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Reasearch on shakespeare
William shakespeare authorship essay
Write About William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare is a famous writer of many plays, such as Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy that takes place in Illyria and incorporates several songs throughout the play. Shakespeare normally assigns the singing roles to characters of lower class and minor personalities, such as servants, clowns, rogues and fools. Major characters never usually sing unless they are in disguise or in distracted mental states. In Twelfth Night, the Fool, who is also known as Feste is in charge of all the songs and he uses music to effectively portray the truth and reality beneath all the acting in the play. The songs are not a reflection of him, but are addressed to the protagonists themselves. Through his use of indirect speech and metaphorical This song is not a song of celebration or delightful feelings; instead it brings the reader back to reality and lessens the hope of a happy ending. Though Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, it also highlights the theme of death. Nobody ever dies in the play, but it takes on the concept of death, where everything will eventually come to an end. Feste repeats “the rain it raineth ever day” (5.1.385) multiple times throughout this song to suggest that life is unexpected and that the happiness that the characters in Illyria feel can be changed at any moment by the “wind and the rain” (5.1.383). He presents this life cycle and several events showing how once one thing ends another thing begins. It goes through a sequence of events, starting with when he was a little boy and he explains how “foolish thing but a toy” (5.1.384). Feste creates this image of this playful, carefree childhood and goes on to say that through time, he “came to man’s estate” (5.1.386) and “’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate” (5.1.388). Every person will eventually grow out of their childish lifestyle and discover the cruel and unkind life. The song represents the theme of death, as many things in the play come to an end, such as Orsino and Olivia’s search for a lover or Maria’s prank on Malvolio. Maria, Sir Toby Belch and Feste’s game comes to an end when Olivia realizes that Malvolio is not insane and Malvolio’s happy and fantasized world of Though Feste sings in first person, his song is directed at the rest of the characters and is a metaphor for rejection and betrayal. Feste portrays this wish to die now, as he says “Come away, come away, death, / And in sad cypress let me be laid” (2.4.51-52). He explains how he is the most faithful person, yet he has been “slain by a fair cruel maid” (2.4.54). This reinforces the theme of betrayal and suffering because Feste’s description of pain and sorrow due to a loved one is commonly shown in Twelfth Night. There is this connection between the boy being portrayed in the song and characters in the play. Many of them can relate to the boy, such as Orsino, Olivia and Antonio. Orsino who shares a close relationship with Cesario begins to feel deceived when he realizes that Sebastian, thinking that it is Cesario, has married Olivia. Olivia also experiences a momentary sense of rejection when Cesario denies having married her and she feels as if she has lost him. In both situations, Cesario can be viewed as Orsino and Olivia’s “fair cruel maid” (2.4.54). Antonio also faces his own dark side of rejection when he believes that Sebastian has deceived him after all the things he has done for him. As a result, Feste’s song emphasizes the theme of betrayal, as it reflects the experiences of several of the characters in the play. Furthermore, near the middle of his song he requests that
People are not always whom they appear to be. Whether it’s that fierce tattooed muscle man or that sweet elderly lady smiling from a few seats away, what is perceived is not always what is true. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night portrays many a character whose identities do not align with their inner character. Olivia’s polite ladylike demeanour, Sir Toby’s guise of nobility, and Feste’s job as a fool all demonstrate how social identities don’t always align with inner character.
... He speaks to Viola, before Feste, Olivia’s Jester, sings to signal the ending. “Cesario, come – For so you shall be while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen.” The characters in Twelfth Night each play an important and specific role, especially when it comes to interfering or setting fate for romantic interests.
Feste is pivotal as he is a character able to take on several roles according to the situation. This ability to be serious and comical, clever or ridiculous, the wit or the practical joker makes him the link between the main and the sub plot, bringing the whole play together and making Twelfth Night a whole.
In stark contrast to the dark and tragic "Othello," is one of Shakespeare’s lightest and funniest comedies, "Twelfth Night." The theme of love is presented in a highly comical manner. Shakespeare, however, once again proves himself a master by interweaving serious elements into humorous situations. "Twelfth Night" consists of many love triangles, however many of the characters who are tangled up in the web of love are blind to see that their emotions and feelings toward other characters are untrue. They are being deceived by themselves and/or the others around them.
