c

They employ a pair of Hamlet͛s friends,
First performed between the years 1600-01, first printed
in 1603.
Throughout Shakespeare's plays, the maintenance of
identity is a very common conflict, as it was shown in
Macbeth and now in Hamlet. In this play Shakespeare has
portrayed young Hamlet to convey the two sides to him;
one side shows his insane behaviour towards his family,
the other side determines his thoughts of either doing
right or wrong according to what he has seen. The play
trembles with conflicts: one being identity, which shows all
the characters in different disputes of their own. We also
see the problems of lack of self-confidence, misjudgement,
and betrayal.--Submitted by imran.
First performance at the end of 15th century, ~ timeline,
death of Elizabeth I and accession of James VI and I. First
printing 1603. One of the more accessible
Renaissance/early modern period texts. One constant
theme of the English renaissance is the development of
personal character and fame. Hamlet is portrayed as being
uncertain as to whether he is the prince of the title, or
student. Throughout the play Hamlet is presented with
choices, of belief, of action, of love, of justice and of
conscience. The play is famous for its soliloquies, where
Hamlet presents the audience privately with his perceived
choices. The results of his limited choices culminate in the
tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
|
 |
  
by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. He may
have also drawn on, or perhaps written, an earlier
(hypothetical) Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-
Hamlet.
The play's structure and depth of characterization have
inspired much critical scrutiny, of which one example is the
centuries-old debate about Hamlet's hesitancy to kill his
uncle. Some see it as a plot device to prolong the action,
and others see it as the result of pressure exerted by the
complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround
cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge and thwarted
desire. More recently, psychoanalytic critics have
examined Hamlet's unconscious desires, and feminist
critics have re-evaluated and rehabilitated the often
maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.
Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most
powerful and influential tragedies in the English language.
It provides a storyline capable of "seemingly endless
[1]
retelling and adaptation by others". During
Shakespeare's lifetime, the play was one of his most
popular works,[2] and it still ranks high among his most-
performed, topping, for example, the Royal Shakespeare
[3]
Company's list since 1879. It has inspired writers from
Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch and has been
described as "the world's most filmed story after
[4]
Cinderella". The title role was almost certainly created
for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of
Shakespeare's time.[5] In the four hundred years since, it
has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and
discover its cause.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When
Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that
Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia,
Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the
girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not
seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery
and declares that he wishes to ban marriages.
A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet
seizes upon an idea to test his uncle͛s guilt. He will have
the players perform a scene closely resembling the
sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have
murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will
surely react. When the moment of the murder arrives in
the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room.
Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet
goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he
believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send
Claudius͛s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would
be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius,
now frightened of Hamlet͛s madness and fearing for his
own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once.
Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose
bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestry.
Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet believes
the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs
through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is
immediately dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. However, Claudius͛s plan for Hamlet


 
   
, or more actresses from each successive age. includes more than banishment, as he has given
simply


, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, ÿ
 
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of
believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601.
The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet
exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering the old
King Hamlet, Claudius's own brother and Prince Hamlet's
father, and then succeeding to the throne and marrying
Gertrude, the King Hamlet's widow and mother of Prince
Hamlet. The play vividly charts the course of real and
feigned madnessͶfrom overwhelming grief to seething
rageͶand explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest,
and moral corruption.
Despite much research, the exact year Hamlet was written
remains in dispute. Three different early versions of the
play have survived: these are known as the First Quarto
(Q1), the Second Quarto (Q2) and the First Folio (F1). Each
has lines, and even scenes, that are missing from the
others. Shakespeare based Hamlet on the legend of
Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo
Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold
O N A DARK WINTER NIGHT, a ghost walks the ramparts of
Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of
watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost
resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose
brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the
king͛s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the
watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and
the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring
ominously that it is indeed his father͛s spirit, and that he
was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering
Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his
throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the
dawn.
Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father͛s
death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by
nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and
even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry
about the prince͛s erratic behavior and attempt to
England demanding that Hamlet be put to death.
In the aftermath of her father͛s death, Ophelia goes mad
with grief and drowns in the river. Polonius͛s son, Laertes,
who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a
rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for
his father͛s and sister͛s deaths. When Horatio and the king
receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has
returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his ship en
route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes͛
desire for revenge to secure Hamlet͛s death. Laertes will
fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will
poison Laertes͛ blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet
will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a
goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet
score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns
to the vicinity of Elsinore just as Ophelia͛s funeral is taking
place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares
that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the
castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be ÿ


 - The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius͛s court, a 

- Polonius͛s servant, who is sent to France by
prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Polonius to check up on and spy on Laertes.
foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudius͛s orders Laertes and Ophelia. 





