Jaques's Perspective in As You Like It
A cynic's cynic might declare Jaques no better than the guy who lurks in corners at a cocktail party, lobbing witty barbs at anyone unlucky enough to catch his eye. But this assessment robs Shakespeare's comedy of its sociological depth; what might be pleasant fluff about young people in love is enhanced by Jaques's ability to make stern judgments about the world, yet still respect the people who comprise it.
Indeed, Jaques observes astutely from the sidelines. He separates himself from what he considers the frivolity of making suitable marriage matches. But Jaques's speeches are not merely Shakespeare's devices for explication. There is a psychological middle ground between the court and the forest, and the ideals closest to those who think little are, in Jaques's eyes, admirable. His words make him the most egalitarian character in the play.
From his first speech, Jaques paints himself as a moody loner and as rather disdainful of his benefactor, Duke Senior. He says, "And I have been all this day to ...
Shakespeare’s Personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116. - 134.
Lately, it would be difficult to find a person who speaks in the elaborate way that nearly all of Shakespeare’s characters do; we do not describe “fortune” as “outrageous” or describe our obstacles as “slings and arrows,” neither in an outward soliloquy or even in our heads. Lately, people do not declare their goals in the grandiose fashion that members of royal family of Thebes proclaim their opposing intentions: Antigone’s to honor her brother and Kreon’s to uphold his decree. Lately, people do not all speak in one unified dialect, especially not one that belongs specifically to the British upper class; Jack and Algernon’s dialogue is virtually identical, excepting content. Unlike the indistinguishably grandiose, elaborate, fancy way characters speak in Shakespeare’s plays, Antigone, The Importance of Being Earnest, and other plays written before the turn of the twentieth century, more recently written plays contain dialogue that is more unique to its speaker. This unique dialogue indicates a change in the sort of characters which drama focuses on which came with a newly developed openness to those who are different from us. Moving away from recounting tales of nobility, royalty or deities brought the lives of a common, heterogeneous populace to the stage and, with these everyday stories, more varied speech patterns.
In I Henry IV and II Henry IV, William Shakespeare brings together drama and comedy to create two of the most compelling history plays ever written. Many of Shakespeare's other works are nearly absolute in their adherence to either the comic or tragic traditions, but in the two Henry IV plays Shakespeare combines comedy and drama in ways that seem to bring a certain realism to his characters, and thus the plays. The present essay is an examination of the various and significant effects that Shakespeare's comedic scenes have on I Henry IV and II Henry IV. The Diversity of Society
The idea of being just is one that is often misconstrued. What exactly is justice? What does it take for a person to be truly just? Can someone be truly just, or are we only just for the sake of making other people jealous or proud of us? Plato researched this idea of “being just” in great detail. For a soul to be so, he explained, it must be pious, honest etc. For example, picture the idea of two men- Mr. A and Mr. B. Mr. A will always do the just thing, and Mr. B will always do the unjust thing- he is very manipulative and knows how to deceive. Mr. B however, is more widely liked because he does not let people know he is doing the unjust thing, he is just that good at being manipulative. An example of this is the story of the Ring of Gadges-
William Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic techniques and his use of hyperbole are used to describe the characters emotions and weaknesses. The use of dramatic irony is used to create personal conflict. This is done throughout the play to describe the characters concerns and their situations.
However, the typical Shakespearian’ fool is quick witted, a master of comedy, and able cause laughter without the accumulation of grudges, and effectively evading the build-up of ‘debt’. Despite being briefly present in “Hamlet”, Sterne’s jesterous Yorick succeeds in being an adequate conduct or vessel through the story itself. He encapsulates and exhumes the quintessential qualities of a typical jester, in that Yorick is able to slip the conversation onto a tangent whenever the topic of his ‘debts’ is brought in to a conversation; he manages to evade these conversations as if it were a “hop, skip and jump” to him (27). However, the reality of his economic social status inevitably awaits Yorick “until, he is trapped in a social chimney corner.” When in due time Yorick will be trapped and utterly incapable to slip the topic in to a tangendental digression. Nevertheless Yorick shows his capability or fulfilment in the role of a jester by ignoring all modes of reality through his comedy, however it results in his violent death. Although demonstrating that the fool can submerge themselves in laughter, rather chapter 12 proves that reality will down the fool in
According to Plato justice is harmony (book 4, 434c) and justice is each part doing its own work and not interfering with one another. These two definitions of justice don’t do a good job of explaining what justice is in ful. Plato compares justice in a soul and justice in a city, the city of Kalipolis. Plato critiques what justice is, the parts in the soul and the parts in the city of Kalipolis. The soul is split into three parts by Plato, the appetitive, spirited element and the rational. The appetitive is the part are, in lames terms, our desires, our hunger, our thirst in some sorts. The rational part of our soul controls the appetites. The rational part is the part in the soul makes decisions...