Orsino’s view of love is that he is in love with love itself and he
...e comedic relief that actually reflected Shakespeare’s life outside of theater. . Through his art which was dramatic writing, he expressed his thoughts of certain events that happened in his life. Shakespeare expresses his love through his plays such as Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet and many others through his use of wit, humor and dramatic talent.
Barton, Anne. Introduction to Twelfth Night. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. 403-407.
Twelfth Night revolves heavily around the shipwreck plot device to split apart the siblings Viola and Sebastian, leading to the development of a bizarre love-triangle and a case of mistaken identity. Besides the rather literal importance of the sea as the driving force for the play’s plot, water appears to resonate as a recurring theme throughout many scenes; specifically, it becomes a living representation for the emotional status of various characters, and woven within the ebb and flow of the tides, qualities such as fate, grief, death (imagined or real), and reflection churn amongst the brackish waters of the play’s symbolic ocean. Of course, because Twelfth Night fails to meet definition of a tragedy outright, these elements will not lead
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.
In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare employs a plot filled with contradictions to portray love as an insurmountable force, and with the use of symbols insinuating deception, along with dolefully forthright metaphors and similes, Shakespeare further demonstrates that deception and suffering are the true fueling entities of this puissant force known as love. The extreme actions of Olivia and Sebastian exemplify the power of love and depict how this force can blind an individual to the point where their actions display high levels...
With Feste's help, we are able to attain a better understanding of the other characters in the play- revealing their true personalities, which are sometimes unseen, not only by us, the audience, but also by the characters themselves. He shows Olivia how unrealistic and excessive her mourning for her brother's death has been, he tells Orsino how foolish he is for languishing in a mood of love-sick melancholy for Olivia and points out how mercurial his personality is, and he makes a fool out of the pompous Malvolio. "Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun- it shines everywhere" says Feste.
Twelfth Night consists of a large number of love triangles, however many characters are too indulged in love that they are blind to the untrue, and the weakness of their relationship, they are deceived by themselves and many people around them ( ex. Malvolio is tricked by Sir Andrew, Feste ,Sir Toby and Maria),but there are certain incidents where the love is true and two characters feel very strongly about one another. In the play, Viola and Orsino have the most significant relationship. The way they interact with each other causes the complexity on which the play is all about, their relationship turns from strangers to friends then lovers .In the First Act Viola is not honest with Orsino because she disguises herself as a male servant named Cesario in order to get closer to the duke. Orsino. Orsino quickly trusts Cesario and sends him to Olivia to declare Orsinos Love for her, the girl he most dearly loves. This quick bond is the fast example of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Viola thinks her brother (Sebastian) is dead (after they’re deadly boat crash, where they get separated) when actually he is alive and thinks she is dead, Viola always seems to have a part missing from her which shows her bond with Sebastian is strong, and a part of her but in a brotherly/sisterly way rather than a proper relationship like viola and orsino, At the end of the play they meet and both fall in love , Viola with Orsino and Sebastian with Olivia.
Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both misunderstanding and marriage in the final scenes of the play. Alongside the main plot of Twelfth Night is an almost equally prominent subplot involving Malvolio, a servant of Olivia, who falls in love with her and who falls prey to a prank planned by the other members of the household who despise his abhorrence of fun. In the article “The Design of Twelfth Night” by L.G. Salingar, Salingar examines the plot and structure of the play and addresses the significance of the subplot. The purpose of this essay is to examine both evidence from the play and articles from other authors, with a focus on Salingar, who have written on the subject in order to determine the purpose of the subplot. In his article, Salingar comes to the conclusion that the purpose of the subplot is to provide a comic mirror of the main plot while amplifying the main themes of delusion, misrule and festivity. Salingar presents a solid argument, however he has neglected another lesser but significant element of the sub-plot which illustrate...
Critics call Twelfth Night one of William Shakespeare’s most poetic and musical plays. Shakespeare writes poetic lines for the major characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, and gives the Fool, and other minor characters, songs to sing throughout the play. The particularly romantic lines of the play make it seem as if the characters are professional poets themselves. Shakespeare also uses the music and poetry in Twelfth Night to foreshadow what is going to happen for the rest of the performance and to reveal major themes in the play. Music and poetry become major characters in the play themselves.
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...