[

 
to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and c



- Hamlet͛s close friend, who studied with the c
 
Laertes. prince at the university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and Hamlet has fascinated audiences and readers for
The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but helpful to Hamlet throughout the play. After Hamlet͛s centuries, and the first thing to point out about him is that
declines to drink from the king͛s proffered goblet. Instead, death, Horatio remains alive to tell Hamlet͛s story. he is enigmatic. There is always more to him than the
Gertrude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the  

- Polonius͛s daughter, a beautiful young woman other characters in the play can figure out; even the most
poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet careful and clever readers come away with the sense that
Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her they don͛t know everything there is to know about this
Laertes is cut by his own sword͛s blade, and, after brother, Laertes. Dependent on men to tell her how to character. Hamlet actually tells other characters that there
revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the behave, she gives in to Polonius͛s schemes to spy on is more to him than meets the eyeͶnotably, his mother,
queen͛s death, he dies from the blade͛s poison. Hamlet Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she and Rosencrantz and GuildensternͶbut his fascination
then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally involves much more than this. When he speaks, he sounds
forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine. drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had as if there͛s something important he͛s not saying, maybe
Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving gathered. something even he is not aware of. The ability to write
his revenge.
At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras,
who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland
earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors from England,
who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

  - Polonius͛s son and Ophelia͛s brother, a young
man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate
and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the
reflective Hamlet.


soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one of
Shakespeare͛s most impressive achievements.
A university student whose studies are interrupted by his
father͛s death, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and

 - The young Prince of Norway, whose father contemplative. He is particularly drawn to difficult
Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire the king (also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet͛s questions or questions that cannot be answered with any
royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his
take power of the kingdom. Horatio, fulfilling Hamlet͛s last attack Denmark to avenge his father͛s honor, making him father, evidence that any other character in a play would
request, tells him Hamlet͛s tragic story. Fortinbras orders another foil for Prince Hamlet. believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his
that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen  

 - The specter of Hamlet͛s recently deceased uncle͛s guilt before trying to act. The standard of ͞beyond
soldier. father. The ghost, who claims to have been murdered by a reasonable doubt͟ is simply unacceptable to him. He is
[

 
 Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is equally plagued with questions about the afterlife, about
c
  - The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and not entirely certain whether the ghost is what it appears the wisdom of suicide, about what happens to bodies after
the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates they dieͶthe list is extensive.
play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession,
King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the Hamlet also behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does
Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of ghost is or where it comes from is never act, it is with surprising swiftness and little or no
hatred for his uncle͛s scheming and disgust for his definitively resolved. premeditation, as when he stabs Polonius through a
mother͛s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man 




  - Two slightly bumbling curtain without even checking to see who he is. He seems
who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who to step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving
often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild
rash and impulsive acts. cause of Hamlet͛s strange behavior. speech and pointed innuendos.
[

 - The King of Denmark, Hamlet͛s uncle, and the 
 - The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his
play͛s antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a
calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual


[

It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely
duel with Laertes. melancholy and discontented with the state of affairs in


 - Courtiers whom Claudius sends Denmark and in his own familyͶindeed, in the world at
appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows to Norway to persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from large. He is extremely disappointed with his mother for
signs of guilt and human feelingͶhis love for Gertrude, for attacking. marrying his uncle so quickly, and he repudiates Ophelia, a
instance, seems sincere.
   - The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet͛s mother,
recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet
deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks
affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or


 
  

- The officers who first see the
ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore and who summon
Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet
first encounters the ghost.


woman he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms. His
words often indicate his disgust with and distrust of
women in general. At a number of points in the play, he
contemplates his own death and even the option of

- A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore. suicide.
truth.
But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet professes
dissatisfaction, it is remarkable that the prince and heir
apparent of Denmark should think about these problems
only in personal and philosophical terms. He spends
relatively little time thinking about the threats to
Denmark͛s national security from without or the threats to
its stability from within (some of which he helps to create
through his own carelessness).

