Romeo and Juliet: Character Study of Romeo

Romeo and Juliet: Character Study of Romeo We are introduced to Romeo at the beginning of the play in a conversation between Montague and Benvolio. Even from this early stage, it is apparent to us that Romeo is a romantic, having been seen "an hour before the worshipped sun" had risen, walking beneath "the grove of sycamore" in a sickened state, sighing deeply with "tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew." We also learn from this brief discussion that he has been hiding himself away in his room, shutting up his windows and locking out the daylight, in an attempt to create an "artificial night." When Romeo finally does appear, he comes across as a sad, melancholic, apathetic youth and declares that he's in love with a girl who doesn't return his affections, saying he is 'out of her favour where I am I love.' He talks to Benvolio about how he feels inside, but talks in rhyming couplets which make his words seem like a well rehearsed speech rather than a true expression of emotional torture and anguish. This artificiality of his speech makes it seem forced rather than from the heart and conveys the idea that he is more in love with the concept of love itself, rather than actually experiencing the feeling of love. Also, throughout that scene he uses oxymoron (e.g. "brawling love," and "loving hate") which conveys a rather melodramatic quality in his personality. When he

  • Word count: 1044
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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In The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence, Morag Gunn's association with Ella Gerson provides her with opportunities to examine aspects of life that she might not have been exposed to otherwise.

Alternate Group Work Question: Write and approximately 300 word answer for the following: Morag sees a range of choices for women living in the 20th century through the female characters she meets. Choose one or two of the following characters (Mrs. Crawley, Ella Gerson, Mrs. Gerson, Julie Kazlik, Fan Brady) and describe what Morag gets from their relationship. Are there things that she both takes and leaves from her association with them? In The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence, Morag Gunn's association with Ella Gerson provides her with opportunities to examine aspects of life that she might not have been exposed to otherwise. Ella comes into Morag's life during a period of significant change and adjustment, and at a time when she needs support and friendship. Ella, like Morag, is a writer, and they first meet at University. Morag is, at the time, struggling with her insecurity as a writer and with who she is as a person. Ella is able to offer Morag emotional support and understanding that has been lacking for as long as Morag can remember, and for the first time "Morag tells - can she? she does" (196) someone about her writing, her past, and her hopes for the future. Via her friendship with Ella, Morag is exposed to the Gerson family, and to the first loving and warm family experience she has had since her parents died. Morag realizes "that she never knew until now

  • Word count: 420
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The Tell Tale Heart

The Tell Tale Heart This story was written during the Victorian time, in early 1800 by Edgar Allan Poe, who was born in 1809 and died in 1849. Although he was American, he spent his school years in Stoke Newington University, in England. In his early age Poe tried many different jobs, like a soldier, journalist, and a kitchen porter. Then later, he became very successful at writing horror stories (Gothic). The Tell Tale Heart is one of them. The story is told by the narrator who murdered the old man he lived with. He says he used to love the old man. However, the old man had an awful eye and the main character could not stand it, so he decided to kill the old man. Eventually, he took the life of the old man. Then, the police were called by a neighbour, and told of a shriek heard the night before. The police went to find out what happened. The main character successfully presented himself as innocent, but in the end he gave himself up. He admitted committing the crime. In the first paragraph the writer is diving us an introduction to the story. Tension is suggested straight away in the narrator's opening sentence, in which he says "True! Nervous- very, dreadfully nervous. I have been and I am". Suspense keeps building up as the writer tells the story by talking to the reader directly. "But why will you say that I am mad?" suspense in this story plays a very

  • Word count: 784
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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The types of relationships that people have

