Premium Essay

Death and Dying in Hamlet and the Winter’s Tale

In:

Submitted By markthompy
Words 2198
Pages 9
“Of Deaths Put on by Cunning and Forced Cause” – Death and Dying in Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale
Abstract
Shakespeare employs the concept of death in every genre he writes, and Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale provide insights into the revenge tragedy and late romance respectively. Drawing inspiration from a web article on death in revenge tragedies (namely, Hamlet), death seems to me the common emotional connector between Hamlet and the audience, which Shakespeare then exploits to enact a singular catharsis. Similarly, a dissertation on counterfeit deaths in the late romances and a web article on resurrection in The Winter’s Tale provide me the basis to argue that death and resurrection are successively utilized in the romance to draw a self-awakening in Leontes, which Shakespeare uses as a proxy for the audience. It is intriguing how Shakespeare employs death as emotional bridge between audience and characters across the two genres, creating the heightened emotional state necessary to deliver his concluding catharsis: death as redemption when not used as a tool for personal gain.

Death appears many times in both Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale, serving to drive both the action of the play as well as the development of characters. In Hamlet, it is the murder of Old Hamlet that necessitates the act of vengeance, forcing into motion all subsequent plot developments and character deaths. According to Thomas, “The Winter’s Tale is structured on the counterfeit deaths and resurrections of Perdita and Hermione” (184), not to mention the actual deaths of other characters. The devastating outcomes of this morbid motive in the revenge play are contrasted with the redemptive features of the deaths in the romance play, and ultimately Shakespeare uses these different frames of viewing to enlighten his audiences, inspiring a self-awareness much like what Leontes experienced, but

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Harold Bloom

...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...

Words: 239932 - Pages: 960

Free Essay

Allegory and Irony in 'Othello' Antoinette B. Dauber

...ALLEGOR AND IRONY IN 'OTHELLO' Y ANTOINETT B. DAUBER E Othello is Shakespeare's Spenserian tragedy, in which the theme of slandere d chastity becomes a vehicle for exploring the problems of an allegorica l art . Allegory is the mode of selfconscious faith, and Spenser's corpus may be rea d as a portrai t of the artis t as allegorist , wrestling first with the burdens of selfconsciousness and then with the burdens of faith.l In Othello, Shakespeare compresses and objectifies this struggle. Unlike Spenser, he is not committed to the maintenance of allegory, and so he freely dramatizes the interna l weaknesses and external onslaughts that lead to its destruction. What I am calling the 'Spenserian ' quality begins with the chivalric elements in the tragedy. Truly, Othello is a kind of Savage Knight, Desdemona, the absolutely, almost miraculously, worthy lady, and Iago, something of a manipulator like Archimago.2 But more particularl y I would call attention to a specific engagement with Spenserian rhetoric . Consider Cassio' s words of welcome to the disembarking Desdemona: Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands, Traitors ensteep'd to enclog the guiltless keel, As having sense of beauty, do omit Their mortal natures, letting go safely by The divine Desdemona. (2.1.68-73)3 He sets her in the line of Spenser's heavenly allegories . As a parallel , we may recal l Una , slandere d by the arch-magician , abandone d by 123 her...

Words: 6901 - Pages: 28

Premium Essay

John Clare

...An A level English Student Guide by Julia Geddes, Kitty Graham and Helen Ince ~ Wessex Publications ~ Selected Poems by John Clare CONTENTS Page Using the Workbook......................................................................................1 How to Study Poetry......................................................................................2 John Clare 1793 - 1864 ..................................................................................3 The Poems A Country Village Year.................................................................................6 December from ‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’: Christmas ...............................6 Sonnet: ‘The barn door is open’ ...................................................................11 The Wheat Ripening......................................................................................13 The Beans in Blossom ...................................................................................16 Sonnet: ‘The landscape laughs in Spring’ .....................................................19 Sonnet: ‘I dreaded walking where there was no path’...................................21 Sonnet: ‘The passing traveller’......................................................................23 Sport in the Meadows....................................................................................25 Emmonsales Heath .......................................................................................

Words: 33689 - Pages: 135

Free Essay

The Illusion of Leadership

...The Illusion of Leadership Directing Creativity in Business and the Arts Piers Ibbotson The Illusion of Leadership This page intentionally left blank The Illusion of Leadership Directing Creativity in Business and the Arts Piers Ibbotson © Piers Ibbotson 2008 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan®...

Words: 68096 - Pages: 273

Free Essay

The Satanic Verses

...confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition, is without any certain abode; for though he has, in consequence of his angelic nature, a kind of empire in the liquid waste or air, yet this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is . . . without any fixed place, or space, allowed him to rest the sole of his foot upon. Daniel Defoe, _The History of the Devil_ I The Angel Gibreel "To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die. Hoji! Hoji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry? How to win the darling's love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again . . ." Just before dawn one winter's morning, New Year's Day or thereabouts, two real, full-grown, living men fell from a great height, twenty-nine thousand and two feet, towards the English Channel, without benefit of parachutes or wings, out of a clear sky. "I tell you, you must die, I tell you, I tell you," and thusly and so beneath a moon of alabaster until a loud cry crossed the night,...