[

she intentionally betray Hamlet to Claudius, or does she
believe that she is protecting her son͛s secret?
These questions can be answered in numerous ways,
depending upon one͛s reading of the play. The Gertrude
who does emerge clearly in Hamlet is a woman defined by
her desire for station and affection, as well as by her
tendency to use men to fulfill her instinct for self-
preservationͶwhich, of course, makes her extremely
Elizabethan England was an extremely hierarchical society,
demanding that absolute deference be paid and respect
be shown not only to the wealthy and powerful but also to
parents and the elderly. King Lear demonstrates how
vulnerable parents and noblemen are to the depredations
of unscrupulous children and thus how fragile the fabric of
Elizabethan society actually was.
ÿ
 
 dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlet͛s most
Hamlet͛s major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving
king who contrasts sharply with the other male characters
in the play. Whereas most of the other important men in
Hamlet are preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and
moral balance, Claudius is bent upon maintaining his own
power. The old King Hamlet was apparently a stern
warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt politician whose main
weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his
skillful use of language. Claudius͛s speech is compared to
poison being poured in the earͶthe method he used to
murder Hamlet͛s father. Claudius͛s love for Gertrude may
be sincere, but it also seems likely that he married her as a
strategic move, to help him win the throne away from
Hamlet after the death of the king. As the play progresses,
Claudius͛s mounting fear of Hamlet͛s insanity leads him to
ever greater self-preoccupation; when Gertrude tells him
that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark
that Gertrude might have been in danger, but only that he
would have been in danger had he been in the room. He
tells Laertes the same thing as he attempts to soothe the
young man͛s anger after his father͛s death. Claudius is
ultimately too crafty for his own good. In Act V, scene ii,
rather than allowing Laertes only two methods of killing
Hamlet, the sharpened sword and the poison on the blade,
Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned goblet. When
Gertrude inadvertently drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet
is at last able to bring himself to kill Claudius, and the king
is felled by his own cowardly machination.
  
Few Shakespearean characters have caused as much
uncertainty as Gertrude, the beautiful Queen of Denmark.
The play seems to raise more questions about Gertrude
than it answers, including: Was she involved with Claudius
before the death of her husband? Did she love her
husband? Did she know about Claudius͛s plan to commit
the murder? Did she love Claudius, or did she marry him
simply to keep her high station in Denmark? Does she
believe Hamlet when he insists that he is not mad, or does
she pretend to believe him simply to protect herself? Does
L EAR, THE AGING KING OF BRITAIN, decides to step down from
famous comment about Gertrude is his furious
condemnation of women in general: ͞Frailty, thy name is
woman!͟ (I.ii.146). This comment is as much indicative of
Hamlet͛s agonized state of mind as of anything else, but to
a great extent Gertrude does seem morally frail. She never
exhibits the ability to think critically about her situation,
but seems merely to move instinctively toward seemingly
safe choices, as when she immediately runs to Claudius
after her confrontation with Hamlet. She is at her best in
social situations (I.ii and V.ii), when her natural grace and
charm seem to indicate a rich, rounded personality. At
times it seems that her grace and charm are her only
characteristics, and her reliance on men appears to be her
sole way of capitalizing on her abilities.
King Lear
Shakespeare authored King Lear around 1605, between
Othello and Macbeth, and it is usually ranked with Hamlet
as one of Shakespeare͛s greatest plays. The setting of King
Lear is as far removed from Shakespeare͛s time as the
setting of any of his other plays, dramatizing events from
the eighth century B.C. But the parallel stories of Lear͛s and
Gloucester͛s sufferings at the hands of their own children
reflect anxieties that would have been close to home for
Shakespeare͛s audience. One possible event that may
have influenced this play is a lawsuit that occurred not
long before King Lear was written, in which the eldest of
three sisters tried to have her elderly father, Sir Brian
Annesley, declared insane so that she could take control of
his property. Annesley͛s youngest daughter, Cordell,
successfully defended her father against her sister.
Another event that Shakespeare and his audience would
have been familiar with is the case of William Allen, a
mayor of London who was treated very poorly by his three
daughters after dividing his wealth among them. Not least
among relevant developments was the then recent
transfer of power from Elizabeth I to James I, which
occurred in 1603. Elizabeth had produced no male heir,
and the anxiety about who her successor would be was
fueled by fears that a dynastic struggle along the lines of
the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses might ensue.
the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three
daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a
test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him.
Goneril and Regan, Lear͛s older daughters, give their
father flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear͛s youngest
and favorite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has
no words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear
flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia. The king of France,
who has courted Cordelia, says that he still wants to marry
her even without her land, and she accompanies him to
France without her father͛s blessing.
Lear quickly learns that he made a bad decision. Goneril
and Regan swiftly begin to undermine the little authority
that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his beloved
daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes insane. He
flees his daughters͛ houses to wander on a heath during a
great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent,
a loyal nobleman in disguise.
Meanwhile, an elderly nobleman named Gloucester also
experiences family problems. His illegitimate son, Edmund,
tricks him into believing that his legitimate son, Edgar, is
trying to kill him. Fleeing the manhunt that his father has
set for him, Edgar disguises himself as a crazy beggar and
calls himself ͞Poor Tom.͟ Like Lear, he heads out onto the
heath.
When the loyal Gloucester realizes that Lear͛s daughters
have turned against their father, he decides to help Lear in
spite of the danger. Regan and her husband, Cornwall,
discover him helping Lear, accuse him of treason, blind
him, and turn him out to wander the countryside. He ends
up being led by his disguised son, Edgar, toward the city of
Dover, where Lear has also been brought.
In Dover, a French army lands as part of an invasion led by
Cordelia in an effort to save her father. Edmund
apparently becomes romantically entangled with both
Regan and Goneril, whose husband, Albany, is increasingly
sympathetic to Lear͛s cause. Goneril and Edmund conspire
to kill Albany.
The despairing Gloucester tries to commit suicide, but
Edgar saves him by pulling the strange trick of leading him
off an imaginary cliff. Meanwhile, the English troops reach

