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William Shakespeare
The way Shakespeare represents women in his plays varies wildly from play to play. This is a facet of his work that is both lauded and disliked by critics. Some believe Shakespeare has presented a...
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Christopher Marlowe
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) were born in the same year, but Marlowe died much earlier, meaning that he had a far shorter literary career. They both were...
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Romeo and Juliet
Much has been made of the friendship between Bassanio and Antonio in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Often, readers note that both Bassanio and Antonio go to great lengths to help each other....
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare wrote three types of plays including comedies, tragedies and histories. Some critics, however, have argued that Shakespeare's last play The Tempest could be considered a tragicomedy,...
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William Shakespeare
There are strong links between The Tempest and William Shakespeare's own life. These revolve around the character of Prospero, his powers, and where he is in his "career" on the island. Start with...
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William Shakespeare
All three lived during roughly the same period in Britain, although Shakespeare was born more than two decades after the birth of the two queens and survived into the rule of James I. All were...
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William Shakespeare
The study of Shakespeare is still important for many reasons. One reason is that Shakespeare has had a vast influence on the English language and is the source of many idioms and metaphors that are...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's Sonnet LX is about Time as a destructive force. This destructiveness of Time is the threat to anything that is temporal. But the speaker contends that the sonnet, composed of...
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William Shakespeare
First, we need to think about the relationship between the notion of protagonist and "hero" or "heroine." The notion of a hero belongs to oral tradition and orally derived works, and is normally a...
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William Shakespeare
Both, actually, but a playwright for a living. He played a few roles for his theatre group, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, including (possibly) the ghost in Hamlet. But his canon of plays, especially...
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William Shakespeare
The first piece of evidence that you should cite in favor of the claim that Shakespeare was an outstanding writer is his critical reception. He has become one of the standard authors read by all...
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William Shakespeare
The first point one should make is that there is absolutely no way to prove this claim. There have been many great and influential writers across a wide range of periods and cultures, and there is...
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William Shakespeare
It is difficult to know which of Shakespeare’s plays were controversial when they first came out. Troilus and Cressida was likely very contentious during its time because it parodies classical...
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's largest contribution, in my view, is his popularization of the language of the English language Bible, particularly in that he borrowed liberally from the first Bible printed...
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Reference
William Shakespeare is famous for mainly four reasons. First, he was a famous “entertainer” is his lifetime, providing dozens of dramatic productions, both financially rewarding and...
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William Shakespeare
In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio begins the play with the line “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.” His inexplicable melancholy baffles and wearies him. His friends Salarino and Salanio...
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William Shakespeare
When plays took place at the Elizabethan theatre, those people who stood near the stage in the central inner area were called the groundlings. The groundlings were all those people in attendance...
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William Shakespeare
The black flag indicated a dark subject matter. Tragedy is a genre that usually involves serious themes and high drama. In Shakespeare's day, different flags flown over the Globe Theatre...
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William Shakespeare
When we look for figures of speech, we're looking for words and phrases that are not meant to be taken literally, so we're specifically looking to identify these devices: figurative comparisons...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's plays may be centuries old, but their popularity has never waned. There are a number of reasons for this. First, according to Professor Craven of the University of Texas,...
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Macbeth
According to renowned Shakespearean critic Harold Bloom, Macbeth is most deeply influenced by his imagination, as he terms the play "a tragedy of the imagination." Because of its numerous murders,...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare included clever phrases in many of his plays. Some of those phrases are still commonly used in the English language today. Below you will find a few of them. - "Break the ice."...
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare wrote during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, under Queen Elizabeth and King James. His plays depict a broad range of masculine expressions throughout many eras. His young men tend to...
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William Shakespeare
Here’s a simple Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (English) sonnet. Let’s break down the diagram to look into these similarities and...
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William Shakespeare
It's interesting how this speech from the play As You Like It has captured people's imaginations so much that it sort of detached itself from the play and became a poem in its own right. We know...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born on an undetermined date in April of 1564 and lived until April 23, 1616 (which several scholars believe was also the day of his birth). The only primary source records...
