...Othello Notes Reputation/Honour Importance of the theme of Reputation / Honour in Othello: The significant theme of reputation and honour is portrayed frequently throughout the novel Othello. Many of the characters in the novel carefully consider the consequences of their thoughts and actions in regards to their reputation and honour, making sure that they appear noble even when their actions are irrational and selfish. Such an example is shown when Iago appears to be simply stating the obvious about Desdemona, instead of manipulating Othello to believe his own fears. Othello is dictated by his desire to live up to his reputation, achieved through years of being a general in Venice. Reputation, used in conjunction with jealousy and trust, provide the key elements which provoke Othello’s mental disintegration shown predominantly by language techniques, into a world of mistrust and assumption. It is logical to assume that Othello’s suicide was a consequence of his need to preserve any traces of reputation left from his dedicated work as a general; from the characteristics portrayed of Othello it is implied that the act of imprisonment would crush Othello – he would no longer be an honourable citizen. In a similar way to Othello’s suicide, Iago’s sudden and unpredicted vow of silence could be assumed to also be a form of self-preservation, manipulating other characters by preventing any more damage to his reputation by not accidentally admitting details of his ignobility. ...
Words: 8721 - Pages: 35
...and the stagnant “blacken’d waters” and “moated grange” act as an obstruction to her integration with the outside patriarchal world. This reflects the wider Victorian attitude regarding the home as “the centre of virtue and the proper life for women” and brings to light the impact that passivity in the greater context of society has on the role she plays in her private relationship. This idea of external influences is echoed much less figuratively in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ where “decreased birth rates” stimulated a change in the functioning of the governmental system and the politically organised passivity of women, creating a dystopian vision of patriarchy. A change in societal structure resulting in female passivity is also present in ‘Othello’. Desdemona’s transition from an assertive female who “challenge[s] that [she] may profess...
Words: 3969 - Pages: 16
...In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare develops the theme of hunger for power through the use of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism. Shakespeare ultimately proves that hunger for power can mislead a person from situations and turn good intentions, to bad intentions all because of there blind lust. Power, as grand as it may be, can always be misleading. William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed, taught, and studied for more than 400 years. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove maker in Stratford Upon-Avon, and created the play “Macbeth” in 1606. In 1582 William at the age of 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Juliet. Their only son Hamnet died aged just 11. By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy. These plays, such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear, often hinge on some fatal flaw in the lead character, and provide intriguing insights into the darker aspects of human nature. You can now see where this comes into play in other situations Macbeth is a play of contradiction and ambition. Macbeth, a well-known war general driven to become King, killed not only King Duncan to receive his kingship, but also all the heirs to the thrown which happened...
Words: 874 - Pages: 4
...since the middle ages. From Dante's Divina Commedia (1308-11) to Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590-96), purity is treated as an ideal for everybody to strive towards. It is always analogous to goodness. A character with this trait (more usually female ) is treated both by the narrative and many of the characters as being a shining example of good. Almost always beautiful, she often gives off a soft radiance that attracts people. She is almost exclusively soft-spoken, polite, optimistic, and just all round pleasant to be around. The 14th century alliterative poems Pearl , Purity ,and Patience, draws easily on the Bible for its narrative and illustrate the virtue of purity in character. In Shakespearean tragedies like Othello , Desdemona is killed by her husband Othello who thinks she was unfaithful. The gentle-hearted Ophelia, Hamlet’s unfortunate lover, lost in a world too cruel for her pure fragile soul, is driven mad and topples from a branch into her watery death.Cordelia is the epitome of goodness in King Lear , for her loving virtuous and compassionate nature and, adherence to truth, which ironically turn against her. But The Tempest is a 'dramatic romance', a world of wish...
Words: 2425 - Pages: 10
...forms of verse, prose and of Drama. The conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy displaced English as medium of literature. The language of new rulers was French. Saxons dealing with the King had to learn French and French was the language of court and the law for three centuries. Four genres of Middle English are: i. 1. Fabliau 2. Lyric 3. Dream Allegory 4. Ballad Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer is the best story teller and the narrative poet. Chaucer tells his stories in a most effective way. He has the knack of transforming an old tale into a new one in such a manner that its appeal increases manifold and its human interest becomes perennial (lasting/permanent). An important feature of Chaucer's descriptive power is that his individual portrait also represents the type. Initially perhaps the sketches were devised to provide representatives of the chief classes of English society under the higher nobility. The portraits of the pilgrims are not all drawn in the same way. It is true that Chaucer...
Words: 2856 - Pages: 12
...THE DRAMATIC IRONY OF SOLOMON’S REQUEST FOR WISDOM INTRODUCTION King Solomon was a scholar and intellectual who knew the importance of discernment and wisdom in governing the people of Israel. He knew that it was important enough to ask God to grant him this wisdom rather than health, wealth or prosperity. The granted wisdom would ultimately lead to his downfall from God’s grace. Solomon, born to David at the height of his reign, never knew simplicity, David had erred once in fidelity, resulting in marriage to Solomon’s mother; Solomon erred many times over by marrying hundreds of pagan wives. Any service Solomon did perform for his people was more self-centered than other-centered. Living a lifestyle so far outside of God’s protective ideals resulted in a growing love for self, rather than for God. Solomon differed greatly from David, even early on, in his seeming lack of the passionate love for God that David possessed. His choices did nothing to kindle a growing love for the God he honored (Foster, 2005, 492). This paper will discuss how Solomon’s request for wisdom is an example of dramatic irony on the part of the Kings historian. This will be accomplished by defining what dramatic irony is and then examining Solomon’s character and the early years of his reign as king of Israel. The wisdom that he requested led to choices that he made in his personal and professional life that ultimately...
