Essays on Plays

This ideology could be supported with the example of The Taming of the Shrew and a Hollywood romantic comedy classic 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a spin-off of The Taming of the Shrew (similar plot, but set in different time periods). William Shakespeare was widely regarded as one of the world’ greatest...

Michelle Elizabeth Tusan (1997) argued, that ‘The New Woman represented the feminists utopian vision of the model social reformer’. From a modern perspective, this suggests that the ‘The New Woman’ demonstrates a persistent desire for female rebellion, in order to obtain liberation and independence. Women during the nineteenth century, were explicitly viewed as only capable...

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen provides insight into the life of a woman who is constricted by the lack of women’s rights in her society. I am conducting this production as it is considered a feminist play, proposing situations of gender inequality and sexism that are common within society. The character Hedda provides a relative...

“In English literature, protagonists tend to have a tragic flaw which leads to their own downfall” Compare and contrast the ways in which Oscar Wilde and Christopher Marlowe present characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and Doctor Faustus (1592) as being the cause of their own destructions. In Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)...

Taming of The Shrew tells a story of a wealthy father, Baptist and his two daughters, Bianca, aged 18 and Katherina, aged 20. At the start of the play Lucentio, a student comes to Padua and sees Bianca. He instantly falls in love with her however, he soon finds out that she has an older...

Q.1 Give a critical interpretation of the title of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the title itself gives a magical and romantic vibe, arousing further interest of the audiences. Shakespeare very wittily gave a hint of fantasy through his title and suggested an adventurous ride to a dreamland. The...

Over decades ago, many empires were built upon a patriarchal system, in which men have control of power over women. Under the patriarchal society, women had no voice and defined as weaker and inferior (….). Even though Shakespeare lived under the male-dominated society, his depiction of women was not influenced by its standard. He portrayed...

Molière composed Tartuffe, initially named Tartuffe, ou l’Imposteur in 1664. Tartuffe aggravated Molière’s reviewers far greater than his past plays. All the while, the Catholic Church was a considerably large political influence in France during this time. For Molière’s situation, the issues came from a significant number of religious critics, who believed his plays were...

One may ask, “What really is World Literature?” World Literature is “sometimes used to refer to the sum total of the world’s national literatures, but usually it refers to the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin,” according to documents and Wikipedia online. Well, after reading and analyzing through Tartuffe,...

Women, be warned: Men can despise you and simultaneously lose their minds over you. In Antony and Cleopatra (1623), Shakespeare criticizes the role of women in society through the lens of Cleopatra, who is a woman fully aware of her social status as both weak and powerful. Weak in how she is objectified as the...