The Role of Minor Characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet
Minor characters play a very crucial role in Shakespear's Hamlet. They serve as narrators for events that occurred outside the immediate play: the Dane's ghost. Distinct contrasts are created through the usage of the play's minor characters. The reader gains new perspective on Hamlet's character when he is compared with Laertes. The presence of these minor characters can also have a direct effect on the action of the play. The actors in the play within the play are used to expose the guilt of Claudius; Hamlet then has proof of the King's crimes. The expertise use of these characters - either to exemplify good and purity, or to spread the vile corruption which permeates Elsinore - is one of the main reasons for Hamlet's success as one of the greatest plays ever written.
Some events in Hamlet must be narrated to the reader, and to the major characters, through minor characters which have a direct link to the events. Shakespear builds the entire play around information which was narrated to Hamlet by his father's ghost. The ghost tells Hamlet of events which the reader would otherwise never know about: the murder of the former Dane by Claudius. When Horatio reads the letter that he has received from Hamlet the reader is informed of how Hamlet has evaded Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Also, the events occurring in Norway reach the court by means of an emissary, Voltimand, sent to check on Fortinbras. These events have a strong and direct relevancy to the plot and movement of the play.
Shakespear uses contrast to highlight the qualities of the characters in Hamlet; this contrast shows up in the minor characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, false friends of Hamlet who succumb to Claudius' corruptness, serve as a distinct contrast to the loyal friendship that Horatio shares with Hamlet. Voltimand is used to contrast Polonius' often comic verbosity. While Polonius dresses up all his speeches with the language of the court, Voltimand is able to give his entire report on Fortinbras in a matter of seconds. The most powerful foil in the play is between Laertes and Hamlet. Upon hearing of the death of his father, Laertes becomes enraged, and seeks immediate vengeance; he does not delay, and acts instantaneously. When the ghost tells Hamlet of Claudius' crimes, Hamlet is unable to act. He procrastinates, missing many opportunities to avenge his father, and acts when it is already too late.
Although the play Hamlet is largely centered around the “tragic hero” Hamlet, it is the minor foil characters that gives us a deeper understanding of the text and a more conscious understanding of the internal struggles experienced by Hamlet. Each of these characters contrasts a specific aspect of Hamlet that would otherwise be overlooked. Horatio consolidates all of the desirable features that Hamlet wants to be into one person. Fortinbras, although in the exact same situation as Hamlet with his father dead and his uncle on the throne, is the complete opposite of Hamlet by choosing action over inaction. Finally, Ophelia personifies Hamlet’s innocence and the death of his innocence after the death of his father. Despite being opposites of each other, each of these characters bring a new outlook on the tragedy of Hamlet.
Netzley, Patricia D. The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: New Discovery, 1994. Print.
On November 22, 1963, at 12:30 in the afternoon, President John F. Kennedy was shot at and killed while participating in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. The most important question that arises from this incident is ‘Who killed President John F. Kennedy?’ This is an issue which has been debated by scholars, The Government, and even common people alike. Many people seem to feel that it was a conspiracy, some large cover-up within a cover-up.
On November 22,1963,President Kennedy was in attendance at a Dallas parade.One of the biggest tragic moments happened in U.S. history before the naked eye.President John F. Kennedy was assassinated around 12:34 p.m.as he celebrated with the Dallas crowd to show admiration towards them and their city(Mintaglio 60).The suspected assassin Robert L. Oswald,a former U.S. marine,was afterward caught not long following the assassination in a near by theatre(Newman 56).Later to discover he himself was assassinated by Jack Ruby while he was being escorted publicly to the court room.A study of the John F.Kennedy assassination would include the conspiracy theories, the plans of the assassination ,and the alleged suspects‘ connections.
On a warm, sunny November day in Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated through what still remains to be a mystery. President Kennedy’s motorcade rode through the Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm when three shots were fired from Lee Harvey Oswald in a Depository building severely injuring President Kennedy and wounding Governor Connally. President Kennedy was transported to Dallas Parkland Hospital where he was pronounced officially dead thirty minutes later. The cold hand of Lee Harvey Oswald also murdered Officer J.D. Tippit because Officer Tippit recognized Oswald. Oswald was eventually arrested by Dallas police and brought to a more secure Dallas jail. After he had made his way into the secure basement, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby who shot him out of anger that he killed John F. Kennedy. On November 23, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was killed, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in to be the Next President of the United States. There are many conspiracy theories about the JFK Assassination, but one is that the CIA murdered John Fitzgerald Kennedy because of his radical ideas at the time.