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's wife's name was Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare was 18 when he married her. She was 26 and pregnant. They had three children, the oldest named Susanna, followed by twins Hamnet and Judith....
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's sonnet 61 and sonnet 138 both offer interesting glimpses into the complicated nature of romantic relationships. Both pieces have similarities and differences, and so it helps to...
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Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet are two of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays. Both have gripping plots, poetic language, and memorable characters. Romeo and Juliet is the famous tale of “A pair of...
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 is about the definition of true love. While it is not as inventive as some of his other sonnets, the images and metaphors it contains effectively establish the idea that...
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Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare is one of the most prolific writers in known history. His plays and sonnets are internationally revered. They have also had significant impact on modern society. There are too many ways...
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William Shakespeare
Shakespeare can be rewarding to people of any age. His language is sometimes very difficult, but his stories range from gripping and shocking to hilarious and moving. Something that is much debated...
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Henry IV, Part I
This phrase is from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. Henry IV, Part 1 is part of a series of history plays tracing the career of Prince Henry, also known as Prince Hal, who would eventually become...
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William Shakespeare
In Julius Caesar, Antony's funeral speech is more powerful than Brutus' speech because Antony honors Caesar and makes his murder seem unjust, which is juxtaposed with Brutus' attempt to justify the...
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William Shakespeare
Deconstruction is a literary approach which looks very closely at the language and logic of texts by breaking them down into smaller parts. Like a building is "constructed," texts like novels,...
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William Shakespeare
This question likely has an infinite number of answers, as Shakespeare's plays propose a variety of different interpretations of the world. Some plays (the comedies) are more uplifting, while...
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William Shakespeare
Many Shakesperean scholars have studied whether or not (and where) the real life of William Shakespeare affected his work. We must assume that some of his writing on love and grief were reflections...
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William Shakespeare
Aside from the pure enjoyment (or, perhaps from some students' perspective, torment) that Shakespeare's plays provide us today, they have lingering cultural significance. Perhaps the most important...
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Macbeth
John Milton was a prolific English poet who lived between 1608 and 1674. One of his more famous quotes is "calm of mind, all passion spent." The quote is from "Samson Agonistes" and is the final...
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William Shakespeare
There are some existing theories that William Shakespeare did not write some of the plays and sonnets that have historically been attributed to him. Most of these are not generally accepted by...
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William Shakespeare
I assume that you are asking this question in reference to a Shakespearean play such as Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's time, acting was considered a low profession, not far above prostitution....
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William Shakespeare
Bloom also calls Hamlet a psychological study and names Hamlet as "Freud's mentor." In a chapter entitled "Shakespeare's Universalism," Bloom extols Shakespeare's "uncanny power of rendering of...
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William Shakespeare
The existence of the "tragicomedy" genre is frequently debated among scholars and critics, as Shakespeare did not necessarily place his plays in specific genres or categories. However, there are...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is famous for his plays and his sonnets. He probably wrote 38 plays during the course of his life (his authorship of some are disputed) and 154 sonnets. Several of his plays...
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William Shakespeare
Political events had a profound impact on Shakespeare's plays in ways large and small. Shakespeare was inspired by both the politics of his time and the politics of previous eras of English history...
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William Shakespeare
Well, as you probably guessed, Shakespeare's sonnets are composed largely on the theme of love. Many of Shakespeare's sonnets were said to be dedicated to a "young man," others to a "dark lady."...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is widely acknowledged as the most important figure in English literature. Although some people consider him the "best" author in the English language, that point of view is...
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William Shakespeare
The "language" of the stage is a complex of communications that vary through time -- for example, the "fourth wall" idea of pre-modern times. In Shakespeare's time, playwrights counted on "the...
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William Shakespeare
The first casket is gold and reads, “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” The Prince of Morocco chooses the gold box. Inside he finds “A carrion Death, within whose empty eye /...
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William Shakespeare
The details provided about the speaker's mistress in "Sonnet 130" are made known more by what the speaker says she isn't than what she is. In fact, the whole sonnet is a sort of knowing wink at the...