Words: 195828 - Pages: 784

Free Essay

Jane Eyre

...University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them. Cover Design: Jim Manis Copyright © 2003 - 2012 The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university. Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë PREFA PREFACE A PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION of Jane Eyre being unnecessary, I gave none: this second edition demands a few words both of acknowledgment and miscellaneous remark. My thanks are due in three quarters. To the Public, for the indulgent ear it has inclined to a plain tale with few pretensions. To the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened to an obscure aspirant. To my Publishers, for the aid their tact, their energy, their practical sense and frank liberality have afforded an unknown and unrecommended Author. The Press and the Public are but vague personifications for 3 me, and I must thank them in vague terms; but my Publishers are definite: so are certain generous critics who have encouraged me as only...

Words: 189679 - Pages: 759

Free Essay

The Origins and Development of the English Language (Textbook)

...THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE This page intentionally left blank THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SIXTH EDITION ± ± John Algeo ± ± ± ± ± Based on the original work of ± ± ± ± ± Thomas Pyles Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States The Origins and Development of the English Language: Sixth Edition John Algeo Publisher: Michael Rosenberg Development Editor: Joan Flaherty Assistant Editor: Megan Garvey Editorial Assistant: Rebekah Matthews Senior Media Editor: Cara Douglass-Graff Marketing Manager: Christina Shea Marketing Communications Manager: Beth Rodio Content Project Manager: Corinna Dibble Senior Art Director: Cate Rickard Barr Production Technology Analyst: Jamie MacLachlan Senior Print Buyer: Betsy Donaghey Rights Acquisitions Manager Text: Tim Sisler Production Service: Pre-Press PMG Rights Acquisitions Manager Image: Mandy Groszko Cover Designer: Susan Shapiro Cover Image: Kobal Collection Art Archive collection Dagli Orti Prayer with illuminated border, from c. 1480 Flemish manuscript Book of Hours of Philippe de Conrault, The Art Archive/ Bodleian Library Oxford © 2010, 2005 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including...

Words: 164520 - Pages: 659

Premium Essay

In Cold Blood Pdf

...east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them. Holcomb, too, can be seen from great distances. Not that there's much to see simply an aimless congregation of buildings divided in the center by the main-line tracks of the Santa Fe Rail-road, a haphazard hamlet bounded on the south by a brown stretch of the Arkansas (pronounced "Ar-kan-sas") River, on the north by a highway, Route 50, and on the east and west by prairie lands and wheat fields. After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud. At one end of the town stands a stark old stucco structure, the roof of which supports an electric sign - dance - but the dancing has ceased and the advertisement has been dark for several years. Nearby is another building with an irrelevant sign, this one in flaking gold on a dirty window - Holcomb bank. The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have been converted into apartments. It is one of the town's two "apartment...

Words: 124288 - Pages: 498

Premium Essay

In Cold Blood

...east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them. Holcomb, too, can be seen from great distances. Not that there's much to see simply an aimless congregation of buildings divided in the center by the main-line tracks of the Santa Fe Rail-road, a haphazard hamlet bounded on the south by a brown stretch of the Arkansas (pronounced "Ar-kan-sas") River, on the north by a highway, Route 50, and on the east and west by prairie lands and wheat fields. After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud. At one end of the town stands a stark old stucco structure, the roof of which supports an electric sign - dance - but the dancing has ceased and the advertisement has been dark for several years. Nearby is another building with an irrelevant sign, this one in flaking gold on a dirty window - Holcomb bank. The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have been converted into apartments. It is one of the town's two "apartment...

Words: 124288 - Pages: 498

Free Essay

Ggggg

...IMPORTANT This electronic version of The Century Vocabulary Builder (1922) has been prepared by Serenson Pty Ltd for www.write-better-english.com. This PDF follows the pagination of the original (hard copy) book and includes hypertext links that we have inserted, which look like this. Please do not remove links. Reformatting the original text into this PDF has been no easy task; it is possible that the process has introduced errors or caused omissions. As a result, we make no guarantee about the accuracy or completeness of this version of the Vocabulary Builder. If you find an error or omission in this PDF, please check the original book and contact us so that we can fix the error or omission. Please check your local copyright laws before accessing this PDF. If you are serious about building your vocabulary, we highly recommend you try the popular vocabularybuilding program called Ultimate Vocabulary Want the ultimate vocabulary builder? Click www.write-better-english com/ultimate-vocabulary.aspx THE CENTURY VOCABULARY BUILDER BY GARLAND GREEVER AND JOSEPH M. BACHELOR NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. Want the ultimate vocabulary builder? Click www.write-better-english com/ultimate-vocabulary.aspx PREFACE You should know at the outset what this book does not attempt to do. It does not, save to the extent that its own special purpose requires, concern itself with the many and intricate problems of grammar, rhetoric, spelling, punctuation, and the like; or clarify...

