

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 misfortune of man was a topic of great interest for the great men of Antiquity. One man who was interested in tragedy was Aristotle. This great philosopher considered tragedy a great deal, and took it rather seriously. He took it so seriously, in fact, that he created criteria to determine wh...

The tragic heroes in William Shakespeare\'s plays often share the same personality traits. Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear all show similar attributes which suggest that the playwright used a basic mold to form some of his most notable characters. Beyond the hamartia of pride, which is a com...

There are numerous themes put forth by Shakespeare in 'Hamlet', one of his greatest tragedies. Many of these themes are relevant to life today. When man's social, political and ethical worlds are out of balance, bad things happen (at least in Shakespearean tragedies). In other words, natural illn...

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...

The Works of Shakespeare's Third PeriodThroughout Shakespeare's lifetime it is agreed by most scholars that he has written 37 plays. Although the exact date of several of these plays is uncertain, his remarkable career is generally divided into four periods. The third period, from 1600, includes m...

Few plays written touch us as Romeo and Juliet do. It has touched our very souls, and has even worked itself into everyday conversation. No one can necessarily point out the reason for this, but everyone will agree that it is one of the defining \"tragedies\" of all time. On the contrary, Rome...

Four thousand years ago the humanities were introduced by the Ancient Greeks. The men began to record their feelings and ideas in the form of architecture, sculpture, plays, and paintings which make up the humanities. These numerous artists, writers, and politicians set the foundation for the whole...

Appearance v. RealityPolonius the kings royal assistant has a preoccupation with appearance. He always wants to keep up the appearance of loving and caring person. Polonius appears like a man who loves and cares about his son, Laertes. Polonius speaks to his son with advice that sounds sincere but i...

The Tempest, Shakespeare's last full play, is a demonstration of the artist's mature powers. In this play he illustrates his ability to fit various elements of life into a single context. It is a play for all seasons, having elements of romance, comedy, fantasy, political intrigue and...

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...

King LearKing Lear the aging King of Britain, has decided to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. First he puts his daughters through a sort of test, asking each to tell him just how much each daughter loves him. Goneril and ...

"Character is destiny" is a dominant theme that often appears in Shakespearean tragedy. In the play, King Lear this concept is portrayed through the characters of King Lear, Gloucester, and Edmund. The characteristics and the roles that each of the characters have within the society of the play dete...

Okonkwo + Willy LomanAs depicted in the play Death of a Salesman and the novel Things Fall Apart, their two main characters are similar in how they live tragic lives, and also end their lives. Both story lines are considered to be tragedies by many. Most people believe that tragedies are when a tra...