 - A nobleman loyal to King Lear whose rank,
Dover, and the English, led by Edmund, defeat the
Cordelia-led French. Lear and Cordelia are captured. In the
climactic scene, Edgar duels with and kills Edmund; we
learn of the death of Gloucester; Goneril poisons Regan
out of jealousy over Edmund and then kills herself when
her treachery is revealed to Albany; Edmund͛s betrayal of
Cordelia leads to her needless execution in prison; and
Lear finally dies out of grief at Cordelia͛s passing. Albany,
Edgar, and the elderly Kent are left to take care of the
country under a cloud of sorrow and regret.
[

 
as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesn͛t want to
earl, is below that of duke. The first thing we learn about
Gloucester is that he is an adulterer, having fathered a
bastard son, Edmund. His fate is in many ways parallel to
that of Lear: he misjudges which of his children to trust. He
appears weak and ineffectual in the early acts, when he is
unable to prevent Lear from being turned out of his own
house, but he later demonstrates that he is also capable of
great bravery.

- Gloucester͛s older, legitimate son. Edgar plays
many different roles, starting out as a gullible fool easily
fulfill a king͛s obligations of governing for the good of his
subjects. Similarly, his test of his daughters demonstrates
that he values a flattering public display of love over real
love. He doesn͛t ask ͞which of you doth love us most,͟ but
rather, ͞which of you shall we say doth love us most?͟
(1.1.49). Most readers conclude that Lear is simply blind to
the truth, but Cordelia is already his favorite daughter at
the beginning of the play, so presumably he knows that
she loves him the most. Nevertheless, Lear values Goneril
and Regan͛s fawning over Cordelia͛s sincere sense of filial
 tricked by his brother, then assuming a disguise as a mad


- The aging king of Britain and the protagonist of
the play. Lear is used to enjoying absolute power and to
being flattered, and he does not respond well to being
contradicted or challenged. At the beginning of the play,
his values are notably hollowͶhe prioritizes the
appearance of love over actual devotion and wishes to
maintain the power of a king while unburdening himself of
the responsibility. Nevertheless, he inspires loyalty in
subjects such as Gloucester, Kent, Cordelia, and Edgar, all
of whom risk their lives for him.
[


- Lear͛s youngest daughter, disowned by her schemes and wreaking destruction upon virtually all of the
father for refusing to flatter him. Cordelia is held in
extremely high regard by all of the good characters in the
playͶthe king of France marries her for her virtue alone,


overlooking her lack of dowry. She remains loyal to Lear
despite his cruelty toward her, forgives him, and displays a
mild and forbearing temperament even toward her evil
sisters, Goneril and Regan. Despite her obvious virtues,
Cordelia͛s reticence makes her motivations difficult to
read, as in her refusal to declare her love for her father at
the beginning of the play.


- Lear͛s ruthless oldest daughter and the wife of opposes the cruelty of Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall. Yet
the duke of Albany. Goneril is jealous, treacherous, and
amoral. Shakespeare͛s audience would have been
particularly shocked at Goneril͛s aggressiveness, a quality
that it would not have expected in a female character. She
challenges Lear͛s authority, boldly initiates an affair with
Edmund, and wrests military power away from her
husband.

 - Lear͛s middle daughter and the wife of the duke
duty.
beggar to evade his father͛s men, then carrying his
impersonation further to aid Lear and Gloucester, and
finally appearing as an armored champion to avenge his
brother͛s treason. Edgar͛s propensity for disguises and
impersonations makes it difficult to characterize him
effectively.
 - Gloucester͛s younger, illegitimate son. Edmund
resents his status as a bastard and schemes to usurp
Gloucester͛s title and possessions from Edgar. He is a
formidable character, succeeding in almost all of his
for Cordelia above every other consideration, to the point
other characters.
 - A nobleman of the same rank as Gloucester who is
loyal to King Lear. Kent spends most of the play disguised
as a peasant, calling himself ͞Caius,͟ so that he can
continue to serve Lear even after Lear banishes him. He is
extremely loyal, but he gets himself into trouble
throughout the play by being extremely blunt and
outspoken.

