...Cycle of Corruption and Revenge The Renaissance was a time period with drastic change, not only in art but in the way that society thought about the world. The spread of humanism throughout Europe allowed people to question the ethics of their society, as curiosity was encouraged. William Shakespeare lived in the Elizabethan era, and he noted things about society that he emphasized in his plays. While it was illegal, revenge occurred frequently, as did corruption (as exemplified by Queen Elizabeth’s Court ). In Hamlet, Shakespeare intertwines the two themes of corruption and revenge, and throughout the piece, he makes it evident that the two are part of a relentless cycle. Throughout the play, Hamlet, Shakespeare makes it known that when...
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...Orezina Sonoiki With “Revenger’s Tragedy” being set in Italy, it is almost inevitable that the book will not revolve partly around corruption amongst many other themes. Middleton starts this play on a strong note as corruption starts to flow right from the beginning of the text. Vindice a character filled with anger and bitterness opens the play holding the skull of his fiancée who the Duke poisoned upon her refusal to sleep with him. His hatred of the Duke is shown as he describes him saying: “Duke, royal lecher; go, grey-haired adultery.” Vindice talks about lustfulness, which is a form of corruption. His anger and harsh tone towards the Duke is expected as he feels hurt and he even goes as far as to call the Duke myself, adultery. Vindice is also angry about the discrimination his father faced before his death. Middleton uses his character as an immediate way to reflect the unjust treatment during that period and how corruption was almost seen as the norm. It equally shows how power drunk kings got. Lustfulness is a form of corruption present in the play. The first time we come across lust is when Vindice pours out his feelings towards the Duke. He first of all refers to the Duke as committing adultery as quoted earlier on. He also refers to Spurio, the illegimate son of the Duke as “thou his bastard,” which identifies him as being born of wedlock. This reflects the Duke’s lustfulness even further. Hippolito is another character who draws attention to the acceptance...
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... is the inevitable downfall of such a system. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has always intrigued scholars and critics by its contentious discourse, and it continues to do so. In Hamlet, Shakespeare dramatizes the crisis of moral corruption and the subsequent dysfunction of state by creating a world much like contemporary ones. Thus, providing critics and scholars with an akin basis to analyze the unfathomable nature of the play. As a result, The Tragedy of Hamlet is considered by many, the most mature and complex...
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...metaphors in Hamlet. The main focus was on the Cup of Sovereignty, which is the metaphor for the cup King Claudius drinks from during the marriage proposal. Even though I read information from this source I am not going to use this because it does not relate to my thesis. However, it does explain the significance of the cup referencing to corruption and the poisons that ruined many lives. This article helped me understand the symbolism of deception in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Barron’s. Hamlet. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 2002. Print This book contains the Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and a modern interpretation of the script. This source was used to read the play and fully understand exactly what action was taking place. I am not using this book to quote any material because it is a form of cliff notes; however it was helpful in interpreting scenes and breaking down Elizabethan sentences. Boyd, Brian. “Literature and Evolution: A Bio-Cultural Approach.” The Johns Hopkins UP 29.1 (2005): 1- 23. JSTOR. Web. 4 December 2013. This article is about the “sophisticated concealment and deception” Shakespeare incorporated in Hamlet (Boyd 16). I am using this source because it relates to my thesis. It explains how Shakespeare uses deception to exaggerate life-and-death issues. This was helpful because it analyzed the deception within Hamlet and how Shakespeare used counter-deception to prevent predictability. Gorfain, Phyllis. “Play and the Problem of Knowing in Hamlet: An Excursion...
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...I've learned a lot this semester about my writing. More than that of last semester indefinitely. Between the Annotated Bibliography, argumentative essay, and this multi genre assignment there has been an immense amount of growth in style and process of my literary works. My style has grown in the sense of me knowing immediately how im going to word some sentences or the way i'm going to go about designing essays to get my point across as best I can. My diction and verb usage has also chaged since I started this class, the way I word sentences with these newly found tools has made my writing all the more interesting. In my essay, or to be more specific, my essay design I like to subdivide subjects within the prompt in one sentence. Once thats...
