Essays on William Shakespeare Page 97

Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare (in 1606) at the beginning of the 17th century, for King James 1st. At this time the Elizabethan’s believed that witches were real and actually did these evil deeds. At the time when the play was written the “Divine right of Kings” was written to protect the…

When ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ was written around 1593-1594, the working classes and servants made up the vast majority of the British population. This led to common social stereotyping of the servant classes. This can be clearly seen in some of Shakespeare’s early plays including ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. In this play there…

In this essay I am going to talk about Lady Macbeth and whether she was a good or bad person. This is a very contentious argument. There are many obvious reasons as to why we could see Lady Macbeth was a bad person such as she was involved in the murder of King Duncan. However,…

There are many factors, which can be taken into account when deciding to what extent Macbeth was responsible for his own downfall. Macbeth was affected by three categories of influence, which were: the witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Throughout the tragedy, the three categories evolved in different ways, effecting Macbeth and bringing various consequences to…

Shakespeare’s Taming of the shrew is an infamous Elizabethan play which has caused a lot of controversy. Act two, scene one is a key section of the play as it confronts many issues such as women’s passive position in society, the importance of dowries, patriarchal society, among many other pressing concerns of the time. In…

On Thursday 22nd May, I saw a performance of William Shakespeare‘s ‘Taming of the shrew. ‘ It was a matinee performance and took place in the Royal Shakespeare theatre, in Stratford upon Avon. The play is about a father (Baptista) with two daughters, Katherine and Bianca. Bianca is sweet and well behaved, and there are…

Sydney Walker speaks to the gods. Which ones? William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and other deities of the theatre, who have taken time off their otherworldly duties to talk with the veteran San Francisco actor. Actors will be envious of Walker. Others may be skeptical. But it’s impossible not to believe the…

The first American Shakespeare company to claim the distinction of having its entire repertoire booked into London’s West End offers a succinct statement of its artistic philosophy: “To put the shake’ back into Shakespeare.” Indeed, the American RSC Reduced Shakespeare Company, that is does everything succinctly. The three-actor troupe crams all 37 plays plus the…

In ‘Julius Caesar’, William Shakespeare instantly identifies the differences of status and class between the characters. He manages this by using different techniques such as ‘prose’ and ‘blank verse’. The devices help differentiates the character’s class by the way they speak. The low class – commoners – who are called “idle creatures” by the tribunes…

In Elizabethan contexts, women are often portrayed to play a peculiar and often stifled role in society. Considered to be one of the greatest writers in the Elizabethan era, William Shakespeare often uses female characters to assume the roles of somewhat rebellious women in the era. In addition to this, views on women and marriage…