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Example research essay topic: Shakespeare William Human Beings - 1,962 words

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... features and as we find out a few lines later, the strength of Hercules has been really applied to Orlando. When Duke Frederick shouts Bear him away (1. 1. 208), we know that Charles is defeated. In the Forest of Arden Orlando also displays his bravery.

When Orlando and Adam have arrived in the forest, Adam is exhausted and extremely weak from lack of food. Without hesitation Orlando threatens to kill Duke Senior and his followers - He dies that touches any of this fruit (2. 7. 99) -, who are sitting around a table, just about to have something to eat. Finally, Orlando, who had found Oliver sleeping in the wood, does not even recoil from defending him from a lioness. Oliver recounts that kindness, nobler ever than revenge, And nature, stronger than his just occasion, Made him give battle to the lioness. (4. 3. 129 - 131) That this undertaking was extremely dangerous becomes clear, since Oliver does not mention a weapon in his report.

This leads to the assumption that Orlando must have killed the lioness with his bare hands. He even wounded himself. Here upon his arm The lioness had torn some flesh away, Which all this while had bled. (4. 3. 147 - 149) But Orlando's physical courage is matched by a moral courage, which is especially evident at the very beginning of the play. Here he stands up to his brother by giving vent to his feelings. For so many years he had not dared to fight back against all injustice that had been done to him. But finally, he builds up enough courage and defends himself.

I am no villain: I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland the Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not take this hand from thy throat till this other had pulled out thy tongue for saying so; thou hast railed on thyself. (1. 1. 53 - 58) Orlando also shows moral courage when he garnishes the forest tress with the most ridiculous love poems without letting a single tree be spared. He totally ignores Jaques, who pokes fun at his writings. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love- songs in their barks. (3. 2. 253) In spite of having less power, Orlando is the stronger one, strong in both senses: physically and mentally. In the course of the play Orlando's courage and his love to Rosalynd are constantly put to the test, but he manages to tackle all kinds of tasks so perfectly well, just as we would expect from a lover. Initially, he is confronted with sheer insoluble problems, but due to his courage and boldness, his faith and love, finally, everything takes a turn for the better and there is no obstacle to a marriage.

In other words, Orlando represents all that is virtuous in opposition to all that is corrupt. (Doebler, 117) 2. 2. Oliver - an archetypal character? Oliver, by contrast, is sly and crafty. When Charles expresses his fear that Orlando might be hurt in the fight, Oliver fires back that Orlando is the stubbornest young fellow of France (1. 1. 132 - 33) and, what is more, a villainous contriver against me, his natural brother. (1. 1. 135) He also makes Charles believe that if Orlando does not gain honour at Charles expense by defeating him, he will keep at him until he is dead. For if thou dost him any slight disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap thee by some treacherous device, and never leave thee till he hath taen thy life by some indirect means or other. (1. 1. 138 - 44) With this act of cunning, Oliver wants Orlando to be assassinated. The one and only reason why Oliver behaves so unnaturally towards his brother is because he is terribly afraid that Orlando might put one over on him, for Oliver is obsessed with wealth and power.

It is he, after all, who has a hold over their fathers inheritance and he does not see why he should split up his fortune amongst others. Oliver is such an unscrupulous tyrant, occupied with the issue of power, that he does not even possess an ounce of warm-heartedness. The selfishness and lust for power that prevail in Oliver are, however, his downfall. When Duke Frederick sends him off to seek Orlando, the self-destructive nature of Oliver's qualities is shown. Upon telling the Duke that [he] never loved... [his] brother in... [his] life (3. 1. 14), the Duke answers More villain thou (3. 1. 15) and orders his officers to turn... [Oliver] going. (3. 1. 18) In the case of Oliver we are not dealing with a harmonious kind of character, since he violates our preconceived idea of the ideal lover by leaving the track. His malice and viciousness destroy the whole harmony, the whole order of the play, which leaves behind an uneasy feeling with the reader.

Even though Oliver and Orlando are brothers, they have distinct personalities and it is not until the very end that Oliver becomes aware of his evil personality and mends his ways. This happens by means of conversion. When Orlando goes to great length to rescue his brother from a lioness, there is nothing to stop the reconciliation of the two brothers, during which Oliver undergoes a change of heart. So, the character change that takes place in Oliver - as well as in Duke Frederick - is a sudden one, with no preceding inner struggle or self-doubt. In the twinkling of an eye, Oliver is converted from being a murderous, avaricious scoundrel with no redeeming characteristics into a pleasant and acceptable husband for Celia. (Muir, 88) All of a sudden Oliver is converted and just as quickly falls in love with Celia, Rosalynds cousin and Duke Fredericks daughter. The reader can finally breathe a sigh of relief, when the treacherous and ungrateful tyrant has found his way back to where he belongs. 3.