Relationships There are many types of relationships that people have. A relationship is defined as a state of being related or interrelated. The three main themes, or relationships discussed are our relationship with the supernatural, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with the self. The first relationship is the relationship that we have with the supernatural. In the text Paradise Lost by John Milton, it shows us the relationship between Satan, God, and humans. The story mainly takes place with Satan coming down to Eden to get revenge. It begins out by showing the consequences of Adam and Eve's disobedience by eating the forbidden fruit. "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe, with loss of Eden, till one greater Man..."(Paradise Lost, p. 3001). This shows the relationship with the supernatural by showing how Adam and Eve disobeyed God's orders of not to eat from the forbidden tree and they did and then Satan came down to Eden to be revenged on men. Satan once lived in happiness; he was full of joy, and surrounded by pleasure. After he had forsaken God, he was punished for his unfaithfulness to the worst extremes. That is why he has come back to get revenge on God by hurting Adam and Eve, God's creations. If you believe in God and follow him and obey

  • Word count: 658
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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How does Thomas Hardy present men and women and their relationships in the three 'Wessex Tales'? The relationships between men and women are explored seriously and humorously

How does Thomas Hardy present men and women and their relationships in the three 'Wessex Tales'? The relationships between men and women are explored seriously and humorously in 'The Withered Arm', 'Tony Kytes - the Arch-Deceiver', and 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion'. It is through the plot that concerns about marriage and social status are revealed, and through this Hardy presents a fictionalised picture of society and relationships at that time. Hardy's stories are based on many tales, which had been told to him as a young boy. They are mainly based on events, which happened before his birth in 1840. This therefore separates the time period of his contemporary readers from his characters lives, and therefore enables Hardy to create a fictionalised world that is based on social fact. Wessex is a fictional county that was closely based on the county of Dorset, which is why much of the dialect used in the three stories, is that of Dorset. The events relayed in the stories tell us that the social attitudes and values have not changed, and this also gives us a picture of how relationships between men and women must conform to society's standards. In each of the three stories, Hardy has chosen to use the pastoral voice, which is the common dialect throughout many of Hardy's stories. The use of dialect during his stories, occur at moments when Hardy does not

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Compare and contrast the two love stories ("Peleus and Thetis"; "Ariadne and Theseus") in Catullus' Poem 64.

Compare and contrast the two love stories ("Peleus and Thetis"; "Ariadne and Theseus") in Catullus' Poem 64. Catullus' Poem 64 recounts the blissful marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the narration of which is interrupted by the recounting of another myth. This 'tale-within-a-tale' is the ekphrasis of a tapestry depicting Theseus' abandonment of Ariadne and telling of the ruinous consequences of this act for Theseus. It is this story of betrayed love that is woven into the coverlet of the matrimonial bed of Peleus and Thetis. Although it portends no such betrayal by either Peleus or Thetis, this vivid narrative tapestry dominates the poem and gives mythic idiom to a theme with which Catullus seems to have had much concern throughout his poetry of Lesbia.1 The lament of Ariadne is undoubtedly the centrepiece of the poem, and perhaps "puts into a woman's mouth the grief expressed elsewhere [in the poetry of] Catullus at his own abandonment by Lesbia."2 Theseus' lackadaisical absent-mindedness (made worse by the curse of Ariadne) causes his father's erroneous suicide, and may be indicative of the fecklessness of Lesbia.3 Perhaps then, the Peleus and Thetis narrative is merely a frame for the story of Ariadne.4 Yet, the extravagant wedding of Peleus and Thetis can be seen to represent an apex in the age of heroes - when the gods mingled with mankind. The disturbing

  • Word count: 2621
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Discuss the ways - conventional or unconventional - in which the poet's mistress is represented by any TWO poets of the period. Refer to at least three poems, commenting closely on at least two.