Most characters in Hamlet present themselves as something other than themselves or how as we, the audience, or another character thinks they should appear. Two of the main characters in this play, Hamlet and King Claudius, are constantly acting as something other than their true nature. Ironically, the characters that invoke changes in Hamlet and King Claudius to reveal their real personalities are the players, merely actors themselves, not showing true emotion: (in this short analysis, I will attempt to display the truth revealed by the players) they agitate King Claudius and allow Hamlet to see their appearance as more accurate to the truth than the appearance of "real life characters," therefore triggering him to take action. Despite their fraudulent feelings, the players play a key role in showing the audience, not to mention Hamlet and King Claudius themselves, their true emotions on a tragic situation.
Many would perceive madness and corruption to play the most influential role in Hamlet. However, it could be argued that the central theme in the tragedy is Shakespeare's presentation of actors and acting and the way it acts as a framework on which madness and corruption are built. Shakespeare manifests the theme of actors and acting in the disassembly of his characters, the façades that the individuals assume and the presentation of the `play within a play'. This intertwined pretence allows certain characters to manipulate the actions and thoughts of others. For this reason, it could be perceived that Shakespeare views the `Elsinorean' tragedy as one great puppet show, "I could see the puppets dallying".
While reading early Japanese literature, it is apparent that poetry embedded within the prose is a significant part of the overall experience of the storylines. There are times at which, in the case of Ise Monogatari, it is apparent that the story, written in prose, is not the main focus of the entry. The poetry is a delicate form of self-expression that was the only form of expression in the time before fiction and journal entries. “The seeds of Japanese poetry lie in the human heart and grow into leaves of ten thousand words. Many things happen to the people of this world, and all they think and feel is given expression in description of things they see and hear. […] It is poetry which, without effort, moves heaven and earth, stirs the feelings of the invisible gods and spirits, smooths the relations of men and women, and calms the hearts of fierce warriors” (Rodd 35) The “leaves of ten thousand words” is in reference to the literal meaning of “Man'yōshū”, a very famous, large compilation of Japanese poems that has influenced many things following it.
While researching the Kennedy assassination there were many articles, saying that the mob was involved in the shooting. The writers were convinced that there was more than one person involved when it came too killing John Kennedy, on that warm sunny day in downtown Dallas. However, while these authors were convinced that there was another party involved, so was the rest of America with eighty percent saying the report was false. The goal of this paper is to bring this topic into the spotlight once more, by connecting the shooting of the president with the mob, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
A. On that day in 1963, the 35th president John F Kennedy was assassinated while driving through Dealey Plaza in Texas (Nelson, “Breach of Trust”).
In the same way Japanese poetry often alludes to or derives from the canon of poetry that precedes it, noh plays are often based off of classical Japanese literary sources that form the framework for the play’s themes and moral message. Many of these plays reference poems from revered anthologies, such as the Shinkokinshū, within the play’s dialogue, but it is the monogatari or tales that provide the foundation for certain noh plotlines because of their vast array of character references and plotlines. These tales are the primary sources of information for two plays in particular written by the famous Japanese playwright Zeami: Atsumori and Matsukaze. The warrior-play Atsumori draws from the famous war epic The Tale of Heike to further an anti-war message grounded in the original text, as well as to further explore Buddhist themes of attachment and karmic ties. Matsukaze draws its origins and background from Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and Ariwara no Narihira’s The Tales of Ise for location, tone, and themes of longing in order to juxtapose the Buddhist duality of attachment and detachment from this world.
This alignment involves the assessment of implementing the chosen business strategy through appropriate IT strategy and the articulation of the required IT infrastructure and processes. This strategy is not constrained by the current organization design, but instead seeks to identify the best possible IT competencies through appropriate positioning in IT marketplaces.
In his preface of the Kokinshū poet Ki no Tsurayaki wrote that poetry conveyed the “true heart” of people. And because poetry declares the true heart of people, poetry in the minds of the poets of the past believed that it also moved the hearts of the gods. It can be seen that in the ancient past that poetry had a great importance to the people of the time or at least to the poets of the past. In this paper I will describe two of some of the most important works in Japanese poetry the anthologies of the Man’yōshū and the Kokinshū. Both equally important as said by some scholars of Japanese literature, and both works contributing greatly to the culture of those who live in the land of the rising sun.
The Tale of Heike." Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Ed. Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. 736-39. Print.
The univariate measures of mean, standard deviation are used primarily to understand the nature of the distribution of the variables. In the second stage, correlation analysis is applied to assess the association between the variables. Finally, for the purpose of assessing the research hypotheses and conceptual model, structural equation modeling is used as the multivariate analysis. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is calculated to ensure the internal consistency and composite reliability. Two step approaches are considered to complete the data analyses (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Confirmatory Factor Analysis is used to estimate the measurement model as the first step. The purpose of the analysis is to ensure the reliability and validity of the concerned constructs in the study. Structural model consisting hypotheses is tested using the structural equation modeling as the second step. The purpose of this testing is to test the hypotheses involved in the conceptual