Essays on Plays

1654

The Importance of The Act 5, Scene 1 in Shakaspeare's Othello

2 pages / 1078 words

The first scene of Othello’s fifth act, unlike those before it, is dominated by physical violence, with Iago at the centre playing the “puppet master”. This scene reminds the audience of the capabilities Iago possesses in controlling the more malleable characters, namely Roderigo. Shakespeare also...

Literature Review Othello William Shakespeare

1655

The Theme of Power and Control in Othello, The Collector, and Notes on a Scandal

7 pages / 3290 words

The use and abuse of power relations has been a central feature of literary narrative from the beginning of culture. The Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler posited the drive for power as being one of the primal characteristics of the human conscious and unconscious. Othello is...

Othello William Shakespeare

1656

The Construction of Desdemona's Character as Feminine Woman

4 pages / 1820 words

Marilyn French asserts that Shakespeare only constructs two types of women, the “virtuous subhuman or deceiving subhuman.” In conjugation with the Elizabethan expectation of an “acceptable version of the feminine” woman, a woman who is passive, obedient and chaste, Shakespeare has constructed Desdemona as a...

Literature Review Othello William Shakespeare

1657

Iago: Character's Literary Study

2 pages / 915 words

According to the great English essayist and scholar William Hazlitt, the character of Iago from William Shakespeare’s masterpiece Othello “is one of the supererogations of Shakespeare’s genius,” due the fact that Iago’s “villainy is without a sufficient motive” (345). Othello is one of the four...

Iago Othello William Shakespeare

1658

The Possibility of Real Figure Standing Behind The Iago Character

3 pages / 1593 words

It has been suggested by many scholars and critics that William Shakespeare (1564-1616) “borrowed” the plotlines in his plays from various sources, such as the tragic works of the ancient Greeks and Romans and from other European writers that lived during and before the so-called...

Iago Othello William Shakespeare

1659

Sexual Politics and Gender Discourse in Othello

2 pages / 1009 words

In “Women and Men in Othello: ‘what should such a fool/Do with so good a woman?’,” critic Carol Thomas Neely asserts that nearly all rational thought in Othello comes from women. In Neely’s view, the men of Othello are too consumed by pride, jealousy, and...

Othello

1660

Protagonists' Downfall in Othello and Macbeth

11 pages / 5283 words

The tragedy in both Othello and Macbeth is found not so much in the scattering of bodies covering the stage at the end of each play, but instead in the degeneration of the plays’ respective protagonists. Men championed by Shakespeare at the beginning of the...

Macbeth Othello William Shakespeare

1661

The Theme of Opposition and Contradiction in Othello Through The Character of Iago

4 pages / 1789 words

The name Iago comes from Latin, “Iacobus,” meaning “one who trips up another and takes his place.” This name also belongs to the most important character in Shakespeare’s Othello and one of the most wonderfully evil characters of all time. The character Iago is more...

Iago Othello William Shakespeare

1662

Othello: Desdemona as a Representation of Power and Possession

3 pages / 1403 words

Desdemona character analysis (essay) Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, treats her as an object through which he defines himself. He is a Venetian senator and favors Othello, the Moorish general of the Venetian forces. But when his daughter, Desdemona, decides to marry Othello, he is outraged. Iago,...

Character Othello William Shakespeare

1663

Juxtaposition of Settings in Othello by William Shakespeare

1 page / 771 words

Geographical juxtaposition is not uncommon in the genius works of William Shakespeare. In his renowned play, Othello, Shakespeare exploits the stark contrasts in the story’s two settings, the two cities of Venice and Cyprus. Shakespeare presents the environmental, moral, and behavioral dichotomies between Venice and...

Literature Review Othello William Shakespeare

1664

The Significance of Emilia's Character in Othello

2 pages / 810 words

In Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the character Emilia is essential in exploring the theme of gender and the expectations placed on women. The anonymous writer of, “From Counsel to the Husband: To the Wife Instruction” believes the answer to maintaining a happy marriage is for both...

Character Othello William Shakespeare

1665

Female Heroines in The Much Ado About Nothing

4 pages / 1737 words

A central theme in “Much Ado about Nothing” is that of the literary tradition of a heroine within the social conventions surrounding women. The literary tradition of the time (and indeed, in many cases, up to the present day) bestows the conventional heroine with beauty,...

Much Ado About Nothing

1666

Don John's Antithesis Figure in Much Ado About Nothing

3 pages / 1318 words

The world presented in Much Ado About Nothing is populated mostly by noble characters: The Prince of Aragon, Lord Claudio, Lord Benedick, The Governor of Messina and his daughter and niece. These characters embody the courtly ideas of social grace and wit, qualities that drive...

Much Ado About Nothing

1667

The Apparent Versus The Real in Much Ado About Nothing

4 pages / 1766 words

Many characters in Shakespeare’s plays disguise themselves in one way or another. An important component of many of the his plays is the masked revels. A character adopting a new outward persona is not at all unusual. This use of contrasting the apparent versus the...

Much Ado About Nothing

1668

The Construction of Heroines in Shakespeare's Comedy Plays

6 pages / 3018 words

Throughout the span of the comedies, Shakespeare allows his female characters to establish a greater amount of independence and freedom than they would have actually been allowed for the time period. This freedom is not necessarily a feminist action on Shakespeare’s part, but mainly serves...

Much Ado About Nothing The Taming of The Shrew William Shakespeare

1669

'Man is a Giddy Thing': Reason and Emotion in Much Ado About Nothing

3 pages / 1643 words

In a play that so clearly focuses on the conflict between reason and emotion, it is a relief to find that the parallels so often drawn between these traits and men and women have been discarded. In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare has turned the...

Much Ado About Nothing

1670

Claudio as an Unsympathetic Character in Much Ado About Nothing

3 pages / 1457 words

Shakespeare’s light-hearted ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ explores both the triumph and tragedy which presents itself in the love of Hero and Claudio, using the latter as an easily deceived character whose errors almost culminate in a tragic ending to the play. Claudio’s character is presented...

Much Ado About Nothing

1671

Interpretation of The Title in Much Ado About Nothing

3 pages / 1412 words

At first glance, the reader is not likely to notice the immediate clue which presents itself in the title of William Shakespeare’s comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. If one, however, would follow the example of a Shakespearean player in Elizabethan times and pronounce the word...

Much Ado About Nothing

1672

Don Pedro's Character as a Leading Figure in Much Ado About Nothing

1 page / 793 words

Don Pedro is a very important character within Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, both within his own right and in terms of how he draws Shakespeare’s other characters together. Often referred to as “the Prince” from Aragon (“No Fear”), Don Pedro seems intelligent,...

Much Ado About Nothing