¶ … literacy -- that which is mastered only by Prospero and Miranda, and sought after by Caliban who is considered illiterate in comparison to the pair. Caliban's antagonistic relationship with Prospero is one which the author believes is waged over this literacy and which is so crucial because it is both literal and figurative. Literally it represents the smoothness of language which the aforementioned pair possess; figuratively it involves the books that Prospero has which endow him with magical abilities to cast spells and actuate spirits such as Ariel. The author buttresses this opinion by ascribing significance to Caliban's attempts to counteract Prospero's powers by destroying his books, thereby making Prospero's literacy on par with his own illiteracy.
The most interesting aspect of this article is that its focus on literacy is one which is only shared between the previously denoted three characters (and perhaps Ariel) whose fate is linked to Prospero's. The focus of the play is on power and nobility in Italy; not on literacy on the desert island. Subsequently, it is somewhat surprising that the author has chosen to focus on this viewpoint in this article. However, the true value in this article is that it details Caliban's strengths which are merely alluded to in the play. He is not illiterate, only so when compared to Prospero's and Miranda's literacy. Similarly, he is not ignorant, just illiterate when compared to those two.
The crux of the Macbeth piece is its focus on the metaphors Shakespeare provides one's life and the individual days of one's life. It focuses on the passages in which life is likened to a day, and that each day a person awakens is akin to his or her birth. The author focuses on this fact because at one point Macbeth states he can no longer sleep, which the author construes as a harbinger of his fate. Thus, the aforementioned parallel inevitably likens the sleep that an individual receives at the end of the day to death. Shakespeare is able to imply such symbolism in the simple six-word quotation in which he references "the death of each day's life." "
The Macbeth article was an astute piece of criticism, for the simple fact that this paly largely revolves around the notion of life and its counterpart, death. The many murders which Macbeth actuates and which eventually claim him (in addition to the death of his wife) certainly mandate the focus on life and its entire cycle -- which ends with death -- that this author chose to focus upon. Furthermore, the rapidity of the events in the play, in which Macbeth goes from a general...
Moreover, Hamlet is all the more homesick because his home is indelibly altered due to the murder of his father. Thus, Hamlet begins to map his home and his feelings about home with a Greco/Roman map that involves comparisons between deities and mythic creatures in these aforementioned cultures. The center of Hamlet's map is his father, who he likens to both Hyperion and to Hercules. The bane of that map is Claudius, likened to a satyr. Hamlet is also compared to Hercules at various points in the tale and in the article; his mother is likened to Niobe.
It largely appears as though the writer of this article is a little too concerned with a couple of parallels mentioned in Hamlet that are fleeting at best. The comparison of Hamlet's father to Hyperion and of his Claudius to a satyr are far from the focus of this work, and do not seem worthy of all of the attention that this particular author grants them. What is interesting about the author's focus on comparison between mythical or godly creatures and the characters in Hamlet is that there is a duality in the comparison which invokes Hercules. Hercules is both compared to Hamlet's father and to the prince himself in this criticism, which is not necessarily the case in the text.
More than any of the other articles, the article about King Lear retells the plot of this play. However, it is unequivocally centered around King Lear itself, as is the very play. The author actually offers a careful deconstruction of Lear and his motives, which originates with the king at the beginning of the play full of hubris. He gradually becomes aware of himself and his flaws only as he is eventually divested of his kingly attributes: his power, his might. Moreover, the fate of those he cares for, particularly Cordelia, also help to humanize and, as the author suggests, even dehumanize him to the level in which he sees no difference between brutes and human nature itself.
This was a very incisive article and review of King Lear. The only part that was not so was the opening lines in which the author seemed more concern with reviewing various films versions of this play than the work of drama itself. However, he is able to get to the core of the characterization of Lear and the very facets of his life and personality that actuate him. There is a…