 - The husband of Lear͛s daughter Goneril. Albany
is good at heart, and he eventually denounces and
obvious authenticity of her love for Lear makes clear the
he is indecisive and lacks foresight, realizing the evil of his
allies quite late in the play.
[

- The husband of Lear͛s daughter Regan. Unlike
Albany, Cornwall is domineering, cruel, and violent, and he
works with his wife and sister-in-law Goneril to persecute
Lear and Gloucester.


- Lear͛s jester, who uses double-talk and seemingly
frivolous songs to give Lear important advice.
An important question to ask is whether Lear develops as
a characterͶwhether he learns from his mistakes and
becomes a better and more insightful human being. In
some ways the answer is no: he doesn͛t completely
recover his sanity and emerge as a better king. But his
values do change over the course of the play. As he
realizes his weakness and insignificance in comparison to
the awesome forces of the natural world, he becomes a
humble and caring individual. He comes to cherish
Cordelia above everything else and to place his own love
that he would rather live in prison with her than rule as a
king again.
[

Cordelia͛s chief characteristics are devotion, kindness,
beauty, and honestyͶhonesty to a fault, perhaps. She is
contrasted throughout the play with Goneril and Regan,
who are neither honest nor loving, and who manipulate
their father for their own ends. By refusing to take part in
Lear͛s love test at the beginning of the play, Cordelia
establishes herself as a repository of virtue, and the
extent of the king͛s error in banishing her. For most of the
middle section of the play, she is offstage, but as we
observe the depredations of Goneril and Regan and watch
Lear͛s descent into madness, Cordelia is never far from the
audience͛s thoughts, and her beauty is venerably
described in religious terms. Indeed, rumors of her return
to Britain begin to surface almost immediately, and once
she lands at Dover, the action of the play begins to move
of Cornwall. Regan is as ruthless as Goneril and as 
 - The steward, or chief servant, in Goneril͛s house. toward her, as all the characters converge on the coast.
aggressive in all the same ways. In fact, it is difficult to Oswald obeys his mistress͛s commands and helps her in Cordelia͛s reunion with Lear marks the apparent
think of any quality that distinguishes her from her sister. her conspiracies. restoration of order in the kingdom and the triumph of
When they are not egging each other on to further acts of 





[

  love and forgiveness over hatred and spite. This fleeting
cruelty, they jealously compete for the same man, 

 moment of familial happiness makes the devastating finale
Edmund. Lear͛s basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he of King Lear that much more cruel, as Cordelia, the
values appearances above reality. He wants to be treated personification of kindness and virtue, becomes a literal
sacrifice to the heartlessness of an apparently unjust   sacrificing love. Rather than despising Lear for banishing
world.


Of all of the play͛s villains, Edmund is the most complex
and sympathetic. He is a consummate schemer, a
Machiavellian character eager to seize any opportunity
and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. However,
his ambition is interesting insofar as it reflects not only a
thirst for land and power but also a desire for the
recognition denied to him by his status as a bastard. His
serial treachery is not merely self-interested; it is a
conscious rebellion against the social order that has
denied him the same status as Gloucester͛s legitimate son,
Edgar. ͞Now, gods, stand up for bastards,͟ Edmund
commands, but in fact he depends not on divine aid but on
his own initiative (1.2.22). He is the ultimate self-made

her, Cordelia remains devoted, even from afar, and
King Lear is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and
awful, seemingly meaningless disasters. The play͛s
succession of terrible events raises an obvious question for
the charactersͶnamely, whether there is any possibility of
justice in the world, or whether the world is fundamentally
indifferent or even hostile to humankind. Various
characters offer their opinions: ͞As flies to wanton boys
are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport,͟
Gloucester muses, realizing it foolish for humankind to
assume that the natural world works in parallel with
socially or morally convenient notions of justice (4.1.37ʹ
38). Edgar, on the other hand, insists that ͞the gods are
just,͟ believing that individuals get what they deserve
(5.3.169). But, in the end, we are left with only a terrifying
eventually brings an army from a foreign country to rescue
him from his tormentors. Lear, meanwhile, learns a
tremendously cruel lesson in humility and eventually
reaches the point where he can reunite joyfully with
Cordelia and experience the balm of her forgiving love.
Lear͛s recognition of the error of his ways is an ingredient
vital to reconciliation with Cordelia, not because Cordelia
feels wronged by him but because he has understood the
sincerity and depth of her love for him. His maturation
enables him to bring Cordelia back into his good graces, a
testament to love͛s ability to flourish, even if only
fleetingly, amid the horror and chaos that engulf the rest
of the play.