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...Essay Allusions to Hamlet in Modern World As everyone knows, Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare over 400 years ago, but, however, it continues to reign as one of the most imitated and relevant plays of our time. Interpretations of Shakespeare’s classic tale of revenge have turned up in some surprising places: children’s television programs and films, a popular television series about a corrupt motorcycle gang and other well-known shows, motion pictures, and best-selling contemporary novels. Perhaps one of the most interesting Hamlet interpretations is a film for children called Green Eggs and Hamlet. The live-action film, released in 1995 and written by Mike O’Neil, retells the tragic tale in classic Dr. Seuss rhyme. The film follows Prince Hamlet as he seeks to avenge his father’s murder, while his servant, Sam Iamlet, encourages him to sample a new food dish. The Disney classic, The Lion King, is also fully based on Hamlet. Released in 1994, The Lion King contains some direct parallels to the play, including the death of King Mufasa at the hands of his scheming brother, Scar. Mufasa’s young son, Simba, is visited by his dead father’s ghost, and there is even comic relief provided by two supplemental characters – Timon and Pumba. Although there is some debate over whether the references to Hamlet were intentional, this is where the similarities end, as The Lion King has a much happier ending and far fewer deaths. Sesame Street also took on the almighty play. Monsterpiece...
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...Vickie Shipley Professor Marek ENC 1102, SEC 87 27 October, 2013 Drama Essay: "Hamlet's Ghost- To Believe or Not to Believe” Of all the plays written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is the most intriguing. As the plot develops, themes such as indecision, deceit and revenge become apparent. As is expected, questions about the characters' motives arise as these themes are portrayed. Questions regarding Hamlet's love for Ophelia or his sanity arise. However, these questions develop throughout the story. The most important question arises at the beginning of the story in Act 1, and affects Hamlet’s every thought and action thereafter. Is the King's ghost a good spirit, merely seeking justice or an evil spirit sent to corrupt Hamlet? Perhaps the ghost is genuinely that of the dead king, but the fact that the ghost uses Hamlet to exact revenge and demands he commit the mortal sin of murder, clearly shows it to be an evil, malicious demon from hell. During the era in which Hamlet was written, there was a common belief of demonic intrusion, and corruption by the devil. Even today, it is not too difficult to find people who will agree that specters are evil demons, sent up from the bowels of hell to corrupt and destroy the living. In fact, a recent CBS poll reveals that almost half of all Americans believe in evil spirits, and that the dead can return in certain places and situations (Alfano). Because of this belief, the appearance of the spirit, along with the assumption of its...
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...1He once contemplated suicide and even wrote a two-page essay on why he wanted to end his life. Anna Hazare was not driven to such a pass by circumstances. He wanted to live no more because he was frustrated with life and wanted an answer to the purpose of human existence. The story goes that one day at the New Delhi Railway Station, he chanced upon a book on Swami Vivekananda. Drawn by Vivekananda's photograph, he is quoted as saying that he read the book and found his answer - that the motive of his life lay in service to his fellow humans. Today, Anna Hazare is the face of India's fight against corruption. He has taken that fight to the corridors of power and challenged the government at the highest level. People, the common man and well-known personalities alike, are supporting him in the hundreds swelling to the thousands. For Anna Hazare, it is another battle. And he has fought quite a few. Including some as a soldier for 15 years in Indian Army. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army. * ------------------------------------------------- Twitter * ------------------------------------------------- NDTV Social * ------------------------------------------------- Live Messenger * ------------------------------------------------- Gmail Buzz * ------------------------------------------------- Print In 1978, he took voluntary retirement from the 9th Maratha Battalion and returned home...
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...Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a classic story of revenge. The theme of revenge is evidenced many times throughout the play. While revenge is a central theme, many critics would agree that the story is more of a character study of the namesake protagonist than a simple revenge tale. The character is more complicated than the theme in itself. The Prince Hamlet is an actor pushed into the role of a reluctant, conflicted, and indecisive avenger. He is an actor who sees himself as such, and cannot take action. “The form, structure and incidental features of revenge are clearly present: the offense which demands vengeance, the avenger, the violent confrontation, the destruction of the guilty” (Austen 1). “Involved a ghost of a murder victim who clamored for revenge and a hero who was prepared to avenge the ghost’s death” (Bell,1). Yet Hamlet is an actor and an intellectual. Two character traits that are obstacles to his bound mission of revenge. Austen states, “Hamlet is a tragic hero who knows that action is required of him, but his purpose is blunted by an inability to act. He is a frustrated actor, whose conception of action does not translate itself into deeds” (1). He also writes, “Urged on by the Ghost of his father, Hamlet at first appears to be resolute: 'thy commandment all alone shall live I Within the book and volume of my brain' (I.v.102-3). Yet even this allusion to books makes us question his resolve, for he has only just vowed to 'wipe away all trivial fond records...
