The Philosophy of Jaques in As You Like It
Jaques is one of the characters in Shakespeare`s comedy As You Like It. We- as audience and readers- learn that although he was previously a libertine, he now seems to have turned to philosophy in his quest for a new identity. As a philosopher he questions much of what he sees around him.
At one point Jaques analyses what it is to be a man (II,vii, 60-166). He sees the world as a stage wherein men and women are players, and their different ages represent different acts and scenes in the play. His descriptions suggest that the roles are largely beyond the players` control; that a script for the play has already been written by an exterior force. But there is a sense of contradiction in all this; the stages Jaques outlines for us (presented to his audience as universal) do not account for his own role. Since this is the case we must either presume that Jacques is somehow exceptional or that the roles are not as fixed as people imagine. One can always argue that Jaques is an outcast of some sort. On the other hand, the Duke Senior is eager to offer him a position at court, thereby giving him an opportunity to obtain an acceptable role within the framework of a hierarchical, society, but Jaques turns down the offer. He needs to widen his horizon, and is so impatient about learning more that he does not even stay to celebrate with the rest of the uke`s men."To see no pastime, I." (V,iv,194). Instead he wants to go to Duke Frederick: "Out of these convertites,/ There is much matter to be hear`d and learn`d" (V,iv,183-184).
Jaques has no particular interest in being part of an established society. He creates his own role and his own destiny. By his mere presence in the play we are made aware of the infinite choices that confront human beings in their lives. Rosalind is the only other character in As You Like It who really challenges established roles, but whereas she (in all likelihood) returns to court and is satisfied with the new development (after all, she brought it about), Jacques is unwilling to let go of his freedom and independence introduced to him in the green world.
Jaques first attempts to challenge established norms by putting on a fool`s appearance: "O that I were a fool!/ I am ambitious for a motley coat.
Julius Caesar, born Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, was born into a family of patricians. In fact, he was able to trace his lineage back to Romulus, the first king of Rome (Gill, N.S.). His birth of around July 12, 100 B.C., marked a new beginning for Rome (Julius Caesar). Caesar was a talented negotiator, and that fact helped him on his rise to power. Julius Caesar began his career in politics by becoming a prosecuting advocate. In roughly 68 B.C., he was elected quaestor, which was a Roman official that was elected annually. Becoming a quaestor was needed before becoming a senator. In around 60 B.C., Caesar became a governor of the province of Spain (Gill, N.S.). His rise to power was extremely fast. In 59 B.C., an alliance with his rival Pompey allowed him to be elected a consul, which in the Roman Republic was the highest elected office. Julius Caesar’s political power was quickly rising.
Caesar was a man known for his love of knowledge and exploring the things that he doesn’t know. While on his way to Rhodes to study with Apollonius, a Greek rhetorician he was kidnapped by pirates who demanded a ransom for his life (5 Things). Insulted by how little they asked for he went as far to even demand that they raise it, and eventually after they received the money he had them captured and executed (5 Things). This shows just how ruthl...
From 100 BC to 44 BC, Julius Caesar changed Rome through his rise to political power, conquest, feuds and assassination. Over time Caesar gained acclaim through his multiple political roles in Rome such as Pontifex, governor and Praetor, leading him to become dictator. He formed an alliance with Crassus and Pompey that ruled Rome for seven years, but led to a civil war later on. Julius Caesar conquered many countries that helped him change the map such as the conquest of Gaul. Caesar played a vital role in the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Empire, which cause him to be assassinated and make rise to Octavian as the next ruler. All of these aspects are what allowed Julius Caesar to change Rome.
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.
Although individuals try to stop using caffeine, some cannot because it has a strong hold on them and some people can stop. The people that doesn’t stop may fit the clinical definition of caffeine addiction. “In this study, 94% of participants experienced withdrawal when they attempted to stop using caffeine, and 94% continued to use caffeine even though they knew that they might be harming their health with their use.” Women stop taking in caffeine during their pregnancies. Studies suggest, caffeine can be harmful to a growing baby. Most individuals with mental illnesses might be asked to stop taking caffeine. (Caffeine Addiction). All races of women consume 200 milligrams of caffeine daily. They drink coffee, black tea, green tea, and soda. About 89 percent of United States women ages 18 to 34 consume two cups of coffee a day. Even though caffeine affects men more strongly than women, caffeine changes women's estrogen levels; it has different effects in Asian, white, and black women. Studies showed that the effect differ between men and women based on the caffeine intake they consume. Men consume 7 milligrams of caffeine a day. Other men consume 85 to 170 milligrams of caffeine a day. Thirtynine percent does not drink caffeine at all.