Discuss the ways - conventional or unconventional - in which the poet's mistress is represented by any TWO poets of the period. Refer to at least three poems, commenting closely on at least two. This essay proposes to explore, compare and discuss the different ways in which poets have portrayed their mistresses in the Elizabethan sonnets. I will be particularly focussing on sonnets 18 and 130 by William Shakespeare and Whoso List to Hunt and They Flee from Me by Thomas Wyatt. These poems show very different ways of portraying the mistress's of two prominent Elizabethan poets, one displaying a conventional portrayal the other three not. Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare; 'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day' is a beautiful and conventional Petrarchian sonnet with the explanation of the summer, then line 9 beginning with saying how the mistress is lovelier. He compares the beauty of his mistress the beauty of a day in summer; line 2 says 'Thou art more lovely and more temperate' saying that she is more beautiful than summer and more pleasant. He spends the next 7 lines explaining that summer does not last forever, 'And summers lease hath all to short a date' line 4. Shakespeare says the sun becomes too hot using a metaphor for the sun as heavens eye 'Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,' then he also says that often it is not bright enough using personification,

  • Word count: 1484
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer John Keats was a famous romantic poet from England. He was born on 31 October 1795 in Moorfields, son of the manager of a livery stable. His parents died when he was young so he had to live with his brothers and sisters. He began writing poems in 1814, when he was about 19 years old. Keats left school in 1811 to be apprenticed to the surgeon Thomas Hammond. After four years he registered as a student at Guy's Hospital. A year later he abandoned medicine to write poems all this life-time. Keats didn't stop writing poems, even when he was nursing his brother Tom that was ill of tuberculosis. During this time Keats wrote "Isabella". He wrote many poems which are still regarded as classics, including "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "The Eve of St. Agnes." He spent his whole life writing more than 30 poems and died of tuberculosis in Rome in 1821. John Keats first great poem was written on the subject of one of his inspirations, Homer. One of Keats' schoolteachers, Charles Clarke, introduced him to the George Chapman translation of Homer. Clarke and Keats stayed up all night reading Homer's translated works and after Keats got home he sat down and wrote the first poem, which he finished the next morning and posted to Clarke in the mail. That poem was called 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'. In this Keats makes particularly effective use of

  • Word count: 1055
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus

Antony and Cleopatra Question: Explore Shakespeare's presentation of Domitius Enobarbus. Traditionally Shakespeare's use of the role of a chorus is seen to have been used as an insight for the audience into the prophesy of future events and what to expect throughout the play, usually by a secondary character. In 'Antony and Cleopatra', Shakespeare expands the role of the chorus within his presentation of Enobarbus. Enobarbus does not merely illustrate what consequences Antony and Cleopatra's actions will have, but plays a significant and vital character whose actions earn the admiration of the audience. Amid Antony's entourage is Enobarbus. Enobarbus is a high ranking officer who within the play is one of Antony's closest aficionados. Among the audience Enobarbus is seen as the thematic and moral centre of the play. Through the admired Enobarbus the power of love and loyalty are seen to overshadow the logical reason and common sense of the mind. For example his emotional break down and reaction to his betrayal and desertion of Antony and of Antony's munificent response creates a sense of desolation behind his death. "I am alone the villain of the earth, My better service when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold!" At times, Enobarbus is very much a chorus figure observing the behaviour of those around him. His interpretation of certain situations brings

  • Word count: 2913
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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For never was a story of such woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo - What is it that make s the play so "woeful" or tragic? Discuss this by closely referring to characters and events in the play

For never was a story of such woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo What is it that make s the play so "woeful" or tragic? Discuss this by closely referring to characters adn events in the play 'For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo' Romeo and Juliet is a tragic tale of two lovers whose lasting appeal can be attributed to the play's unforgettable characters, its gripping plot, its universal themes and its lyrical poetry. The play closely follows Shakespeare's 'Formula for Tragedy', where there is a Great man or woman with a tragic flaw in personality, which is accompanied with ill-fate and an ultimate flaw from greatness. This eventually equates to a tragedy in the play. In Romeo and Juliet, tragic flaws within the characters and the ill fate of the lovers makes the play a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet is the tragic tale of two young lovers whose love couldn't survive their turbulent world. A tragedy is a dramatic representation of human conflict conventionally ending with the defeat or death of the major characters. Shakespeare's "formula" for tragedy comprises of a great man or woman with a tragic flaw in their personality. Fate intervenes in the events and this combination leads to a fall from greatness. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet closely follows this formula where characters and their ill-fate plays a critical role in leading up

  • Word count: 1821
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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