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Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, and predict his ascent to kingship. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their "filthy" trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play.
Shakespeare in many ways explores the sexual fears of the characters, releases them, and transforms them. And the happy ending is the reestablishment of social harmony. Patriarchy itself is also challenged and transformed, as the men offer their women a loving equality, one founded on respect and trust.
Titania (/ t ɪ ˈ t ɑː n i ə /) [1] is a character in William Shakespeare's 1595–1596 play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the play, she is the Queen of the fairies and wife of the Fairy King, Oberon. The pair are depicted as powerful natural spirits who together guarantee the fertility or health of the human and natural worlds.
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Based on the Puck of English mythology and the púca of Celtic mythology, [1] [2] Puck is a mischievous fairy, sprite, or jester. He is the first of the main fairy characters to appear, and he significantly influences events in the play.
'That, of course, is the great secret of the successful fool – that he is no fool at all.' Isaac Asimov, Guide to Shakespeare. [4]One scholar agrees that the clowning in Shakespeare's plays may have been intended as "an emotional vacation from the more serious business of the main action," in other words, comic relief. [5]
In Shakespeare's day, Banquo was thought to be an ancestor of the Stuart King James I. [12] (In the 19th century it was established that Banquo is an unhistorical character; the Stuarts are actually descended from a Breton family which migrated to Scotland slightly later than Macbeth's time.) The Banquo portrayed in earlier sources is ...
Shakespeare's poetic genius was allied with a practical sense of the theatre. [17] Like all playwrights of the time, Shakespeare dramatised stories from sources such as Petrarch and Holinshed. [18] He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible.
Many consider Shakespeare's Cleopatra, whom Enobarbus describes as having "infinite variety", as one of the most complex and fully developed female characters in the playwright's body of work. [ 3 ] : p.45 She is frequently vain and histrionic enough to provoke an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare invests her and Antony ...