Shakespeare's SourcesWilliam Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. During the span of his life he worked mainly as an actor and principal playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. His company went on to build the famous Globe Theater and were later named the King's Men, by James I. As a...

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...

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, William Shakespeare is at onceinstantly recognizable and an enigma. As one writer notes, "There seems tohave been a curious lack of recognition of his gifts in his own time, andfew of his contemporaries left any record of knowing him 'or even havinglooked ...

King Lear and Hamlet, both written by William Shakespeare, are prime examples of Medieval English dramatic literature. Many actions and characters in King Lear parallel that of Hamlet, for instance, both plays are in a royal setting. Hamlet and King Lear are set around a recent shift of power in t...

Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear are the four most prominent and revered works that William Shakespeare had ever produced, though the first three that I mentioned seem to be recognized as more superior to K...

Kenneth JonesProfessor BaileyEnglish 2322May 28, 2000A Look at Shakespeare's EdmundIn King Lear, the villainous but intelligent Edmund, with more than a brief examination into his character, has understandable motivations outside of the base purposes with which he might at first be credited. Edmund ...

The theme of appearance versus reality is a reoccurring one throughout the play of King Lear by William Shakespeare. As Shakespeare demonstrates, nothing is as it seams. There is an evident difference between reality as opposed to appearance. Reality is what is, as opposed to what seams to be. A...

The Death of Cordelia in William Shakespeare's King Lear King Lear is a tragedy unlike any other written by William Shakespeare. It focuses on the psychological downfall of a powerful King. It proves that as long as a nation has a king on the throne all is well, but as soon as a king steps ...

Nothing is defined as: something that has no existence; something that has no quantitative value; and one that has no substance or importance. However, in William Shakespeare's play King Lear, nothing is given a much greater value: the story in its whole comes from nothing. The concept of nothing...

In Shakespeare's "King Lear" the issue of sight against blindness is a recurring theme. Blindness, in Shakespeare, is a mental flaw some characters posses, and vision is not derived from physical sight, it includes mental intuitiveness. King Lear and Gloucester are the two examples Shakespeare incor...

In the play King Lear, by William Shakespeare, the idea of imprisonment is a fundamental to the plot and central ideas. All characters are imprisoned, whether it is physically, socially or psychologically. Through their society and its', as well as their own faults each character suffers &apos...

Blindness is a whole different thing than not having the ability for the eye to see an object, according to Shakespeare. It is not a physical quality but a mental flaw that some people possess. This fault in characters exacerbates their ability to understand and it also leads them in the wrong dir...

In William Shakespeare's play King Lear, rich apparel and gorgeousness are contrasted against imagery of nakedness and poverty. During the high style of the Renaissance, the usage of nakedness and gorgeousness was a widely used artistic device. Shakespeare uses clothing to represent appearanc...

The two works King Lear by William Shakespeare and Oedipus the King by Sophocles share similar themes. One such theme is sight versus blindness. In Shakespeare's King Lear the issue of sight versus blindness is a recurring theme. In Shakespearean terms, as well as in Sohpocles' Oedipus the King, ...

Sid ThompsonMac Beth And His AmbitionsThemes from Leading Men The act of creating and developing a character called characterization not only establishes a character, but serves as a means for the author to reveal the themes of the play. A literary character is the invention of the author, and often...

Themes from Leading MenThe act of creating and developing a character called characterization not only establishes a character, but serves as a means for the author to reveal the themes of the play. "A literary character is the invention of the author, and often inventions are indebted to prior inv...

Themes from Leading MenThe act of creating and developing a character called characterization not only establishes a character, but serves as a means for the author to reveal the themes of the play. "A literary character is the invention of the author, and often inventions are indebted to prior inv...

The Downfall of Edmund Through Power Power and domination play significant roles in maintaining the basic structure upon which society is built. The position of or incentive for gaining authority often leads to the destruction of morals and can determine the path of ones life. Power and its inf...

In the play "King Lear" one of the main themes is the theme of blindness. In the play, blindness is referred to as a mental characteristic of a person not as the physical disability to which most people think of when they hear the term blind or blindness. The meaning of blindness in the play is t...

Throughout history novelists and playwrights have to created dysfunctional families. These families lead tragic lives. Within these families, there are both internal and external battles to be dealt. In William Shakespeare's King Lear and Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey In...

Cultural HerstoryIn the stories of King Lear, The Faerie Queene and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, women are represented by the roles in which they play in the British culture in which they lived in. Each tells a story of the impact they made on society though communicating the cultu...

What characterizes the concept of fate? How do liturgical, literary and artistic creations deal with its presence? Alongside technological, scientific and artistic developments come different perceptions of mankind's own raison-d'etre and the status of his existence. The thought of a master puppet...

The Fool in King Lear There has always been a perpetual jester in a kingly court. Often he has provided entertainment via his superficial jokes and has won the good graces of his master by creating an atmosphere of ebullience and joviality. Rarely has there existed a fool of such vivacious and rudim...