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Shakespeare and his characterization
Shakespeare and his characterization
Shakespeare development as a Playwright
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Before I explain as to how I decided my right decision, I would like to explain what exactly makes a heroic protagonist since this is what I mostly based my evidence on. According to Aristotle’s qualities of tragic protagonists (2018), he states that “a character should evoke emotions in the audience, determine their fate by their consequences, has consistency, has peripeteia and anagnorisis, has a moral purpose, and is true to themselves and others.” My decision was quite difficult to determine as there were so many choices to make. The first step on how I know that I have made the right decision was when I re-analyzed the play of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I listed all the actions from characters that were relevant to Aristotle’s
(HOOK) How can one grave mistake made by a character eventually accumulate and have an immense impact on the plot of a storyline? Depending on the piece of literature, certain characters can create setbacks through their actions and choices. (CI) Likewise, a pair of star-crossed lovers face challenging obstacles based on certain decisions made by characters. (GS1) The protagonist of the play, Romeo Montague, generates various dilemmas because of the severe choices he makes, especially his decision to kill Tybalt. (GS2) Meanwhile, Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, is another character who causes impactful changes in the play with his overdramatic personality. (GS3) Additionally, the character Friar Laurence ultimately makes the most drastic choice
We have now read both Pyramus and Thisbe, and Romeo and Juliet. The question we have yet to answer is what has a greater impact on what happened, destiny, or personal choice? We believe that personal choice affected the characters more because they chose to fall in love, Romeo and Juliet rushed into marriage, Pyramus and Thisbe left home on their own terms, and in both stories, the main characters decided to commit suicide. This is something that cannot be determined by the stars, your choices determine what happens, not some mystical prophecy. Though that is what we believe, it is also believed that destiny has a greater impact because they were doomed from the stars.
Choices determine every outcome, A better way to put it is “What we do in life, echoes in eternity”, essentially every single decision one makes , no matter how minuscule, will always have an impact in one’s life. Fate isn’t real; Fate is a term commonly used by those that refuse to accept that they control their own future. Teenagers ever since the beginning of time were and still are expected to make poor choices due to their age. But once they learn to take responsibility for their actions they become adults. Both Romeo and Juliet make multiple decisions such as marrying, killing and suicide without stepping back and thinking about the consequences. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare all the choices made by the star crossed lovers have consequences. The two lovers blame fate for their misfortune. They refuse to believe that fate does not determine the end result, only they can do that.
The play shows that hasty and rash decisions can have fatal and tragic consequences for some characters in ‘Romeo and Juliet”
Life is filled with difficult situations and tough choices to make. The question is, should we choose to make them ourselves? Some people feel it's best to do things alone, while others do not. For example, most of the characters in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare that are analyzed in the text, “What’s the Rush?: Young Brains Cause Doomed Love” by Lexi Tucker, do not consider other’s opinions at all. However, the opinions of people who love us positively affect our choices so it would be smart to consider them in most cases, but not in those that are very personal.
When one looks closely at the story of Romeo and Juliet, one will see that it is a story with many ethical aspects. The first ethical concern was the two feuding families. How moral is it to hate someone only because they have a certain family name? This all come from a time period when people were fairly focused on religion, which teaches us not to hate. I also question this because I think it is ironic that both Romeo and Juliet seem to be fairly religious, since the first person Romeo went to for help was Friar Lawrence, and a few scenes in the play took place in or around the church. I think that this hatred is especially bad in the case of the Capulets and the Montagues, because I was always under the impression that the families had been feuding for so long that no one really knew why they hated each other anymore. This was the beginning of the problems for Romeo and Juliet. They had a moral decision to make. Should they stay true to their families, and deny their love, or should they stay true to their feelings and disgrace their families? In order to resolve this dilemma, Romeo turns to Friar Lawrence, who perhaps could be seen as the most moral character, to begin with. Because he was a holy man, he was the most logical confidant of anyone in the play. People see men of the cloth as reliable and a good source of advice. Of course, Friar Lawrence has every intention of helping the two lovers, also hoping that he could reunite the feuding families. However, unbeknownst to him, everything he will do throughout the play will have an unnerving consequence. No matter what he did to correct what he had done wrong, it only drug him deeper into trouble. Who ever would have thought that by marrying the two young lovers, he would have caused all of this heartache for the families, and really for all of Verona? No one ever considered the fact that two young people wanting to get married would have affected the entire city. Friar Lawrence was only trying to be a good friend and ally, but everything he did just ended up backfiring for him.
Myers, H. A. (1949). Aristotle's study of tragedy. Educational Theatre Journal, 1(2), 115. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1290192594?accountid=12085
Throughout time, the tragedy has been seen as the most emotionally pleasing form of drama, because of its ability to bring the viewer into the drama and feel for the characters, especially the tragic hero. This analysis of tragedy was formed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and also noted in his Poetics (guidelines to drama). As a playwright, Shakespeare used Aristotle’s guidelines to tragedy when writing Othello. The play that was created revolved around the tragic hero, Othello, whose tragic flaw transformed him from a nobleman, into a destructive creature, which would inevitably bring him to his downfall. This transformation follows an organic movement of the complex plot from the beginning, middle, to the end of the drama while keeping the tragic hero consistent and also real. As the play moves on the audience feels pity for the tragic hero as well as fear for themselves as they watch the event taking place on stage. Othello can be seen as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, because it follows the guidelines set up by Aristotle’s Poetics.
Aristotle, by searching the works of writers of Greek tragedy, Aeschulus, Euripides and Sophocles (whose Oedipus Rex he considered the finest of all Greek tragedies), arrived at his definition of tragedy. This explanation has a profound influence for more than twenty centuries on those writing tragedies, most significantly Shakespeare. Aristotle’s analysis of tragedy began with a description of the effect such a work had on the audience as a “catharsis” or purging of the emotions. He decided that catharsis was the
Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the history of Western thought. A Greek drama by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, was praised in the Poetics of Aristotle as the model for classical tragedy and is still considered a principal example of the genre. In this essay I will analyze Oedipus Rex using Aristotle's concepts praxis, poiesis, theoria.
Ever since Aristotle applied logic to art in The Poetics, playwrights from all time periods and cultures have attempted to prove him wrong. Utilizing intuition and writing from the soul, many have succeeded and many have failed. However, the most commercially successful theatrical performances have tended to follow Aristotle’s rules of drama.
There are two types of advice: positive advice, and poor advice. Both kinds of advice can be taken in different directions. The good advice will be taken in the positive direction. Meanwhile the poor advice can be taken into the negative direction. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, a lot of poor advice is given to the characters. The poor advice given to Romeo and Juliet ultimately affected the way they behaved, thus making them responsible for their deaths.
Have you ever thought, was it personal choice or destiny that led to the deaths in Romeo and Juliet or the deaths in “Pyramus and Thisbe”? Personal choice has a greater impact on the characters in Romeo and Juliet and "Pyramus and Thisbe".
This analysis shall expound upon the tragedy of the play and how it follows the standards set by Aristotle. Oedipus is a play of
Shakespeare followed Aristotle’s guidelines to a perfect tragedy to the letter. Each and every one of the points is represented in Hamlet as well as his other tragedies. Through his rich use of language and plot, Aristotle’s guidelines were revived and will live immortally through Shakepeare’s works.