Shakespeares Alls Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet :: Free Macbeth Essays

Finding Ourselves in Shakespe ares Alls Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, Much snow flurry About No topic, and Hamlet Who are we? Paul Simon said, I am a rock. John Lennon said, I am the walrus. Steve Miller said, Im a joker, Im a smoker, Im a midnight toker. Richard Nixon said, I am not a crook. Basically, it boils tweak to this community of course dont really know who they are, or really are. These metaphorical song lyrics (excluding dodgy Dick) seem to be searches at an explanation of the self. People have been attempting to untroubled their identities forever. At first this search seemed synonymous with a search of an origin. spectral doctrines were devised to explain who people are and if not, how they should be. However, ones identity or soul or true self is not a stagnant or in force(p) identity. Ones character or self is always apt to evolve with advance and experience, or quicker, depending on situations like if one is drunk (Cassio), etc. The equivocalness of peoples pe rsonage is a theme Shakespeare explores in most of his works. He does so with many means the use of costumes, magic, dishonesty, and most often with confusion. Characters in Shakespeare are never what they seem. Hamlet says, I know not seems. Iago says, Im not what I am. Henry V says, Presume not that I am the thing I was. What Shakespeare seems to be doing is breaking down identities. We develop a parley of pattern-based predictions about who people are and how they will behave. When people act otherwise or out of our perception of their character we assume something is wrong. We all grow a natural tendency to seek black and white or at least know where people stand. Trust and honesty, declared and prise virtues, are based on this inherent need. Shakespeare again and again breaks these beliefs down by basing all significant action in his plays on people acting out of their perceived characters. Examples include the love quadrangle in A Midsummer Nights Dream the rejection of Fa lstaff in Henry IV, Part 2 Othellos struggle with Desdemonas potential promiscuity Claudio and Prince Johns assumption of Heros whorishness the Archbishop, Mowbray, and Hastings belief in the value of Lancasters inferred intentions etc. So often in Shakespeares plays, characters put on disguises and survive masks to hide who they truly are for some purpose or another. So much of his story lines depend on instances where peoples assumptions are false perceptions of who soulfulness really is.