Words: 2971 - Pages: 12
...May 2014 The Utter Infatuation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Over time, writing has become exceedingly prominent, and throughout generations it has tremendously improved, leaving behind some of the best literature pieces in history. Since writing began, many great authors, playwrights, and poets have emerged, contributing to the literary society and producing countless works of literature, some that are still read today. A few notable composers that left behind numerous classics include Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time due to his many great plays and his vast contribution to the English language. Some of his works include Hamlet, Othello, and the infamous Romeo and Juliet. Wrote in 1597, the tragic comedy tells the story of young Romeo and Juliet, who find themselves “in love at first sight”. Unfortunately for them, their love story goes awry when they learn their parents are mortal conflict between their parents, which ultimately caused their demise. Woven throughout the plot, many examples become present that show that the star-crossed lovers are not in love. It becomes clear Romeo and Juliet are merely infatuated with each other. The ill-fated couple focus only on each other’s physical appearances and are severely impulsive throughout the tragic story. “The play then impresses upon us the intensity of youthful love, at once joyful and desperate, while at the same time...
Words: 1621 - Pages: 7
...module concerned with issues of gender? Both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare are highly evocative pieces of theatre that have transcended the category of brilliance and have had a profound effect on the course of Western literature and culture. Both plays explore a broad range of themes, from the supernatural to comments on the power of religion in society. However, I have chosen to explore the ways in which they portray the theme of gender. Firstly I will examine the issues regarding gender in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in particular the oppression of the female characters. I will explore Shakespeare’s portrayal of Titania and Hermia and his ability to disguise the deeper feminist consciousness that is at work. I will then look at the way in which gender is presented in Miller’s The Crucible, ranging from the heroic depiction of John Proctor to the oppositional presentations of Abigail and Elizabeth. William Shakespeare is a famously suggestive author in terms of highlighting issues regarding gender ideology. Although in some works, such as Othello, he reflects and arguably supports the stereotyping of men and women, he is also seen to challenge such representations. A Midsummer Night’s Dream dramatizes tensions between genders, from a young woman quarrelling with her father for the right to choose her own husband, to Theseus marrying Hippolyta whom he conquered through violence and even a bitter battle between Oberon and Titania...
Words: 2021 - Pages: 9
...Early European Theater • The writings of this period were primarily hymns, sermons and similar theologically oriented works. • Latin became a literary medium. • Major preserves of learning are the monasteries. • 8th century Europe returned to greater stability under the Carolingian kings. ➢ Charles Martel – defeated the Moslems at Tours in 732 AD, through his innovative use of armored horsemen as the principal military force, initiating the development of knighthood. ➢ Charlemagne – extended his realm into the Slavic territories and converting non- Christians on the way. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope and pronounced him as the successor to Constantine. The scenario was the first attempt to establish the Holy Roman Empire. • Charlemagne’s death caused Europe to break into small units isolated from each other and from the world. • Moslem controlled the Mediterranean and the Vikings, still pagans, conquered the northern seas. Early Middle Ages • Life was relatively simple. • Feudalistic patterns were fully established. ➢ Manor (large estate)- headed by a noble man, assumed absolute authority over the peasants who worked his land collectively. ➢ Vassals – supplies the lords a specified number of knights upon demand and the lords in return were bound to protect their vassals. The Theater (500- 900 AD) • The theater revived during the early Middle Ages. • After the Western Roman...
Words: 7202 - Pages: 29
...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
...Chapter II: literature of the renaissance (End of the 15th - beginning of the 17th century) In the 15th - 16th centuries capitalist relation began to develop in Europe. The former townspeople became the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie fought against feudalism because it held back the development of capitalism. The decay of feudalism and the development of capitalist relation were followed by a great rise in the cultural life of Europe. There was an attempt at creating a new culture which would be free from the limitation of the feudal ideology of the Middle Ages. The epoch was characterized by a thirst for knowledge and discoveries, by a powerful development of individuality. It was then that great geographical discoveries of Columbus, Magellan and other travelers as well as astronomical discoveries of Copernicus, Bruno, Galilei were made. The invention of the printing press (Fyodorov in Russia, Guttenberg in Germany, Caxton in England) contributed to the development of culture in all European countries. Universities stopped being citadels of religious learning and turned into centers of humanist study. There was a revival of interest in the ancient culture of Greece and Rome ("Renaissance" is French for "rebirth"). The study of the works of ancient philosophers, writers, and artists helped the people to widen their outlook, to know the world and man's nature. On the basis of both the ancient culture and the most progressive elements of the culture of the...
Words: 8940 - Pages: 36
...Chapter One A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic gooseflesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. The overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables. "And this," said the Director opening the door, "is the Fertilizing Room." Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration. A troop of newly arrived students, very young, pink and callow, followed nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director's heels. Each of them carried a notebook, in which, whenever the great man spoke, he desperately...
Words: 64884 - Pages: 260
...The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes- a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT P H I L O S O P H Y Julia Annas THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes ART HISTORY Dana Arnold ARTTHEORY Cynthia Freeland THE HISTORYOF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin ATHEISM Julian Baggini AUGUSTINE HenryChadwick BARTHES Jonathan Culler THE B I B L E John Riches BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright BUDDHA Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM DamienKeown CAPITALISM James Fulcher THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe CHOICETHEORY Michael Allingham CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley COSMOLOGY Peter Coles CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy DADAAND SURREALISM David Hopkins DARWIN Jonathan Howard DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick DESCARTES TomSorell DRUGS Leslie Iversen TH E EARTH Martin Redfern EGYPTIAN...
Words: 34946 - Pages: 140
...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...
Words: 82733 - Pages: 331
...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK 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, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
Words: 123617 - Pages: 495
