Difference Between Plutarch's and Shakespeare's Caesar
Julius Caesar was in a precarious situation. It could be interpreted that he deserved the fate that pursued him for ambition or some other reason, or that it was a cold murder for which he did not deserve. Both Shakespeare and
Plutarch wrote about Julius Caesar. Each tells the story a little differently.
Plutarchs version is more sympathetic to Caear's situation.
Shakespeare shows him to be an insensitive and conceited person thinking only of himself. This is shown by his reaction to Calpurnia's dream. After her description of her dream he says, "Caesar shall forth. The things that threatened me Ne'er looked but on my back; when they shall see the face of
Caesar, they are vanished." This attitude to a warning implying that he was given fair warning and his death was partially due to his over confidence. On the other hand Plutarch gives him a more sensitive reaction to the dream in saying, "Caesar himself, it seems was affected and by no means easy in his mind." Moreover, Plutarch's writings show the long string of coincidences almost as Fate were deeming it necessary for him to die, and that he had no control over it. "...the scene of the final struggle and of the assassination made it perfectly clear that some heavenly power was involved...directing that it" (the assassination) "should take place just here. For here stood a statue of
Pompey..." This stating that Caesar's murder was the deceased Pompey's revenge for he was killed by Caesar. Whereas, Shakespeare does not say anything about the statue and shows the same coincidences in the play as warnings to him that out of his own stupidity he did not take.
Lastly, after Caesar's death the Romans were enraged to revenge him at
“This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave come hither, cover’d with an antic face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.” (Shakespeare, page 54).
Plutarch's The Life of Crassus and Caesar. Plutarch presented history through biographical stories of the people that were important and influential during the time period he wished to address. However, after having read some of his work, one realizes that Plutarch inserts his own personal opinion and views of the people at hand into the factual documentation of their lives. For example, in The Life of Crassus, Plutarch expresses a general dislike and negative view of the man, but in The Life of Caesar he portrays the life through a lens of praise. It also seems that he uses his opinions of the people that he writes about to subtly extend moral lessons to the reader.
that, in the belief of the time, would damn his soul. In fact, in one soliloquy in Act III,
does this by the fact Macbeth gets killed at the end of the play and
This section is integral to the play as a whole for two reasons: (1) it describes the beginning of the play’s climax, and (2) it is a key example proving that Hamlet’s “madness” is indeed a conscious ploy. It is generally agreed upon that the play-within-a-play is the climax of this play.
Hamlet’s curiosity caused him to not only suspect his mother, but also kill poor Polonius. He believed Gertrude was an accomplice in the murder of his father.Hamlet has violent outbursts towards his mother. His anger increased as Gertrude misinterpreted the situation. She believed that she was in danger of being assaulted and therefore cries out for help. Hamlet, who was full of rage, runs his dagger through the arras and kills Polonius, mistaking him for Claudius. "O me, what hast tho done/Nay, I know not. Is it the king?" (III-iv.27-28) Hamlet's passion was furiously aroused, and his words to his mother grew increasingly bitter and sharp. His words acted like daggers that shattered Gertrude's peace of mind. "Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption, honeying and making love over the nasty sty.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play that tells of a young man, Hamlet, who wanted revenge for the death of his father. After speaking with his father's spirit, Hamlet was led to believe that the person who murdered his father was his uncle, Claudius. Claudius kills his brother mainly because of jealousy, the crown, the queen and a hatred of his brother. Therefore Claudius is guilty of the murder of his brother.
Arguably William Shakespeare’s great tragedy, and perhaps his greatest work overall, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a gripping tale of betrayal, insanity, and grim horror that captures the imagination of the reader. This tragic play centers around the titular character, Hamlet, and his quest to kill his Uncle, Claudius. Although it sounds to the common ear to be merely a story of revenge, the play contains vivid characters that bring the play to shocking light for the reader or the viewer. Controversy is common in discussion of Hamlet due to the choices of the main character to reject his love, spare his traitorous uncle for a brief moment in the pursuit of a ruthless revenge, and the accidental killing of an innocent man, having mistaken him for the aforementioned uncle. These actions can be seen as mere plot devices, or sloppy writing on behalf of Shakespeare. They can also be seen as the literary genius that enriches Hamlet, depending on the point-of-view of the reader or the viewer. This essay will be an examination of the idea that, while these actions may not be genius, and they are in-fact simple plot devices, the actions taken by Hamlet in this play are deliberate, as the author intended them. Hamlet’s actions during this play, sparing his uncle and banishing his love, and also killing an innocent man, are a masterful portrayal of justified retribution turning into hate-driven revenge and its consequences.
murder to cover up another one. His plan to get rid of Hamlet seems to be logical and
that he is dead. This brings a sense of dramatic irony to the play, as
Hamlet contemplates death and suicide - what Hamlet wants to do and the fear of the consequences of his actions, “O, that this too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!/ Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd/ His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! (I. ii. 129 – 132).We receive the image of suicide as a juxtaposition between the desire for death in contrast with a desire to live, “To be or not to be – that is the question” (III.i.56). Almost from Hamlet’s first appearance, we reveal a major underlying concept in the tragedy, the contrast of death and morality made evident through the sonic opposition between in and out, order and disorder. Both soliloquies exemplify a man, bewildered and wracked by inconsolable grief - desiring revenge – however, unable to know how to go about responding to what has happened. Hamlet is not simply suicidal, nor is he simply melancholic to his father’s murder. Rather the language of the play alludes to a man but driven to desperation, philosophically posing the conundrum of wanting to leave his life behind while possessing the respon...
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is, at heart, a play about suicide. Though it is surrounded by a fairly standard revenge plot, the play's core is an intense psychodrama about a prince gone mad from the pressures of his station and his unrequited love for Ophelia. He longs for the ultimate release of killing himself - but why? In this respect, Hamlet is equivocal - he gives several different motives depending on the situation. But we learn to trust his soliloquies - his thoughts - more than his actions. In Hamlet's own speeches lie the indications for the methods we should use for its interpretation.
Hamlet’s tragic flaw was shown to him in a dream by the ghost of his father. His father tells him that he was murdered by his uncle, Claudius. In this scene, the tragic flaw was transferred and manifested itself in Hamlet’s actions. His obsession with revenge and death is all he can think about. He needs to act quickly and decisively but finds himself procrastinating about what to do. In Act III, Hamlet holds the knife over the head of his uncle, Claudius, but cannot strike the fatal blow. Instead, he writes a play about the same scenario to study the reaction of Claudius as to a clue of his guilt. After he decides Claudius is guilty of murdering his father, he still relents from taking his revenge. He says, “Haste me to know ‘t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thought of love May sweep to my revenge.
In the tragedy of Hamlet Shakespeare does not concern himself with the question whether blood-revenge is justified or not; it is raised only once and very late by the protagonist (v,ii,63-70) and never seriously considered. The dramatic and psychological situation rather than the moral issue is what seems to have attracted Shakespeare, and he chose to develop it, in spite of the hard-to-digest and at times a little obscure, elements it might involve [. . .] . (118-19)