man, and he is such a cold and capable villain that it is
entertaining to watch him work, much as the audience can
appreciate the clever wickedness of Iago in Othello. Only
at the close of the play does Edmund show a flicker of
weakness. Mortally wounded, he sees that both Goneril
and Regan have died for him, and whispers, ͞Yet Edmund
uncertaintyͶalthough the wicked die, the good die along
with them, culminating in the awful image of Lear cradling
Cordelia͛s body in his arms. There is goodness in the world
of the play, but there is also madness and death, and it is
difficult to tell which triumphs in the end.





Insanity occupies a central place in the play and is
associated with both disorder and hidden wisdom. The
Fool, who offers Lear insight in the early sections of the
play, offers his counsel in a seemingly mad babble. Later,
 [

 when Lear himself goes mad, the turmoil in his mind
was beloved͟ (5.3.238). After this ambiguous statement, King Lear is about political authority as much as it is about mirrors the chaos that has descended upon his kingdom.
he seems to repent of his villainy and admits to having family dynamics. Lear is not only a father but also a king, At the same time, however, it also provides him with
ordered Cordelia͛s death. His peculiar change of heart, and when he gives away his authority to the unworthy and important wisdom by reducing him to his bare humanity,
rare among Shakespearean villains, is enough to make the evil Goneril and Regan, he delivers not only himself and his stripped of all royal pretensions. Lear thus learns humility.
audience wonder, amid the carnage, whether Edmund͛s family but all of Britain into chaos and cruelty. As the two He is joined in his real madness by Edgar͛s feigned
villainy sprang not from some innate cruelty but simply wicked sisters indulge their appetite for power and insanity, which also contains nuggets of wisdom for the
from a thwarted, misdirected desire for the familial love Edmund begins his own ascension, the kingdom descends king to mine. Meanwhile, Edgar͛s time as a supposedly
that he witnessed around him. into civil strife, and we realize that Lear has destroyed not insane beggar hardens him and prepares him to defeat





 only his own authority but all authority in Britain. The Edmund at the close of the play.
There is little good to be said for Lear͛s older daughters, stable, hierarchal order that Lear initially represents falls 


who are largely indistinguishable in their villainy and spite. apart and disorder engulfs the realm. Betrayals play a critical role in the play and show the
Goneril and Regan are cleverͶor at least clever enough to The failure of authority in the face of chaos recurs in Lear͛s workings of wickedness in both the familial and political
flatter their father in the play͛s opening sceneͶand, early wanderings on the heath during the storm. Witnessing the realmsͶhere, brothers betray brothers and children
in the play, their bad behavior toward Lear seems matched powerful forces of the natural world, Lear comes to betray fathers. Goneril and Regan͛s betrayal of Lear raises
by his own pride and temper. But any sympathy that the understand that he, like the rest of humankind, is them to power in Britain, where Edmund, who has
audience can muster for them evaporates quickly, first insignificant in the world. This realization proves much betrayed both Edgar and Gloucester, joins them. However,
when they turn their father out into the storm at the end more important than the realization of his loss of political the play suggests that betrayers inevitably turn on one
of Act 2 and then when they viciously put out Gloucester͛s control, as it compels him to re-prioritize his values and another, showing how Goneril and Regan fall out when
eyes in Act 3. Goneril and Regan are, in a sense, become humble and caring. With this newfound they both become attracted to Edmund, and how their
personifications of evilͶthey have no conscience, only understanding of himself, Lear hopes to be able to jealousies of one another ultimately lead to mutual
appetite. It is this greedy ambition that enables them to confront the chaos in the political realm as well. destruction. Additionally, it is important to remember that
crush all opposition and make themselves mistresses of 





 the entire play is set in motion by Lear͛s blind, foolish
Britain. Ultimately, however, this same appetite brings Darkness and unhappiness pervade King Lear, and the betrayal of Cordelia͛s love for him, which reinforces that at
about their undoing. Their desire for power is satisfied, but devastating Act 5 represents one of the most tragic the heart of every betrayal lies a skewed set of values.
both harbor sexual desire for Edmund, which destroys endings in all of literature. Nevertheless, the play presents 

their alliance and eventually leads them to destroy each the central relationshipͶthat between Lear and  

other. Evil, the play suggests, inevitably turns in on itself. CordeliaͶas a dramatic embodiment of true, self-
As Lear wanders about a desolate heath in Act 3, a terrible
storm, strongly but ambiguously symbolic, rages overhead.
In part, the storm echoes Lear͛s inner turmoil and
mounting madness: it is a physical, turbulent natural
reflection of Lear͛s internal confusion. At the same time,
the storm embodies the awesome power of nature, which
forces the powerless king to recognize his own mortality
and human frailty and to cultivate a sense of humility for
the first time. The storm may also symbolize some kind of
divine justice, as if nature itself is angry about the events
in the play. Finally, the meteorological chaos also
symbolizes the political disarray that has engulfed Lear͛s
Britain.

