Study On Shakespeare Richard II Drama Essay

Study On Shakespeare Richard II Drama Essay The opening scene of Richard II is illuminating on several counts. On the one hand, Richard II, as king, appears to be acting out in full, his role as supreme arbiter of the land, by presiding over an appeal for treason. This medieval trial requires the presence of the king as both ruler and immediate dispenser of justice. On the other hand, as the scene unfolds, we gradually learn that what is being undermined is not simply the respective reputations of the rival nobles, Bolingbroke and Mowbray, but the very claims of the king himself to his Divine Right to rule. We learn that what they are fighting about is the murder of Thomas of Woodstock, Richard IIs uncle. Bolingbroke appears to know that Richard had secretly ordered Woodstocks death. Obviously, it is impossible for Bolingbroke to accuse Richard directly of his own crime. Nevertheless, his solution, amounts to a thinly-veiled accusation: he accuses Mowbray of murdering Woodstock while under his custody knowing full well that Mowbray himself was carrying out Richards instructions. Meanwhile, for the same reason, Mowbray cannot publicly name the guilty man and resorts to a perfectly traditional game of returning Bolingbrokes insults and accusations. The otherwise perfectly conventional solution proposed by the king, a joust, is as much deployed in defense of his royal power, as presented as an honorable solution for noblemen. At the very moment when the king appears to be at his most powerful, we can already discern how precarious this hold on power really is and on what it rests: a conflation of political and divinely ordained authority. The implication of the concept of the Divine Rights of Kings is that any challenge to royal power is unthinkable because it is not merely treason, as viewed in other cultures, but also tantamount to blasphemy. This becomes clear in scene 3 when Richard realizes that he may soon lose his crown. Richard refuses to acknowledge that royal power relies on human, rather than divine intervention: Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king. The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord. (3.2 50-53) The notion that the ceremonial anointment of the king is divinely ordained and cannot be outdone is acted out in its full pathos when Richard II literally uncrowns himself in Act 4 in a bizarre mirror-ceremony. On the face of it, Henry V as a character could not be more different from Richard II. Unlike Richard who merely ignores his subjects and provokes their rebellion through unwise policies, Henry is much more charismatic and popular, while at the same time, politically much more astute. Through a combination of eloquence and bravery he is able to inspire and unite his kingdom against an external enemy in a way that Richard could only have dreamt of. Henrys political skills are most in evidence in 2.2 when he plays a rather Machiavellian trick on the plotters Cambridge, Grey and Scrope. Henry asks their opinion on whether he should be lenient to traitors. Having received the expected, hypocritical responses, Henry pretends to hand them their written military commissions to be carried out as his faithful subjects. In fact, they are letters informing them that Henry knows of their plot. They are promptly arrested. This is far from being an isolated instance of Henrys cunning side. During a pause in the battle in 4.1, he disguises himself as a common soldier and mixes with his infantry, engaging them in conversation. Their talk centers on the respective roles of king and subject. Henry maintains that despite the apparent gulf, the king is fundamentally the same as the common man: I think the King is but a man, as I am. The violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to meHis ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man, and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. (4.1.99-104) Yet a few lines later, he contradicts himself by countering Williams and Bates (the common soldiers) argument that the king also has greater moral responsibility that comes with power. Henry repudiates his earlier assertion of shared humanity by asserting his special position as king: Twin-born with greatness: subject to the breath Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel But his own wringing. What infinite heartsease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy? (4.1, 216-219) The implication is that because of his divinely ordained kingship, Henrys actions cannot be held to account and scrutinized on the same level as commoners. Henry wants to maintain a problematic and dubious distinction between his own kingly violence and the violence of common men, which is merely criminal. It becomes clear that Henry not only likes power games, but wants to write the rules of the game too. This becomes apparent later, when he pardons Williamss (unintentional) challenge to himself as the king. This scene is then deployed to illustrate royal magnanimity. To these examples can be added Henrys wooing of Catherine in 5.2. Whether or not Catherine is won over is frankly irrelevant because in fact, the French King had already, in scene 3, offered Catherine to Henry before his invasion of France. The wooing scene is thus, strictly, superfluous. Back to: Example Essays Conclusion We have seen how in both plays, the notion of the Divine Rights of Kings is mobilized to defend and extend royal prerogatives. In Richard II, Bolingbrokes rebellion is portrayed as inherently unnatural because it is both treacherous and blasphemous. Yet it is plain how ineffective a monarch Richard is. In Henry V, royal power is likewise portrayed as god-given but as we have seen it deployed we are forced to confront the gulf between virtuous kingship and successful statecraft based on the Machiavellian model. Both plays raise the question that what makes someone an effective king may be very far removed from what makes a morally admirable one. Bibliography: King Henry V Arden Shakespeare, 1995 Richard II Arden Shakespeare, 2002 Hamilton, Donna, The State of Law in Richard II Shakespeare Quarterly 34 (1983): 5-17 Greenblatt, Stephen, Invisible Bullets: Renaissance Authority and its Subversion, Henry IV and Henry V. Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism. Ed Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985.

