Chaucer
Both Shakespeare's Hamlet and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales do offer universal truths. As Volve states about Chaucer's work in particular: "The tale is firmly anchored in one specific period of history…but it seeks as well to represent other periods and other lives," (300-301). Likewise, Shakespeare's plays like Hamlet have endured precisely because there are few cultural, geographic, or temporal barriers that would prevent universal understanding and interpretation. Texts like these lend themselves towards literary regurgitation; allowing for the recycling of themes, characters, and conflicts.
However, within the texts, reality is skewed, distorted, and ambiguous. This is especially notable in Hamlet, because of the play-within-the-play. Chaucer accomplishes a similar goal by cloaking themes in the garb of ancient Greece. For Shakespeare, reality and the truth are absolute. There is no moment in the play at which the audience is led to doubt the guilt of Claudius. The truth might not be easy,...
Shakespeare Never Read Aristotle? Or, the dynamic forms of catharsis and tragic flaws in Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's most beloved plays are his tragedies. If one were to list his best and most popular plays: Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and so forth, one would find the list comprised almost entirely of tragedies. So it would not be amiss to say that much of the modern literary conception of theatrical
"(Weis 9) It is doubtful that the model for Falstaff was an actual highwayman, but it is possible he was not as well behaved as would have been expected by his family, perhaps a black sheep. Falstaff appears in several of Shakespeare's plays, but there is contention whether he is the same in all. Goddard finds a rather schizophrenic portrait of both Falstaff and Henry IV. A colossus of sack, sensuality, and sweat
Midsummer and Elizabeth A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedic drama that centers on marriage. Indeed, it is traditionally held that Shakespeare penned the play for a friend's wedding; therefore, it should be no surprise to find that the theme of marriage runs through and through Midsummer, from the young adults to the nobility (and even to the fairy world, where marital strife is encountered). Yet, being penned in an age
New media plays a transformative role in the development and communication of ideas. Just as school children learn to honor the cultural and political significance of the Gutenberg printing press, educators must also learn to respect the cultural, political, and social dimensions of the Internet and other popular culture media. The Internet is the Gutenberg press of the post-modern era. With new media, information is democratized and disseminated without regards
Adams, Primrose and Yorick: A Comparison of 18th Century Church of England Clergymen One of the clearest features shared by Fielding's Adams in Joseph Andrews, Goldsmith's Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield, and Sterne's Yorick in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy is relentlessness that the characters demonstrate, as though by sheer force of will they may manage affairs to a happy conclusion. In spite of their sometimes obtuse qualities,
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