...In the book, Romeo and Juliet, the author, William Shakespeare, uses character foils in order to emphasize the extreme differences of each character to show how the characters have the ability to complement one another. Character foils reveal how two opposites can come together to form a unique whole that is equally balanced. Through the characteristics brought forth by character foils, readers can see the significance of the relationship. William Shakespeare uses the methods of speech, effect on others, and actions of indirect characterization to demonstrate how the contrasting characteristics of Benvolio and Tybalt represent the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. William Shakespeare uses the articulation of speech to demonstrate how...
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...Spock and Captain Kirk, Mufasa and Scar, Gandalf and Sauron -- these are some of the most common examples of character foils throughout literature history, and if we, as people, must learn valuable lessons from literature, what is this term teaching us? When authors use this, they allow the reader to see how, even if people are vastly different, their opinions and ideals are still valid, even if they are different that what a person may believe. Have you ever met someone that is the complete opposite of you? Maybe they were loud and rambunctious while you were more quiet and reserved; although they might have driven you insane, that person’s ideas are equally as valid as yours. However, it is useless to simply state a few examples and a lesson, so we, as a human race, must find...
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...the use of being happy if there is no sadness?” (I, a Night Owl). The play “Romeo and Juliet” was written in 1596 by William Shakespeare. This was during the Elizabethan era. “Romeo and Juliet” is a play about two young people who fall in-love however it ends tragically. It is also about loyalty, family, and friendship. Mercutio and Romeo are two characters in the play that are friends and both accentuate each other's personalities. William Shakespeare uses the positive uplifting Mercutio as a foil of the pessimistic romantic Romeo to highlight him as the tragic hero of the play. People get along better when they have things in common. Romeo and Mercutio have a few similar traits. They both are alike in how they speak so deeply about what they believe to be true. Mercutio and Romeo are both dramatic. They are also loyal to each other. When Tybalt threatens Romeo, Mercutio is angered and stands up for Romeo. Quote Romeo does the same when he avenges Mercutio’s death. Even though they share similarities they do have many differences. These...
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...It could be argued that Romeo and Juliet is the most popular of William Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses many different approaches to keep the whole audience interested. These assist in creating his ability to attract a wide audience and are a great contributor to Shakespeare’s success. Shakespeare uses foils to highlight various attributes of characters. Two foils in Romeo and Juliet are the Nurse and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. The foils highlight certain traits of each other. Shakespeare uses the contrast between the Nurse and Lady Capulet to emphasize the difference between their relationships with Juliet, but it emphasizes other differences too. One significant difference between Juliet’s caregiver...
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...The Capulets’ nurse and Lady Capulet act as character foils throughout Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” This is because their differing characteristics help portray a contrast between the two of them. The Capulet family is first introduced in Act 1 Scene 3 of the play. It is already clear that Lady Capulet is more serious and scholarly while the nurse acts as a comic relief. Along with this, Lady Capulet seems to care about Juliet’s appearance and reputation and how it will affect the Capulet name while the nurse genuinely looks out for Juliet’s best interest. Even though Lady Capulet is Juliet’s biological mother, she doesn’t act as a maternal figure to Juliet. It can be likely inferred that the nurse spends more time with Juliet than Lady...
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...This story of star-crossed lovers is one of William Shakespeare’s tenderest dramas. Shakespeare is sympathetic toward Romeo and Juliet, and in attributing their tragedy to fate, rather than to a flaw in their characters, he raises them to heights near perfection, as well as running the risk of creating pathos, not tragedy. They are both sincere, kind, brave, loyal, virtuous, and desperately in love, and their tragedy is greater because of their innocence. The feud between the lovers’ families represents the fate that Romeo and Juliet are powerless to overcome. The lines capture in poetry the youthful and simple passion that characterizes the play. One of the most popular plays of all time, Romeo and Juliet was Shakespeare’s second tragedy (after Titus Andronicus of 1594, a failure). Consequently, the play shows the sometimes artificial lyricism of early comedies such as Love’s Labour’s Lost 1594-1595, . 1598) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (. 1595-1596, . 1600), while its character development predicts the direction of the playwright’s artistic maturity. In Shakespeare’s usual fashion, he based his story on sources that were well known in his day: Masuccio Salernitano’s Novellino (1475), William Painter’s The Palace of Pleasure (1566-1567), and, especially, Arthur Brooke’s poetic The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562). Shakespeare reduces the time of the action from the months it takes in Brooke’s work to a few compact days. In addition to following the conventional...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET By ARTHEA J.S. REED, PH.D. S E R I E S W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., E D I T O R S : UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent introduction to Shakespearean drama; teenagers can relate to its plot, characters, and themes. The play’s action is easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically...
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...Romeo and Mercutio Opposing Opinions of Love In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love believed by Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of agitated misery. He is in love with his own sorrow, quickly captivated and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, is much more real-world and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by exact thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his entrance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not love him back: ROMEO (Act I Scene I Lines 185-193) Why, such is love's transgression. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet. (R & J) The references to "fire" and "sea" are signs that these are lines of passion rather than love. Romeo sees himself as subjective to his situation, "Doth add more grief to too much of mine own." and is swallowed up in his self-pity as well. Romeo is only forgiven these faults because he is young, immature...