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain shows how ridiculous it is to follow society’s corrupt beliefs just because everyone else is. Twain uses the protagonist, Huck’s, adventures as he grows and matures to show this corruption. Huck goes against societal norms to do what he feels is right, even if society says it will send him to Hell. To get this message across, Twain uses frequent examples of satire to show the hypocrisy and corruption within society’s ideals. These satirical examples especially emphasize religion, education, and slavery. This coming-of-age story points out the many flaws within society in a humorous, yet truthful manner.
One of the main concerns of man throughout the centuries has probably been to define the concept of love and to understand the complexities that govern love relationships among people. William Shakespeare seems to have been fully aware of the need and interest in love, since his work transcends time and place. Love is the central concern in As You Like It. This comedy presents different attitudes towards love, which may be derived from the conversations among its characters and from the romantic attachments portrayed in it. By comparing the different love relations in the play, one may further appreciate important facts about the concept of love. Moreover, love is also depicted as the force that rules over all kinds of human ties other than the romantic ones, namely familial bonds and friendship. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of love portrayed in As You Like It, and to explore the different varieties of love relationships among its characters.
To escape this miserable fate, Huck soon fakes his own death and rides a stray canoe to Jackson’s island, where he later meets Jim, a runaway slave of Douglas’s, ironically. The two coexist for a time, but eventually catch wind that search parties are being sent for both of them, so they decide to board a stray raft and float down the river, away from St. Petersburg. The two hope to stop at the mouth of the Ohio River, where Jim can travel north to become a free man. They encounter many an interesting sight as well as close call along the way: a sinking steamboat with hostile robbers aboard, a group of slave-hunters in a thick fog (which causes them to float past the mouth of the Ohio), and a steamboat which splits their raft as well as their company with one another, as Huck ends up washing...
The fool is one of the first character archetypes that any student of literature learns how to analyze. Despite his seemingly light or even pointless chatter, the fool usually manages to say some fairly important things. Upon further study, the student may perceive that it is because of his penchant for silliness that the fool is given leave to express even offensive truths about the other characters. What happens, though, when one fool encounters another? Fools are not used to being subject to one another’s wit; this experience of being held up to a sort of mirror is generally reserved for the characters who must undergo some change to further the plot. Touchstone and Jaques manage to break that rule, and merely by coexisting seem to compete. Both live up to some part of our expectation of the fool, but neither manages to fill the role entirely. Which one comes closer is a matter worthy of some debate.
Many characters undergo a change in William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It”. Duke Senior goes from being a member of a court to being a member of a forest and Orlando changes from a bitter, younger brother, to a love-struck young man. The most obvious transformation undergone, is undoubtedly that of Rosalind. Her change from a woman to a man, not only alters her mood, candor, and gender, but also allows her to be the master of ceremonies.
The essentially healthy emotional intelligence of Rosalind and Orlando and their suitability for each other emerge from their separate encounters with Jaques (in some editions Jacques), the melancholy ex-courtier who is part of Duke Senior's troupe in the forest. Both Rosalind and Orlando take an instant dislike to Jaques (which is mutual). And in that dislike we are invited to see something vitally right about the two of them.
‘Twelfth Night’ or ‘What You Will’ by Shakespeare is seen as a comedy for various reasons. However, on many occasions, this play is almost categorised as a tragedy because of the different situations that the killjoy figure has to endure, through the use of mockery. Because of this, critics find that there is a very thin line between the categorisation of the novel and therefore see ‘Twelfth Night’ as both comedy and tragedy despite the fact that the audience and Shakespeare call this play a comedy. Furthermore, Mel Brooks says ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die’. Therefore, this just shows how close the genres of comedy and tragedy really are as they can both lead to similar consequences like those Malvolio faced when he was mocked excessively by Shakespeare throughout all five acts of ‘Twelfth Night’. However, this mockery also shows many social messages as Malvolio was mocked for being a puritan which implies that Elizabethans were against their doings.
As the roles were essentially cemented into the culture, manipulations such as crossovers provide a source of conflict and intrigue into the narrative of the plays. Two of Shakespea...