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Characterise shakespeare plays short topic
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In the beginning of A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is introduced as a profoundly religious man focused on adhering to the laws of his country and faith. As the play progresses the audience sees More putting further faith into his belief that by abiding to the present laws and withholding his opinion about King Henry VIII’s divorce he will be protected from prosecution. The issue starts when the King wishes to divorce his brother’s wife, who initially he had taken as his own through a special papal dispensation, in order to wed Queen Anne and produce a male heir. More, being a devoutly religious man, realizes this goes against the laws of the Church. He refuses to give his willing approval based on the fact it is not morally or lawfully just.
In a utopian society, where using reason and law could keep innocent people from punishment, More would not have been executed. However, this play is based on realistic human nature. Contrary to Humanistic thinking that all people are basically “good,” the reality is that people are selfish and driven on behalf of their own wants. Corruption and personal desires most always takes precedence over what is morally or lawfully just. More’s fatal flaw is his naïve belief that the law would protect him from any unmerited doings of the King. He wrongfully assumed that by not openly denying or confirming his position on the King’s divorce he would be “elevated” from any charges. Countless times throughout the play More states his belief that he is protected.
“I stand on the wrong side of no statue, and no common law. I have not disobeyed my sovereign. I truly believe no man in England is safer than myself.” -Sir Thomas More, pg 68
“No-Alice, it’s a p...
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... dispensation initially granted by the Pope of the Catholic Church.
Throughout this play, there is a recurring lesson: Do not put full faith or trust into something. Most people, just like Richard Rich and King Henry VIII, are out for their own benefit, taking bribes and lives just to get their way for their own selfish needs. It all comes down to ones morals and personal standards. More chose to stand by his faith and accept his fate as an innocent man. He did the noble thing and died with his pride in tact. More realized that his overconfident faith in the law was not reasonable. One takes something that has the intention to protect and places it in the hands of people, and its honest intention sometimes becomes corrupted. The lesson is to never naïvely trust so deeply in something that is in the hands of others because others can not always be trusted.
This whole play by Arthur Miller shows how our community will turn on each other to save ourselves no matter if it’s right or wrong and it’s true in our society today. It also shows how a good man regained his happiness and holiness by standing up for what’s right against the lies and sacrificed himself for the truth.
“We will not sacrifice our families, our lands, our lives, for your notion of something we have never known. The English our too many, and if I swear to you, can you guarantee me freedom? No.”
In the book, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt there are a few people that can’t be trusted by Sir Thomas More, the main character in the book. Richard Rich is definitely one of those men who can’t be trusted and along with Thomas Cromwell the two destroy More’s life slowly but surely and to the point of death. In the end of the book More is executed for high treason and his family goes from being very well off to having to start over. So this book shows that through deceitfulness of two, one can fall.
In the early 16th century, Thomas More wrote a novel about a fictional society in which humanist ideas were dominant. During this time, European noble power was anything but a Humanist utopia. Europe was not only a mess, but a genocidal mess. Between the reigns of the Tudor Dynasty, and eventually under power of Queen Mary I, English citizens lived in constant fear of their religious rights and their lives. On top of the religious civil wars, the Catholic Church and other clergymen were progressively straying from ‘purity ideas’.
Throughout the play, Gloucester, Edgar and Cordelia all falsely receive justice even though they have benevolent hearts and never did anything to deserve the punishments they receive. Justice seems to strike the good more than the wicked in the play which helps show the blindness of justice. Justice has a negative connotation throughout the play which helps show Shakespeare’s disbelief in true “justice”. Justice seems to pick out its victims randomly and without sense showing Shakespeare’s belief that justice does not exist. Overall, the unfairness of the just suffering because of justice proves that true justice does not exist in society.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Two powerful characters in the play, aging King Lear and the gullible Earl of Gloucester, both betrayed their children unintentionally. Firstly, characters are betrayed due to family assumption. Lear banished his youngest daughter Cordelia because he over estimated how much she loved him. When questioned by her father, she responds with, "I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less." (I,i, 94-95) Lear assumed that since Cordelia was his daughter, she had to love him in a certain way, but he took this new knowledge and banished her without further thought. Secondly, characters were betrayed because of class. Edmund, the first-born son in the Gloucester family, should have been his father's next of kin. He would have been able to take over the position of Earl upon his father's death if he did not hold the title of a legitimate bastard. In his first soliloquy he says, "Why Bastard? Wherefore base? / When my dimensions are as well compact/ my mind as generous, and my shape as true " (I,ii, 6-8) Edmund believes he is at least equal, if not more, to his father in body and in mind, but the title that his father regrettably gave to him still lingers. Lastly, characters were betrayed because of family trust. Gloucester trusted his son Edmund when he was told that his other son was trying to kill him. Upon reading the forged letter written by Edmund, he responded with, "O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter! Go, sirrah, seek him." (I,ii,75-77) Gloucester inadvertently betrayed Edgar because he held so much trust in his one son that he was easily persuaded to lose all trust in his other one. These blind characters were unfortunately betrayed there children, but they did it unintentionally and will eventually see there wrong doings.
Sir Thomas More wrote this story exactly in the time when Europe was religiously being torn apart by conflicts and revolutions such as the reformation, that caused “the separation of the Christians of western Europe into Catholics and Protestant” (khanacademy). Religion as a whole was as a consequence, an important and hot topic to discuss at the time considering all that is going on. I wonder why Hythloday spent so much time and effort discussing that matter with the narrator. It was rather dangerous to talk too controversially about religion during that period. The Author, by expressing himself through a fictional monotheist but laic polity in which the inhabitants all believe in a single Power, God and governed by specific moral code laws
The first part of the novel serves as an introduction to the two main fictional characters of the novel – More and Hythloday. It debates reasoning as well as social critique. Hythloday cannot stand the inequalities and injustices on the existing England and Europe and reveals possibilities for reform using his example of a Utopian society. The second part is written through the eyes of Hythloday and his explanation of the Utopian society of More. It serves as an improvement for wher...
Genuine people are few and far in between. Honesty is always hidden under the mystery of corruption. Wherever you go, people seem to put on mask and hide who they truly are become hidden from the outside world. Their motives are unknown but they have a deep, dark necessity to act and play a different role when they are in the presence of others. However, this doesn’t pertain to just people in the real world, it also occurs in the world of Shakespeare. The audience quickly finds that just like in their everyday life, fictional characters can also play a different role to achieve what they truly desire. Consequently, these characters develop a sense of dishonesty throughout the story and this dishonesty eventually leads to the destruction of their plans. Just like a weak foundation of a building, a weak personality will eventually crumple in ruin. In order to capture the recurring theme of dishonesty, William Shakespeare uses the death of King Hamlet to force a façade of security and responsibility on the major characters in his play, Hamlet.
Smith, G. (1955). A Constitutional and Legal History of England. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
We must consider whether they are “authoritarian law-makers, or if their profession makes them mere declarers of the law”. In this essay, I will argue the ways that judges do make law, as well as discussing the contrary. The English legal system is ostensibly embedded on the foundation of a ‘high degree of certainty with adaptability’ based on a steady ‘mode’ of legal reasoning. This rests on four propositions. 1.
Through publishing Utopia, More wished to provoke thought in European society about the state of affairs and how broken and misguided they were. Through the lens of the culture of the island of Utopia, Thomas More reconciles the tension between pleasure and Christianity that is seen in contemporary Christian and that by linking the notions together a system can be created that is superior. More critiques the selfish natures of people who exist contrary to religion that are rife with greed and overconsumption as well as the pitfalls that come from following religion doctrines, which lead to strict regimes and denials of the body. The system More outlines allows for individuals to lead happy, fulfilling lives while at the same time acting conscientiously towards other citizens so to be able to create a better society than the one he currently witnesses.
During the reign of Charles I, the people of England were divided into two groups due to their opinions on how the country should be run: The Royalists, and the Parliamentarians. The Royalists were those people who supported Charles I and his successor, while the Parliamentarians were those who supported the idea that Parliament should have a larger role in government affairs. Milton was a Parliamentarian and was an outspoken enemy of Charles I, having written numerous essays and pamphlets regarding his ideas as to how the government should be run, and “In one very famous pamphlet, he actually defended Parliament's right to behead the king should the king be found inadequate.” Charles I was seen as a corrupt and incompetent ruler, and “the Parliamentarians were fed up with their king and wanted Parliament to play a more important role in English politics and government.” This belief was held because of the unethical and tyrannical behavior of ruler Charles I. During his reign, he violated the liberties of his people and acted with hypocrisy and a general disregard for his subjects. Examples of his abuse of power in...
The courts of England and Wales acknowledge that the above must be something of value, in order to amount to consideration. A valuable consideration in the perspective of the English La...