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...Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has many characters, some good some bad. Throughout the duration of the play you gain the sense that the Capulet family (Juliet’s family) are the antagonists as Tybalt seems to always be trying to fight and Lady Capulet seems very hate filled toward the Montagues by saying all are welcome unless from the house of Montague. The characters that will be contrasted will be the hate filled Tybalt and the peaceful Benvolio, Romeo and Paris and Nurse and Lady Capulet. The peaceful Benvolio acts as a foil to the fiery, aggressive Tybalt. Tybalt is quick to anger and often instigates fights, whereas Benvolio tries to “keep the peace”. As the play opens and the servants of both houses are arguing, Benvolio tries to stop...
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...1. W. Shakespeare « Hamlet» (Renaissance) Character List Hamlet - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts. Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, evidence that any other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle’s guilt before trying to act. Claudius - The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling—his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere. Gertrude - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth. Polonius - The...
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...ANALYZING NOVELS & SHORT STORy Good feedback is kind, thorough and timely. It’s professional and focused. It leaves the writer feeling challenged to do better but great about their strengths. Even if that just means the location they chose was cool. Give your feedback relative to the skill set of the writer. Never lie or obfuscate. Just serve it up gently. An upset writer isn’t going to hear your points anyway. But an encouraged one will. Trust me on this. — Julie Gray PRINTER FRIENDLY PAGE Literary analysis looks critically at a work of fiction in order to understand how the parts contribute to the whole. When analyzing a novel or short story, you’ll need to consider elements such as the context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and themes. Remember that a literary analysis isn’t merely a summary or review, but rather an interpretation of the work and an argument about it based on the text. Depending on your assignment, you might argue about the work’s meaning or why it causes certain reader reactions. This handout will help you analyze a short story or novel—use it to form a thesis, or argument, for your essay. Summary Begin by summarizing the basic plot: “Matilda by Roald Dahl is about a gifted little girl in small town America who learns to make things move with her mind and saves her teacher and school from the evil principal.” This will help ground you in the story. (When you write your paper, you probably won’t include a summary because your readers...
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...Translator’s Coming of Age by Omaya Ibrahim Khalifa Through studying the three translations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet done by Mohammed Enani in 1965, 1986 and 1993 respectively, this study adopts a diachronic approach. In addition to examining the historical dimension, this study attempts to address itself to crucial questions related to the process of translating a literary text. A few of these are: how a translator can approach a given text in three different ways and how each translation changes according to the approach and the methods chosen by the translator. More importantly, the study proposes to discuss the pragmatic conditions governing the act of translation and how far these result in prominent modifications in the relationship between the source and target texts. The first part of this study discusses the problem or problems which confront a translator attempting to transpose Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into Arabic, and the second analyses the three translations and how each deals with the problems discussed. Mohammed Enani, in his introduction to his third translation of Romeo and Juliet, singles out tone as the main difficulty that faces any translator attempting a rendering of the play. In the Elizabethan era romance was regarded as a subject for comedy and as such allowed playful treatment. Harry Levin explains that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was an innovation at the time. He reveals the effect of the play on contemporary audiences as follows: ...
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...How much must a person endure in the face of pain? Loss? Suffering? Loss of a father? Death of both of the brothers at each other's hands? This enormity of death deeply influences the characters' rationales and actions in the play Antigone by Sophocles. Each character behaves in extremes due to his or her unfathomable anguish. Neither Antigone, Haimon, nor Creon act with reason because of their intense personal losses and grief. Unfortunately, both extreme passion and radical reasoning manifest serious tragedy. Antigone, the protagonist of the play, lives with her father’s banishment and the death of her two brothers in a civil war. To add to the torment of the death of her brother, Polynieces, a decree passed by Antigone's uncle, Creon,...
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... or a particular group of words or phrases, at one single point in a text. Unlike literary elements, literary techniques are not necessarily present in every text. Literary terms refers to the words themselves with which we identify and describe literary elements and techniques. They are not found in literature and they are not “used” by authors. Allegory: Where every aspect of a story is representative, usually symbolic, of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical/geopolitical event. Lord of the Flies provides a compelling allegory of human nature, illustrating the three sides of the psyche through its sharply-defined main characters. Antagonist: Counterpart to the main character...
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...ENGLISH HANDBOOK -“Welcome to my evil lair…” -Mr. Braiman Brooklyn High School of the Arts www.mrbraiman.com http://handbook.mrbraiman.com “EVIL” Welcome to my evil classroom lair. In order to become full-fledged evil “minions,” you need to read this handbook carefully. It explains everything you need to know. “English,” as you may know, is shorthand for “English Language Arts.” Being that we are in an Arts school, but one where academics must and always do come first, it is important that we approach the subject as what it is: an art form. How does one study the arts? What exactly do we do when we study drawing, sculpture, music, or dance? Well, anyone who has studied the arts will tell you that studying the arts essentially involves two things: • Learning about, and developing an awareness of and appreciation for, existing works of art in that particular form; • Developing the skills and techniques associated with the art form, in order to create our own works. In the case of language arts, much like any other art form, we will be studying existing works of art (i.e., reading books, stories and poems), and developing the skills to produce our own (i.e., writing). That’s what English Language Arts is. We will also be preparing ourselves for New York State’s Regents Comprehensive Examination in English, which we’ll all be taking in June. This two-day, six-hour, four-part exam requires no specific knowledge or content, but it does require the skills to listen, read,...
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