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...In the past, women have been subject to the “cult of domesticity.” This ideal lasted for centuries and ensnared women within a value system created by society that defined what a woman’s role should be. The cult presented women with four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. In the ages when these ideals were held at a high standard, works of literature written during this time reflected the societal standard. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, various essays, and our culture also depict the cult of domesticity that still exists regardless of the success of the feminist movements throughout history and in present day; meanwhile, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a great example of women who lived within the “cult...
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...The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." The play was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella". Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. He may also have drawn on or perhaps written an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and actresses from each successive age. Three...
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...The story opens in ancient Britain, where the elderly King Lear is deciding to give up his power and divide his realm amongst his three daughters, Cordelia, Regan, and Goneril. The critical essay that was chosen for this comparative essay was King Lear's Folly in this essay they had referenced other pieces by Shakespeare such as Richard iii and Hamlet, as well as other classics Oedipus Rex and The garden of Eden. In the critical essay the author states that lack of insight is the main theme and reason of everyone’s faults, this goes efficiently with this comparative essay because the themes that are stated can be referenced. This relates to the play because comparing the themes with the characters expresses the true intentions of Shakespeare. The themes that appear in both the essay King...
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...Adlerisms 1. “I can think, I can wait, I can fast…” –Siddhartha 2. “Fate will unwind as it must…” -Beowulf 3. “A mistake is repeated until it is learned…” -Confucius 4. “My worst enemy, my best friend – myself…” -Henry Reyna – Zoot Suit 5. “Tender yourself more dearly!” -Polonius, Hamlet 6. “If you fail to prepare – prepare to fail…” -Steve Prefontaine, Olympic Gold Medalist 7. “Our intentions are far more different than our actions…” -Coach Adler LQHS 8. “Defeat distraction, or distractions will defeat you…” -Coach Adler LQHS 9. “Those who settle for less end with less…” -Coach Adler LQHS 10. “A good fall makes one wiser…” -Aesop 11. “If I were you I would turn back now and save some time and grief. Believe me; you’re heading in the wrong direction…” -Coach Adler LQHS, The Two Ants 12. “In the middle of the journey of our life – I came to find myself in a dark woods where the straightway was lost…” -Dante Alighieri 13. “Acta non verba” (Actions not words) -Latin Idiom 14. “Carpe diem” (Seize the day) -Latin Idiom 15. “A good student only needs to be told once!” -Coach Adler LQHS 16. “Every day wasted is another day you’ll never get back!” -Boyd Grant, Fresno State Basketball 17. “A future filled with regret is not a bright one…” -Koby Serreitelli 18. “If you remain organized you stay in control” -Elise Alverzez 2013 19. “Impossible is just a big word that gets thrown around by small...
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...THE BARD & CO Book Review - The Bard & Co: Shakespeare’s Role in Modern Business Editors – Jim Davies, John Simmons & Rob Williams Published – Cyan Books Year – 2007 Place – London No author perhaps has had the kind of influence Shakespeare has had on our lives in different forms. This book is another example of Shakespeare’s influence, this time on the business world of today. Twenty six contemporary writers have paired with a Shakespeare play and one of the lead actors of the First Folio list to give us this delightful new insight of the play and the role. The book is a delightful collection of essays on Shakespeare’s role in contemporary business world. That we have very little biographical sketch to go by demands that “imagination has had to work harder than memory”. And given the “breadth, vivacity, wit and life” of Shakespeares’ plays and their performances, one cannot help but imagine that those actors would be chuckling in sotto voce behind their masks, at our attempt “to capture some sense of their lives and their contribution to the world” It is fitting that a book on Shakespeare’s role in modern business should be introduced by Dominic Dromgoole, the artistic Director of Globe Theatre. According to him, the theatre actor is the most impermanent of all artistes, considering that once a play is over, there is no remanence of his work except the printed “dramatis personae at the beginning of the published play”. He bows in obeisance to that “mysterious...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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