Jaques speech - a caricature Jaques is the only one who realises that life does not always take its normal course, neither in the fictitious world of a play nor in real life. In his speech, which is a caricature, he states that, though certain archetypal patterns are imposed on every individual, he does not believe in the existence of an archetypal character, since every single character... is as much an individual as those in Life (sic! ) itself; its impossible to find any two alike. (Popper, 25) This becomes quite clear when we look at Jaques speech, which ridicules mans preposterous behaviour. Instead of waxing stronger... and flourishing biologically, the babe pukes up his milk.

Instead of delighting in his increasing mastery of his intellectual (letters), artistic (lyre), and physical (wrestling) powers, the schoolboy creeps unwillingly to... [school]. Instead of getting a wife with child, the lover expends his sexual vigor in sighs and woeful balloting. Instead of successful military conquest, the soldier is suicidally obsessed with personal honour and is futilely bellicose and quarrelsome. Instead of being a productive and effective public and private citizen, economical in the original Aristotelian sense, [man] is an epicurean justice vain of his apophthegms and the cut of his beard. The old man... is now incapable of any kind of activity: educational, sexual, martial, the regulative and providential activity of the active man.

At the end he is able to do nothing. (Allen, 340 - 41) Every stage described has an extremely negative connotation leaving no place for joy or happiness. Yet, in the play, the speech is juxtaposed by dramatic events that show that some characters contradict Jaques speech. Let us take Adam, for instance. He would perfectly fit into this sixth pattern, a lean and slippered pantaloon...

his youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice... pipes And whistles in his sound. (2. 7. 159 - 64) Yet, this old servant does not resemble this described pattern at all. Though he look[s] old, yet... [he is]... strong and lusty. (2. 3. 47) He proves his courage by offering Orlando his whole fortune of 500 crowns - I have five hundred crowns...

Take that. (2. 3. 38; 43) - and by accompanying him to the Forest of Arden, leaving a secure life behind. Let me go with you. (2. 3. 53), Adam says. Real life, however, is not like a romance with a happy ending, but in real life the archetypal pattern is hardly ever fulfilled. And that is what Jaques wants us to become aware of, namely that people are puzzling, inscrutable human beings, each of whom is an individual. 4. Conclusion In the previous chapters I have been trying to comment on two important points that follow from Jaques speech: Firstly, I wanted to prove that in every piece of fictitious art the characters are organised in a particular pattern, a pattern that we, as the reader, are totally aware of.

This is necessary, since the reader is already used to a certain characterisation, which (s) he feels comfortable with. In the case of As you like it, I chose Orlando to illustrate how he fulfils the archetypal function that is inflicted on him. He shows courage, boldness as well as strength. Oliver, however, violates his pattern from the very beginning onwards. He tries to deviate from the role which the reader believes he should act out. But in the end he cannot help but give in and he does so almost unconsciously.

It just happens to him. This is simply because a play and its characters have to stick to certain conventions. Secondly, I pointed out that Jaques is very well aware of the importance of the archetypal patterns, since they put the reader at ease and make his life much more comfortable. But Jaques also realises that in real life it is sheer impossible to conform to this expected pattern. This he brings home to the reader by ridiculing every single stage in life. He shows that human beings are inscrutable.

That is why we always have to be prepared for new changes, since we know what we are, but know not what we may be. (Shakespeare - Hamlet, 4. 5. 44) 5. Bibliography Allen, Michael J. B. , Jaques against the Seven Ages of the Proclan Man, MLQ: A Journal of Literary History, 42 (1981), 331 - 346. Bradford, Alan Taylor, Jaques Distortion of the Seven-Ages Paradigm, SQ, 27 (1976), 171 - 176.

Doebler, John, Orlando: Athlete of Virtue, ShS: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, 26 (1973), 111 - 117. Hutchinson, D. S. , The Cynicism of Jaques: A New Source in Spenser's Axiochus? , N& Q, 39 (1992), 328 - 330. Flexner, Stuart B. , ed. , The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2 nd edition (New York, 1987).

Kay, Dennis, Shakespeare - his life, work and era (London, 1992). Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare's Comic Sequence (Liverpool, 1979). Ordered, David, Orlando, Jaques, and Maurice See, N& Q, 36 (1989), 325 - 327. Ornstein, Robert, Shakespearean Comedies (New York, 1986). Pope, Alexander, Critics on Shakespeare, in Andrews, W. T. , ed. , Readings on Literary Criticism (London, 1973), 24 - 25.

Rogers, Pat, ed. , The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature (Oxford, 1987). Schubert, Ina, ed. , Shakespeare-Handbuch (Stuttgart, 1992). Shakespeare, William, As you like it, ed. by Oliver, H. J. , The New Penguin Shakespeare (London, 1968). Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, ed.

By Sucking, L. L. , William Shakespeare Complete Edition, 4 vols. (Darmstadt, 1996).


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Research essay sample on Shakespeare William Human Beings

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