The Red Badge Of Courage Essay :: essays research papers

The Red Badge of Courage is not a war novel. It is a novel about life. This novel illustrates the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Stephen Crane uses the war as a comparison to everyday life. He is semi-saying that life is like a war. It is a struggle of warriors—the every day people—against the odds. In these battles of everyday life, people can change. In The Red Badge of Courage, the main character, Henry Fleming, undergoes a character change that shows how people must overcome their fears and the invisible barriers that hold them back from being the best people—warriors, in the sense that life is war—they can be. Henry has a character change that represents how all humans have general sense of fear of the unknown that must be overcome.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first part of the novel, Henry is a youth that is very inexperienced. His motives were impure. He was a very selfish and self-serving character. He enters the war not for the basis of serving his country, but for the attainment of glory and prestige. Henry wants to be a hero. This represents the natural human characteristic of selfishness. Humans have a want and a need to satisfy themselves. This was Henry's main motive throughout the first part of the novel. On more than one occasion Henry is resolved to that natural selfishness of human beings. After Henry realizes that the attainment of glory and heroism has a price on it. That price is by wounds or worse yet, death. Henry then becomes self-serving in the fact that he wants to survive for himself, not the Union army. There is many a time when Henry wants to justify his natural fear of death. He is at a point where he is questioning deserting the battle; in order to justify this, he asks Jim, the tall sol dier, if he would run. Jim declared that he'd thought about it. Surely, thought Henry, if his companion ran, it would be alright if he himself ran. During the battle, when Henry actually did take flight, he justified this selfish deed—selfish in the fact that it did not help his regiment hold the Rebs—by natural instinct. He proclaimed to himself that if a squirrel took flight when a rock was thrown at it, it was alright that he ran when his life was on the line.

Battle of Issus Essay

The Battle of Issus Sometime around 310 BCE an artist by the name of Philoxenus of Eretria created amosaic (creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored material) of the Battle ofIssus that has long been considered one of the greatest artworks of antiquity. Found at theHouse of the Faun in Pompeii in 1831 the mosaic is composed of about one and a half milliontiny individual colored tiles called tesserae. The artwork illustrates the battle in whichinvading troops led by Alexander of Macedonia defeated the army led by King Darius III ofPersia. When looking at the piece the viewer cannot help but be impressed by the psychologicalintensity of the drama taking place. On the Persian side of the piece the viewer’s eye isimmediately drawn to the prominent figure of Darius shown in his chariot. A look of puredesperation, and perhaps even fear, is etched in Darius’ face as victory slips through his hands. As his steely eyed charioteer turns to rein his horses for a fast retreat to safety Darius stretchesout his hand toward Alexander either in disbelief that Alexander has beaten him, or perhaps ingrief over the death of one of his â€Å"immortals†. Around him are his Persian soldiers who mill inconfusion in the background, their faces filled with fear and determination. On the same side,there are two other figures that are quite notable and demonstrate the artist’s technicalmastery. The first is the artist’s depiction of the rearing horse right below Darius which is seenin a three-quarter rear view. The rider, his terror evident upon his face, glances back at thebattle as he attempts to control his horse. This kind of depiction is very impressive and ismuch more accomplished then other similar attempts such as the shading in the Pella mosaic orthe Vergina mural (Kleiner 142). The second, perhaps even more impressive, is the artist’sportrayal of the Persian in the foreground who has fallen onto the ground and raises a smallshield in a pathetic attempt to prevent being trampled. The man’s terrified face is reflected onthe polished surface of the shield moments before the chariot crushes him under its ornatewheels. On the Macedonian side of things the viewer’s eye is of course drawn to Alexander. Thisportrait of Alexander is one of his most famous. His breastplate depicts Medusa the Gorgon. He leads the charge into battle on his horse Bucephalus, without even a helmet to protecthim, and maintains an aura of unshaken confidence in direct contrast to Darius. As Alexandersurges forward in a supreme effort he drives his spear straight through one of Darius’s trustedâ€Å"immortals† who puts himself between him and the King of Persia. As the impaled Persiancollapses to the ground, Alexander fixes his gaze upon Darius in utter hatred. Although thedeteriorated condition of the mosaic makes it difficult to distinguish much on the Macedonianside a cavalryman wearing a Boeotian helmet with a golden wreath can been seen behindAlexander. Looking at the mosaic as a whole there are a few important details that grab onesattention. First is the fact that the landscape is very minimal, only one gnarled tree trunkappearing in the background and a few discarded weapons and rocks in the foreground. Secondly, everywhere in the scene men, animals, and weapons cast shadows on the ground. This unusual attention to detail is what enhances the intensity of the piece and gives it anaspect of realism that truly shows the horror and confusion of battle. The viewer cannot helpbut be drawn into the conflict and become a part of the drama as it unfolds. To me this mosaicis not only a truly great piece of art but also has furthered my understanding of Roman artwork,Macedonian warfare and the emotion in Hellenistic-styled mosaics. It is easy tounderstand how Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder concluded thatPhiloxenus’ depiction of the Battle of Issus was â€Å"inferior to none† (Kleiner 142).

