None Provided2 Analysis Essay Example For Students

None Provided2 Analysis Essay A Analysis of Four Characters of ShakespereWilliam Shakespere had a unique gift for finding what his audience liked then sticking with it. He wrote to entertain and knew what people wanted. In his work you can find repetion in the actions, stories, and characters that he created. Four main characters in Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and MacBeth are all distinctly different and also so much alike. You will be able to see these contrasts threw a brief discription of each character. In Shakespeares tragedy/history/Roman play Antony and Cleopatra, we are told the story of two passionate and power-hungry lovers. In the first two Acts of the play we are introduced to some of the problems and dilemmas facing the couple (such as the fact that they are entwined in an adulterous relationship, and that both of them are forced to show their devotion to Caesar). Along with being introduced to Antony and Cleopatras strange love affair, we are introduced to some interesting secondary characters. One of these characters is Enobarbus. Enobarbus is a high-ranking soldier in Antonys army who it seems is very close to his commander. We know this by the way Enobarbus is permitted to speak freely (at least in private) with Antony, and often is used as a person to whom Antony confides in. We see Antony confiding in Enobarbus in ActI, Scene ii, as Antony explains how Cleopatra is cunning past mans thought (I.ii.146). In reply to this Enobarbus speaks very freely of his view of Cleop atra, even if what he says is very positive: her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove. (I, ii, 147-152) After Antony reveals that he has just heard news of his wifes death, we are once again offered an example of Enobarbus freedom to speak his mind, in that he tells Antony to give the gods a thankful sacrifice (I.ii.162), essentially saying that Fulvias death is a good thing. Obviously, someone would never say something like this unless they were in very close company. While acting as a friend and promoter of Antony, Enobarbus lets the audience in on some of the myth and legend surrounding Cleopatra. Probably his biggest role in the play is to exaggerate Anthony and Cleopatras relationship. Which he does so well in the following statements: When she first met Ma rk Antony, she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus. (II.ii.188-189) The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver, (II.ii.193-197) And, for his ordinary, pays his heart For what his eyes eat only. (II.ii.227-228) Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. (II.ii.237-238) In these passages, Enobarbus turns Antonys and Cleopatras meeting into a fairy tale and leads the audience into believing the two are inseparable. His speeches in Act II are absolutely vital to the play in that this is what Shakespeare wants the audience to view Antony and Cleopatra. Also, in these passages, Cleopatra is described as irresistible and beautiful beyond belief – another view that is necessary for us to believe in order to buy the fact that a man with so much to lose would be willing to risk it all in order to win her love. Qui te possibly, these passages may hint that Enobarbus is himself in love with Cleopatra. After all, it would be hard to come up with such flowery language if a person were not inspired. Enobarbus may be lamenting his own passions vicariously through the eyes of Antony. This would be convenient in questioning Enobarbus loyalty, which becomes very important later on in the play (considering he kills himself over grief from fearing he betrayed his leader). The loyalty of Enobarbus is indeed questionable. Even though we never hear him utter a single disparaging remark against Antony, he does admit to Menas that he will praise any man that will praise me (II.iii.88), suggesting that his honor and loyalty may just be simple brown-nosing. Shakespeare probably fashioned Enobarbus as a means of relaying information to the audience that would otherwise be difficult or awkward to bring forth from other characters (such as Cleopatras beauty and the story of her betrayal of Caesar), but he also us es him as way to inject some levity and humor in the play, showing the characters eagerness to have a good time. Evidence of this comes in Enobarbus affinity for drunkenness. In both Act I and Act II Enobarbus purports the joys of drink: Bring in the banquet quickly: wine enough Cleopatras health to drink. (I.ii.13-24) Mine, and most of our fortunes, tonight, shall be drunk to bed. (I.ii.47-48) He even caps off Act II with a song for Bacchus and a request for drunken celebration. In short, Enobarbus is used as any good secondary character should be; he relays information between characters, exposes other characters and their traits, gives background information, and lets the audience in on his surroundings and the general moods and beliefs of the times he lived in. He is not just used as a database however, through his speeches and his actions we find a fully developed person, someone with thoughts, motives, and feelings all his own a character who cant be summed up in just a few sentences. In the play Othello, the character of Othello has certain traits which make him seem naive and unsophisticated compared to many other people. This is why Iago, to get his just rewards uses him as a scapegoat. Iago told Roderigo, O,sir, content you. I follow him Othello to serve my turn upon him (I, i lines 38-9). Iago is saying, he only follows Othello to a point, and upon reaching it he will not follow him any longer. Iago has opened my eyes to see the real meaning of deceit. No matter what, Iago will try to take advantage of Othello any time and he will be easily lead to believe the lies of Iago. The Moor, as many Venetians call him, is of strong character. He is very proud and in control of every move throughout the play. The control is not only of power but ofthe sense of his being who he is, a great warrior. In Act I, Othello has a scuffle withBrabantio, who has come to kill him, but before anything could happen Othello said, Hold your hands, both of you of my inclining and the rest. Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter (I, ii, lines 80-3). The power shown here is quite astounding. The nature of Othellos character is of a dark man. A dark man, not only because he is black, but also because his whole person is very mysterious. He is mysterious inthat he believes there is magic brewing everywhere. With this dark side he is alsovery outgoing, and not very bright. He isnt observant and the schemes of Iago workwell on him. Though he doesnt reflect too much on his past, except occasionalventures of wars fought, he does let his emotions run his life. For all the dangers and encounters he has been involved in, this man is still naive of the corruptness of other individuals. Othello has a trusting nature in which he gives it all. He put all his trust in Iago during times of war and during Othellos marriage to Desdemona. This wasnt very bright of Othello, even if he wasnt trusting or more corrupt he still wouldnt realize Iago was lying. Everyone considered Iago as honest, and would be out of character for Othello to believe any different. For example, Othello had told th e Duke, So please your grace, my ancient; A man he is of honesty and trust. To his conveyance I assign my wife, With what else needful your good grace shall think, To be sent after me (I, iii, lines 284-8). Julius Caesar Essay SummaryBut he gains no satisfying peace because hes consciencestill obliges him to recognize the negative quality of eviland the barren results of wicked action. The individual whoonce prized mutable goods in the form of respect andadmiration from those about him, now discovers that even suchevanescent satisfactions are denied him:And that which should accompany old age,As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. But the man is conscious of a profound abstraction ofsomething far more precious that temporal goods. His beinghas shrunk to such little measure that he has lost his formersensitiveness to good and evil; he has supped so full withhorrors and the disposition of evil is so fixed in him thatnothing can start him. His conscience is numbed so that heescapes the domination of fears, and such a consummation mayindeed be called a sort of peace. But it is not entirely whatexpected or desires. Back of his tragic volitions is theineradicable urge toward that supreme contentment whichaccompanies and rewards fully actuated being; the peace whichhe attains is psychologically a callousness to pain andspiritually a partial insensibility to the evidences ofdiminished being. His peace is the doubtful calm of utterThis spectacle of spiritual deterioration carried to thepoint of imminent dissolution arouses in us, however, acurious feeling of exaltation. For even after the externaland internal forces of evil have done their worst, Macbethremains essentially human and his conscience continues towitness the diminution of his being. That is to say, there isstill left necessarily some natural good in him; sin cannotcompletely deprive him of his rational nature, which is theroot of his inescapable inclination to virtue. We do not needHecate to tell us that he is but a wayward son, spiteful andwrathful, who, as other do, loves for his own ends. This isapparent throughout the drama; he never sins because, likethe Weird Sisters, he loves evil for its own sake; andwhatever he does is inevitably in pursuance of some apparentgood, even though that apparent good is only temporal ofnothing more that escape from a present evil. At the end, inspite of shattered nerves and extreme distraction of mind,the individual passes out still adhering admirably to hiscode of personal courage, and the mans conscience stillclearly admonishes that he has done evil. Moreover, he never quite loses completely the liberty offree choice, which is the supreme bonum naturae of mankind. But since a wholly free act is one in accordance with reason,in proportion as his reason is more and more blinded byinordinate apprehension of the imagination and passions ofthe sensitive appetite, his volitions become less and lessfree. And this accounts for our feeling, toward the end ofthe drama, that his actions are almost entirely determinedand that some fatality is compelling him to his doom. Thiscompulsion is in no sense from without-though theologians mayat will interpret it so-as if some god, like Zeus in Greektragedy, were dealing out punishment for the breaking ofdivine law. It is generated rather from within, and it is notmerely a psychological phenomenon. Precepts of the naturallaw-imprints of the eternal law- deposited in his nature havebeen violated, irrational acts have established habitstending to further irrationality, and one of the penaltiesexacted is dire impairment of the liberty of free choice. Thus the Fate which broods over Macbeth may be identifiedwith that disposition inherent in created things, in thiscase the fundamental motive principle of human action, bywhich providence knits all things in their proper order. Macbeth cannot escape entirely from his proper order; he mustinevitably remain essentially human. The substance of Macbeths personality is that out ofwhich tragic heroes are fashioned; it is endowed by thedramatist with an astonishing abundance and variety ofpotentialities. And it is upon the development of thesepotentialities that the artist lavishes the full energies ofhis creative powers. Under the influence of swiftly alteringenvironment which continually furnishes or elicts newexperiences and under the impact of passions constantlyshifting and mounting in intensity, the dramatic individualgrows, expands, developes to the point where, at the end ofthe drama, he looms upon the mind as a titanic personalityinfinitely richer that at the beginning. This dramaticpersonality in its manifold stages of actuation in asartistic creation. In essence Macbeth, like all other men, isinevitably bound to his humanity; the reason of order, as wehave seen, determines his inescapable relationship to thenatural and eternal law, compels inclination toward hisproper act and end but provides him wi th a will capable offree choice, and obliges his discernment of good and evil. Bibliography: