Shakespeare Essays

Ask people to give an example of a rich mixture of romantic lyricism, crammed with deadly enmity, tantalizing love, clandestine marriage, farce and heart – breaking tragedy, most would respond with ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the remarkable tale of ‘star crossed lovers’, is one of the most famous literary tragedies in history. Written in 1595, Shakespeare…

I have been given the task of showing the similarities and differences between The Charge of the Light Brigade, a poem, and the speech at Harfleur, taken from the play Henry V. Both of these, though different styles of writing, represent images of war. The first comparison I can see is repetition. In The Charge…

Shakespeare presents women in the play in a number of guises, most of these promote women as the superior sex. For example he presents Hermione as essentially the heroine of the play. In the court she stands up to the mad tyrant that is Leontes in the face of almost certain death. She doesn’t lose…

The Winter’s Tale is a play of extremes of character, mood and genre, the play therefore cannot easily be categorised. As a result, in considering a question such as this we must be conscious of the fact that we are measuring the comic elements’ relative value against, for example, the tragic or romantic sides of…

Shakespeare’s play ‘The Winter’s Tale’ was written in the Victorian era. At this period in time there were many etiquette laws that dictated a person’s actions in every situation. These laws were mainly manners and morals, such as how a gentleman should treat a lady. Throughout the 1800’s and even into the early 1900’s upper-class…

In Act One, Scene Five, the masked ball scene, of Romeo and Juliet, a myriad of different moods and tensions are created through Shakespeare’s use of characters and their interactions. He brings up emotions such as warmth, anger and romance and from this, opinions of the characters are created in the audience. His utilisation of…

Act I, Scene5 is a very important scene in the play, and it is a decisive moment. This is where the main conflict of the play is first revealed to the audience, and this has a dramatic effect as the audience’s expectation and curiosity is finally met. The conflict starts when Verona’s two rival families’…

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a play written by William Shakespeare and is about a boy and girl from “two households both alike in dignity,” who fall in love putting aside their family feud. Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet. There are films based on this story taken from different periods of time. ‘Romeo…

“Romeo and Juliet” is a fantastic play for an audience. It starts off with a public brawl between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. Despite all the drama, by the end of Act 2 Romeo and Juliet get married secretly. Act 3 scene 1 comes as a shock for both families as there are two fights,…

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most well known plays ever written, and part of the works that made William Shakespeare famous. The play’s inextricable link between love and conflict is analysed by looking at the play’s characters and actions. In the play, Shakespeare entwined fact and fiction, by looking at the history of…

Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare he was, a world renowned play writer and a lot of his plays are still performed today he is best known for writing plays about life. For example Romeo and Juliet was a play written about the love between two people. He has also written comedies which at…

Shakespeare’s portrayal of conflict is evident in a variety of ways. The audience’s perception of the emotional and physical conflict relies on the language of the characters, character actions and the contrasting scenes reflecting the contrasting conflicts. Moral, emotional, religious, social and private force conflict are all expressed and explored through the play. How successful…

Romeo and Juliet is certainly among the world’s greatest plays, and the story of Shakespeare’s ‘star-crossed’ young lovers whose fate is sealed by their quarrelling families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is the touchstone fable of romantic love. Coincidence, chance, unawareness: fate weaves its inexorable pattern against the background of a bitter and deadly feud,…

Shakespeare creates a dramatic atmosphere in Act III scene I through several different aspects of the play. Not only in this scene; but also by using the previous acts to build up the tension. Shakespeare achieves this with the themes of love, hate and conflict within the play. Conflict is used for suspense regularly. It…

Shakespeare makes very interesting in act 1 scene 5 the importance of this scene is that two lovers take their life. the two lovers meet on the party that was held by Capulet. (Paris a kinsman of the prince) Paris is anxious to marry Capulet daughter Juliet, and Capulet favor this union, as it will…

Baz Luhrmann has used a vast array of media techniques to attract a modern audience to his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The opening of the film features a 20th century television news report. Luhrmann has chosen to cast a black American female newsreader, contradicting our expectations of a white English cast throughout….

On 16 April 1564, the time Elizabeth I was Queen of England. William Shakespeare was christened in the prosperous market-town of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. His father was a tradesman who in the same town not only sold gloves but made them too. He was educated in the grammar school also in this town. It is known…

When Shakespeare was alive going to the theatre was a lot different than it is now, You didn’t get fancy seat’s, If you had a bit of money you might have a seat if your lucky but most people would stand up. It was a very social event so it was very noisy, It would…

Twelfth Night is a play written by William Shakespeare to be performed on stage. It was written at around 1600 and about half way through Shakespeare’s career as a playwright. The first recorded production was given at the Hall of the Inner Temple, London in 1602. The play is known has ‘Twelfth Night’ because it…

Act 2 Scene 5 of ‘Twelfth Night’ by William Shakespeare is the scene in which Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian lay the foundation of their revenge by leaving a letter for Malvolio supposedly written by Olivia saying that she loves him. The scene is made dramatic in various ways. First of all, prior…

Viola makes her entrance into the play in Scene 2, when she emerges out of the sea after a ship wreck. She is distraught the first time we meet her, as she has just lost her twin brother in the ship wreck. The fact that she is so distraught needs to be emphasised in the…

In Twelfth Night William Shakespeare uses many forms of deception on Malvolio and the other characters for humour purposes. The deception devices used are mistaken identity, cross dressing, disguise, forged handwriting, self deception, word play and dramatic irony. Malvolio’s character is deceived by forged handwriting, disguise, word play and self deception. The devices used to…

Love, obsession and disguise all play key roles in the actions of the main characters featured in Twelfth Night. Orsino is obsessed Olivia and with the idea of being in love, but this does not bring him happiness, but makes him melancholic. We see he is also quite a wise character as well at times,…

By act 3, scene 4 the audience is familiar with the characters and the audience is also aware of the plot to trick Malvolio. They are therefore looking forward to being entertained. There is further amusement at the end of the scene when Sir Toby arranges a duel between Cesario and Sir Andrew. All of…

Shakespeare uses a wide range of skills to portray the development of a character throughout the play. Through using the stage and actions of the actors to convey the drama and emphasise how the characters are feeling, and through careful language that allows the audience and reader an insight into the characters personality, both being…

In the play Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare creates a plot in which the relations are sabotaged by the characters and their disguises. Question of identity prevail in the most of the main characters in the play, like viola/Cesario, who work to achieve their goals. This gives place to a romantic tangled up comedy, where love…

Mercutio’s name derives from the adjective Mercurial which is also known as ‘changeable’ The variations of his name give a relevant insight into the complicated character of Mercutio. Other names such as Mercury – the Roman messenger God suggest the quick paced humour and witty character. All these many names speak a lot about his…

How does Shakespeare make Act 3 Scene 5 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ especially dramatic? Explain and comment on the varying thoughts and feelings of the characters in this scene. What techniques do you think are particularly successful in creating dramatic tension? ‘Romeo and Juliet’, is a story of two young lovers, whose love was destined…

Act 3 scenes 5 evokes Shakespeare’s pity from the audience in many ways the use of language, characters and dramatic devices creates the general feeling of sympathy for Juliet. I personally feel Shakespeare’s best use way of provoking sympathy is through the use of the character Capulet and how he uses isolation and manipulation to…

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an Elizabethan tragedy play, written in the sixteenth century. This is an important aspect to the play because terms like ‘courtly lover’ would have been initially understood by an audience of that time, whereas, at present, it is virtually unknown. The phrase ‘courtly lover’ was a way to describe…