Words: 97231 - Pages: 389

Free Essay

Dale Carneigi

...1 CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XV CHAPTER XVI Chapter XVIII CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII CHAPTER XXIII CHAPTER XXIV CHAPTER XXV CHAPTER XXVI CHAPTER XXVII CHAPTER XXVIII CHAPTER XXIX CHAPTER XXX CHAPTER XXXI The Art of Public Speaking BY 2 The Art of Public Speaking BY J. BERG ESENWEIN AUTHOR OF "HOW TO ATTRACT AND HOLD AN AUDIENCE," "WRITING THE SHORT-STORY," "WRITING THE PHOTOPLAY," ETC., ETC., AND DALE CARNAGEY PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING, BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE AND FINANCE; INSTRUCTOR IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, Y.M.C.A. SCHOOLS, NEW YORK, BROOKLYN, BALTIMORE, AND PHILADELPHIA, AND THE NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BANKING THE WRITER'S LIBRARY EDITED BY J. BERG ESENWEIN THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL SPRINGFIELD, MASS. PUBLISHERS Copyright 1915 THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO F. ARTHUR METCALF FELLOW-WORKER AND FRIEND Table of Contents THINGS TO THINK OF FIRST--A FOREWORD * CHAPTER I--ACQUIRING CONFIDENCE BEFORE AN AUDIENCE * CHAPTER II--THE SIN OF MONOTONY DALE CARNAGEY * CHAPTER III--EFFICIENCY THROUGH EMPHASIS AND SUBORDINATION * CHAPTER IV--EFFICIENCY THROUGH CHANGE OF PITCH * CHAPTER V--EFFICIENCY THROUGH CHANGE OF PACE * CHAPTER VI--PAUSE AND POWER * CHAPTER VII--EFFICIENCY THROUGH INFLECTION * CHAPTER VIII--CONCENTRATION IN DELIVERY...

Words: 162622 - Pages: 651

Premium Essay

Jared Diamond Collapse

...COLLAPSE HOW S O C I E T I E S CHOOSE TO FAIL OR S U C C E E D JARED DIAMOND VIK ING VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 13579 10 8642 Copyright © Jared Diamond, 2005 All rights reserved Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed/Jared Diamond. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-670-03337-5 1. Social history—Case studies. 2. Social change—Case studies. 3. Environmental policy— Case studies. I. Title. HN13. D5 2005 304.2'8—dc22...

Words: 235965 - Pages: 944

Premium Essay

Researching and Writing

.... ReseaRching and WRiting a disseRtation a guidebook foR business students Colin Fisher second edition . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students . We work with leading authors to develop the strongest educational materials in management, bringing cutting-edge thinking and best learning practice to a global market. Under a range of well-known imprints, including Financial Times Prentice Hall, we craft high-quality print and electronic publications which help readers to understand and apply their content, whether studying or at work. To find out more about the complete range of our publishing, please visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students Second edition Colin Fisher with John Buglear Diannah Lowry Alistair Mutch Carole Tansley . Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England and Associated Companies throughout the world Visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk First published 2004 Second edition 2007 © Pearson Education Limited 2004 © Pearson Education Limited 2007 The right of Colin Fisher to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical...

Words: 142971 - Pages: 572

Premium Essay

Title

...[pic] ББК 81.2.1. Англ. М41 Рецензенты: кафедра английского языка Новгородского государственного университета им. Ярослава Мудрого (зав. кафедрой, доцент, кандидат филологических наук Е. Ф. Жукова) доцент кафедры английской филологии № 2 Санкт-Петербургского государственного университета М. В. Сорокина Меркулова Е. М., Филимонова О. Е., Костыгина С. И., Иванова Ю. А., Папанова Л. В. М41 Английский язык для студентов университетов. Чтение, письменная и устная практика. Серия «Изучаем иностранные языки».— СПб.: Издательство Союз, 2000.— 384 с. ISBN 5-87852-114-8 Настоящая книга представляет собой вторую часть учебного комплекса "English For University Students". Учебник включает текстовый материал и комплексную систему упражнений для отработки навыков устной и письменной речи на продвинутом этапе обучения. Материал отредактирован профессором кафедры современных языков и литератур Оклевдского университета Н. Ф. Лонганом. Все права защищены. ( «Издательство Союз», 2000 ( Меркулова Е. М.. Филимонова О. Е., Костыгина С. И., Иванова Ю. А., Папанова Л.В., 2000 ( В.А. Гореликов, художественное оформление, 2000 ISBN 5-87852-114-8 CONTENTS Lesson 1 FAMILY LIFE 3 Lesson 2 HOME 16 Lesson 3 DAILY ROUTINE 29 Lesson 4 DOMESTIC CHORES 41 Lesson 5 SHOPPING FOR FOOD 54 Lesson 6 SHOPPING FOR CONSUMER GOODS 68 Lesson 7 MEALS AND COOKING 81 Lesson 8 COLLEGE LIFE 96 ...

Words: 96008 - Pages: 385