The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass - 1300 Words

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass gives readers a detailed overview of the life of a slave who share his own personal experiences and struggles from a slave to a freeman. Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot county, Maryland. He was the son of Harriet Bailey and his father was a white man (Douglass 1). After living with his master for nine months, Frederick was sent to stay with Mr. Covey, a man who is known for â€Å"breaking down young slaves† (Douglass 34). But while he was at Mr Covey’s Douglass faced many struggles. Frederick Douglass s struggles against slavery can be seen when he resisted against Mr. Covey. As a result of resistance against Mr. Covey and refusing to submit to his blows, Douglass experiences what he†¦show more content†¦she was kind and gentle but the power of slavery overcome her once gentle spirit. He explained that she wasn’t bad a person at first, but having complete control over another human being transforms her from an angel into a demon. Another example can be seen when Douglass writes â€Å"Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness† (Douglass 22). Here Douglas is referring to Mrs. Auld. He described her has one of the kindest faces that he had ever seen, then overtime her heart had been turned to stone because of owning a slave. She was changed because of the power that Slavery gave her. She wasn’t pleased with a simple task, she wanted to do better. According to Douglass, she was even more violent than her husband. Hence, slavery changes everyone, not only the slaves, but the slaveholders as well. In addition, I have noticed that he describes Mrs. Auld’s transformation the same way he describes how slaves are brutalized. She starts out a human being, with warm feelings and emotions, and becomesShow MoreRelatedNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass987 Words   |  4 PagesLife of Frederick In the â€Å"narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American slave written by himself† Frederick reveled to audience the time he was living as a slave and the moments of brutal treats for example psychological, emotional and physical abuses. He was suffering terrible moments during his 20 years as a slave in the twentieth century. In addition, he describes in his own words the strategies he used to escape from the slave holders and to be free. This story the â€Å"Narrative of theRead MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay1102 Words   |  5 PagesDate Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as â€Å"a highly conventionalized genre† indicating that â€Å"its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass†¦are widely recognized today.† (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have pennedRead MoreThe Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass1566 Words   |  7 PagesThe â€Å"Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass† is the story of Frederick Douglass’ life from the time he was born into slavery, to the time he escaped to freedom in the north. When Douglass wrote this book, slavery was still legal in a large portion of the United States. After Douglass’ escape to freedom and his continuation of his education, he became an abolitionist through his works of literatu re and speeches. In â€Å"The Blessings of Slavery†, by George Fitzhugh he states that southern slavesRead MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass1257 Words   |  6 PagesBook Review By Mary Elizabeth Ralls Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: An autobiography written by Frederick Douglass Millennium publication, 1945edition 75 pages Frederick Douglass whose real name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey approximately birthdate is in1818, the month or day is not known, he died in 1895. He is one of the most famous advocates and the greatest leaders of anti-slavery in the past 200 or so years.Read MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay1498 Words   |  6 Pagessoutherners believed that one of the most essential means of life was slavery. In the novel, Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass challenges and debunks the idea of slavery being a necessary part of the white lifestyle; many pro-slavery arguments consisted of religion justifying slavery, slaves being â€Å"easily manipulated†/ignorant, and slavery keeping the southern economy from disappearing (The Proslavery Argument). Frederick uses personal experiences and other tactics to expose theRead MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass1730 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the most well-known slavery narratives wa s lived and written by Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a civil rights activist who was born into slavery on a plantation in eastern Maryland in February 1818. His exact birth date is unknown, he states in his narrative, â€Å"I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.†2 His birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, which was given by hisRead MoreThe Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass1363 Words   |  6 Pages In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass portrays the importance of education because of its influence in leveling the playing field between the races in the 1800s. Education and knowledge are themes that are heavily dwelled upon throughout the novel, inspiring the reader to see the full power of such important ideals and to take the full advantage of both at all times. Douglass gives the reader a new appreciat ion for education as he delivers his message regardingRead MoreNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass1255 Words   |  6 PagesFrederick Douglass, throughout Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, uses religion to get many of his points across. In one way, religion plays a huge role in Douglass’ ability to become literate throughout the text. With the Bible and other Christian texts, Douglass is able to further his ability and the ability of others to read. This becomes important because as Douglass points out the slaveholders believe a literate slave is not a good slave. This union of literacy and religion show theRead MoreThe Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass1583 Words   |  7 Pages‘The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass’ is an autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the slave who escaped and became one of renowned social reformers of his time. The book is a collection of actual experiences of the author during his time in slavery and experienc es of fellow slaves. He describes brilliantly the oppressive conditions into which he was born, lived, as well as his struggles and triumphs. The author meant to make the reader comprehend life of the African Americans in slavery beforeRead MoreThe Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass939 Words   |  4 PagesRevolutionary Freedom In 1845, an African-American man named Frederick Douglass released a thought-provoking autobiography that would become a turning point in revolutionary change. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was the first autobiography Douglass had written focusing on the real life struggles he has faced during his time spent in bondage. During his time, it was not common for an African-American to have the skills to read and write, and it was especially uncommon to publish