and originality of its characterization (Shakespeare almost
wholly created Mercutio); the intense pace of its action,
which is compressed from nine months into four frenetic
days; a powerful enrichment of the story͛s thematic
aspects; and, above all, an extraordinary use of language.
Shakespeare͛s play not only bears a resemblance to the
works on which it is based, it is also quite similar in plot,
theme, and dramatic ending to the story of Pyramus and
Thisbe, told by the great Roman poet Ovid in his
Metamorphoses. Shakespeare was well aware of this
similarity; he includes a reference to Thisbe in £omeo and
Juliet. Shakespeare also includes scenes from the story of
Pyramus and Thisbe in the comically awful play-within-a-
people to invite to a masquerade and feast he traditionally
holds. He invites Paris to the feast, hoping that Paris will
begin to win Juliet͛s heart.
Romeo and Benvolio, still discussing Rosaline, encounter
the Capulet servant bearing the list of invitations. Benvolio
suggests that they attend, since that will allow Romeo to
compare his beloved to other beautiful women of Verona.
Romeo agrees to go with Benvolio to the feast, but only
because Rosaline, whose name he reads on the list, will be
there.
In Capulet͛s household, young Juliet talks with her mother,
Lady Capulet, and her nurse about the possibility of
marrying Paris. Juliet has not yet considered marriage, but
 play put on by Bottom and his friends in A Midsummer
Gloucester͛s physical blindness symbolizes the
metaphorical blindness that grips both Gloucester and the
play͛s other father figure, Lear. The parallels between the
two men are clear: both have loyal children and disloyal
children, both are blind to the truth, and both end up
banishing the loyal children and making the wicked one(s)
their heir(s). Only when Gloucester has lost the use of his
eyes and Lear has gone mad does each realize his
tremendous error. It is appropriate that the play brings
them together near Dover in Act 4 to commiserate about
how their blindness to the truth about their children has
cost them dearly.
ROMEO AND JULIET
Shakespeare did not invent the story of £omeo and Juliet.
He did not, in fact, even introduce the story into the
 is the son of Montague, she grows equally upset.
English language. A poet named Arthur Brooks first
brought the story of £omeus and Juliet to an English-
speaking audience in a long and plodding poem that was
itself not original, but rather an adaptation of adaptations
that stretched across nearly a hundred years and two
languages. Many of the details of Shakespeare͛s plot are
lifted directly from Brooks͛s poem, including the meeting
of Romeo and Juliet at the ball, their secret marriage,
Romeo͛s fight with Tybalt, the sleeping potion, and the
timing of the lover͛s eventual suicides. Such appropriation
of other stories is characteristic of Shakespeare, who often
wrote plays based on earlier works.
Shakespeare͛s use of existing material as fodder for his
plays should not, however, be taken as a lack of originality.
Instead, readers should note how Shakespeare crafts his
sources in new ways while displaying a remarkable
understanding of the literary tradition in which he is
working. Shakespeare͛s version of £omeo and Juliet is no
exception. The play distinguishes itself from its
predecessors in several important aspects: the subtlety
agrees to look at Paris during the feast to see if she thinks
Night͛s DreamͶa play Shakespeare wrote around the
same time he was composing £omeo and Juliet. Indeed,
one can look at the play-within-a-play in A Midsummer
Night͛s Dream as parodying the very story that
Shakespeare seeks to tell in £omeo and Juliet. Shakespeare
wrote £omeo and Juliet in full knowledge that the story he
was telling was old, clichéd, and an easy target for parody.
In writing £omeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, then, implicitly
set himself the task of telling a love story despite the
considerable forces he knew were stacked against its
success. Through the incomparable intensity of his
language Shakespeare succeeded in this effort, writing a
play that is universally accepted in Western culture as the
preeminent, archetypal love story.
ÿ
 
