Oral presentation Good afternoon, Dramatic irony! Dramatic irony is when (in a play), the audience knows something that the characters in the play don’t. I have chosen to select 2 passages from the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that contain dramatic irony and explain how and why they are used. Dramatic irony is ever present in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and helps with the understanding of personality traits and motivations of some of the characters, along with foreshadowing, which is a little hint of what is to come in the play. Now!
Someone once said, "All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason, that motivates characters in literature." He/she recognized the fact that, in books, most characters think unreasonably and then act on impulses when they are overcome with emotion. This is also proven in Shakespeare's play, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" and Charlotte Bronte's gothic novel, Jane Eyre. In Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo disregards his reasoning and makes hurried decisions as he is influenced by his passion, while in Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester, though he possesses a great deal of wit, lets his feelings get in the way of his judgment and pursues a young love interest, Jane, when he knows of the social standards that forbid him to fall in love with a peasant.
While both films depict the complicated structure of the play with accuracy, Branagh makes his analysis clear and defined, while Zeffirelli seems to rely on the story and hides the issues of the play, making his personal interpretation less obvious. In both films many aspects of the story are portrayed differently. One aspect was the theory of the ghost .In Branagh’s film, when Hamlet discovers through Horatio, Marcellus and Bernado that his father’s ghost has revealed himself, he quotes the lines from the play, “My father’s spirit in arms!
Much Ado About Nothing Love Story Shakespeare My first impression of Much Ado About Nothing is that it would be a love story. Although it is categorised as a Shakespearean comedy, I found the many "funny" parts of the play were foggy and required you to read the scene over a few times before you understood them. But then again, I had to read the whole scene over again a few times to understand anything. All of the characters in Much Ado About Nothing seemed to develop a personality of their own from the very first scene. It also helped that I saw the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing before we read the play so I could almost get a picture in my head as to what each character looked like.
Romeo and Juliet essay Romeo and Juliet is a romantic/tragedy play written by William Shakespeare. It opens with a 14 line sonnet, in which he outlines both negative and positive aspects of the play. He uses language like ‘’Two households, both alike in dignity’’. This shows the similarities between both the families, the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. However, this is instantly contradicted by the use of vocabulary such as ‘ancient’ grudge and ‘new mutiny’.
Arthur Miller: Who, What, When, Where, Why, The Crucible “Right now I couldn’t tell you which details were taken from the records verbatim and which were invented,” Arthur Miller said as he described his play The Crucible to Henry Hewes for Hewes’ article, “Arthur Miller & How He Went to the Devil.” During the time of Miller’s writing of The Crucible, the playwright was experiencing some devils of his own. These devils are pressed deep within the core themes of The Crucible’s storyline, and Miller had many conversations like the one featured above to try to explain his references The Crucible. Miller was not shy as to what his play was about, but there are still many mysteries Miller did not fully unveil to his audiences. Miller wanted his viewers to keep an open mind about the play and after many years multiple speculations have been made about the intent of one of Miller’s most famous plays, The Crucible. It has been theorized for many years that Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is based on historical facts of Miller’s time, including the famous McCarthyism “witch hunt.” Miller also included many of his own personal experiences, including, authors who inspired him, his personal infatuation with the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, troubles with his wife and his own communist leanings.
Romeo and Juliet, just like any other play by Shakespeare, are not written to be read, instead, it is written to be seen on the stage. Looking back at the time when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet the theatres are different than it is now. Theatres today are quieter, has good lighting effect, air conditioning and all these new technologies which help the audience to pay more attention and understand the play more. So the playwright must include some interesting scenes. One example of which, is the act of violence.
According to many writers and scholars Hamlet changes from a slightly melancholy character into a gloomy depressed character. This idea can simply be revoked by a comparison of two quotes, one being expressed as early as Act I, scene one of the play, “how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world” (Shakespeare 26). The other in Act IV, "I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind" (Shakespeare 232), from these two quotes we learn that hamlet has not changed at all from the beginning of the play in terms of depression. In actuality he has just
Grotesque Characters The novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson is told in a series of loosely interconnected stories that have coinciding time frames and characters. There is no observable main character, unless the town of Winesburg can be thought of as one itself. Anderson uses a variety of literary devices to connect these short stories because there is no common theme for all of them. Although the author has integrated a broad assortment of human emotions, characters and behavioral outlines found in this one specific society, I have noticed Anderson’s use of Grotesques as a literary device to further enhance the story. Anderson defines what a Grotesque is in the first story, The Book of The Grotesque.
A short essay cannot investigate all instances of this occurrence in all works of the author, but could provide the reader with the major categories. This way, deception will become more recognizable and appreciated as a major element and a spine of the particular story. In two of the most famous Shakespeare’s plays where deception appears as a building block of the story are Hamlet and Othello. In Hamlet the prince uses deception as a tool to distract attention and hide better his strange but vital moves and activities necessary to gather enough information regarding Claudius. The deception comes in the form of fake madness.