Caffeine, commonly found in coffee and many other beverages, and containing certain chemicals compounds leading to the constant necessity of fidgeting, jitters, sleepless hours, and health hazards as though being tormented by a hobgoblin with the irresistible sweet aroma and multiple flavors trapping you into a path, not being able to truly quit as desired or consequences attached, but is it the world’s most used legal drug addiction or something enjoyable, you decide? “The delicious chemical in caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine”(Linn). “Caffeine is made by pressuring cooking beans with CO2 to produce the drug in powder form”(Linn). “In caffeine the consumption breakdown in Coffee is 54%, Tea it’s 43%, Food and misc it’s 3% and used as a common mood-altering drug in the world, most popular way of ingesting is through coffee”(Linn). The issue with drinking coffee is due to the fact that caffeine can cause some troubling effects like insomnia activity in the brain that prevents sleep, constant need to urinate leading to dehydration due to the lack of fluids in the body, and diarrhea causing the food right out because it accelerates the digestion in the stomach. The consumption of too much caffeine can cause damage in human health also causing an overdose leading to death. The impact in society is through how much caffeine Americans consume daily, and the effects it causes in human health and sleep patterns. Throughout the years past caffeine consumption in America has increased jarasicaly, about 90% in some form daily. “On average Americans have been known to consume 280 mg of caffeine per day or 2-3 cups of coffee”(Linn). Strangely enough, caffeine is still contained and found in decaffei...
Falstaff is often left out of the conversation or treated as an object when people discuss Shakespeare’s “Henriad.” The conversation has grown to include Falstaffian supporters and those who continue to objectify him. On the one hand, critics like Harry Berger, author of “The Prince’s Dog: Falstaff and the Perils of Speech-Prefixity,” argues that Falstaff’s concealed motives are only brought to light through the characters speech. On the other hand, critics like Robert Bell, author of “The Anatomy of Folly in Shakespeare’s “Henriad,” believes Falstaff to be a fool, but he believes him to be one of Shakespeare’s “Greatest Fools.” I find these critics to be in direct conversation with one another. They both attempt to consider Falstaff in the forefront of the text, along with Prince Harry; more specifically, how one interacts with the other through folly and speech. While I agree with some critics notions that Falstaff has flaws, I would argue that he is more than an object; he is pertinent to the success of the prince, and he must be considered as the subject; Falstaff is the catalyst through whom Prince Harry enjoys his indiscretions, sins, and follies without reprimand or any acceptance of responsibility. Falstaff and Prince Harry share the same mind, but this is only apparent through the folly and parody of Falstaff. Prince Harry is completely oblivious to the fact that he and Falstaff rest on either side of a double-headed coin allowing them to share a psychic link. I will show that Falstaff has knowledge of all of Prince Harry’s actions as well as his own downfall before it occurs through a close analysis of 1 Henry IV, act 1, scene 2.
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
Friar Lawrence’s, first entrance is alone, in act two, scene three. This is when we, as an audience get our initial impression of him; here he is introduced as a man who see’s good in all. “Virtue itself turns vice being misapplied and vice sometimes by action dignified “.
In the passage from Act 1, Scene 2 through the use of language and dramatic effect Shakespeare explores and expands the character of Hamlet, also enforcing themes such as gender and desire.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It loyalty is dominant theme. Each character possesses either a loyalty or disloyalty towards another. These disloyalties and loyalties are most apparent in the relationships of Celia and Rosalind, Celia and Duke Fredrick, Orlando and Rosalind, Adam and Orlando, and Oliver and Orlando. In these relationships, a conflict of loyalties causes characters to change homes, jobs, identities and families.
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.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the art of music appears in the opening of the speech as the unhappy and lovesick Orsino tells his musicians, “If music be the food of love, play on” (I.i.1) In the speech that follows, Orsino asks the musicians to give him so much musical love i.e. food that will “surfeit” and cease to yearn for love any longer. Shakespeare uses music in opening line of play and at the end by Feste singing his song. It reveals that Shakespeare has presented on stage a romantic comedy which is not detached from our everyday reality. Thus songs are used by Shakespeare with surfeiting desire not only for the purpose of entertaining the audience but also closely linked to the play’s theme.