I N THE STREETS OF VERONA another brawl breaks out between
the servants of the feuding noble families of Capulet and
Montague. Benvolio, a Montague, tries to stop the
fighting, but is himself embroiled when the rash Capulet,
Tybalt, arrives on the scene. After citizens outraged by the
constant violence beat back the warring factions, Prince
Escalus, the ruler of Verona, attempts to prevent any
further conflicts between the families by decreeing death
for any individual who disturbs the peace in the future.
Romeo, the son of Montague, runs into his cousin
Benvolio, who had earlier seen Romeo moping in a grove
of sycamores. After some prodding by Benvolio, Romeo
confides that he is in love with Rosaline, a woman who
does not return his affections. Benvolio counsels him to
forget this woman and find another, more beautiful one,
but Romeo remains despondent.
Meanwhile, Paris, a kinsman of the Prince, seeks Juliet͛s
hand in marriage. Her father Capulet, though happy at the
match, asks Paris to wait two years, since Juliet is not yet
even fourteen. Capulet dispatches a servant with a list of
she could fall in love with him.
The feast begins. A melancholy Romeo follows Benvolio
and their witty friend Mercutio to Capulet͛s house. Once
inside, Romeo sees Juliet from a distance and instantly
falls in love with her; he forgets about Rosaline
completely. As Romeo watches Juliet, entranced, a young
Capulet, Tybalt, recognizes him, and is enraged that a
Montague would sneak into a Capulet feast. He prepares
to attack, but Capulet holds him back. Soon, Romeo speaks
to Juliet, and the two experience a profound attraction.
They kiss, not even knowing each other͛s names. When he
finds out from Juliet͛s nurse that she is the daughter of
CapuletͶhis family͛s enemyͶhe becomes distraught.
When Juliet learns that the young man she has just kissed
As Mercutio and Benvolio leave the Capulet estate, Romeo
leaps over the orchard wall into the garden, unable to
leave Juliet behind. From his hiding place, he sees Juliet in
a window above the orchard and hears her speak his
name. He calls out to her, and they exchange vows of love.
Romeo hurries to see his friend and confessor Friar
Lawrence, who, though shocked at the sudden turn of
Romeo͛s heart, agrees to marry the young lovers in secret
since he sees in their love the possibility of ending the age-
old feud between Capulet and Montague. The following
day, Romeo and Juliet meet at Friar Lawrence͛s cell and
are married. The Nurse, who is privy to the secret,
procures a ladder, which Romeo will use to climb into
Juliet͛s window for their wedding night.
The next day, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter TybaltͶ
Juliet͛s cousinͶwho, still enraged that Romeo attended
Capulet͛s feast, has challenged Romeo to a duel. Romeo
appears. Now Tybalt͛s kinsman by marriage, Romeo begs
the Capulet to hold off the duel until he understands why
Romeo does not want to fight. Disgusted with this plea for
peace, Mercutio says that he will fight Tybalt himself. The
two begin to duel. Romeo tries to stop them by leaping
between the combatants. Tybalt stabs Mercutio under
Romeo͛s arm, and Mercutio dies. Romeo, in a rage, kills
Tybalt. Romeo flees from the scene. Soon after, the Prince
declares him forever banished from Verona for his crime.

- A kinsman to the Prince, and Romeo͛s close
Friar Lawrence arranges for Romeo to spend his wedding
night with Juliet before he has to leave for Mantua the
following morning.
In her room, Juliet awaits the arrival of her new husband.
The Nurse enters, and, after some confusion, tells Juliet
that Romeo has killed Tybalt. Distraught, Juliet suddenly
finds herself married to a man who has killed her kinsman.
But she resettles herself, and realizes that her duty
belongs with her love: to Romeo.
the poison, and dies by her side. Just then, Friar Lawrence
enters and realizes that Romeo has killed Paris and
himself. At the same time, Juliet awakes. Friar Lawrence
hears the coming of the watch. When Juliet refuses to
leave with him, he flees alone. Juliet sees her beloved
Romeo and realizes he has killed himself with poison. She
kisses his poisoned lips, and when that does not kill her,
buries his dagger in her chest, falling dead upon his body.
The watch arrives, followed closely by the Prince, the
Capulets, and Montague. Montague declares that Lady
Montague has died of grief over Romeo͛s exile. Seeing
their children͛s bodies, Capulet and Montague agree to
end their long-standing feud and to raise gold statues of
their children side-by-side in a newly peaceful Verona.
[

 
and always ready with a plan, Friar Lawrence secretly
marries the impassioned lovers in hopes that the union
might eventually bring peace to Verona. As well as being a
Catholic holy man, Friar Lawrence is also an expert in the
use of seemingly mystical potions and herbs.

 
friend. One of the most extraordinary characters in all of
Shakespeare͛s plays, Mercutio overflows with imagination,
wit, and, at times, a strange, biting satire and brooding
fervor. Mercutio loves wordplay, especially sexual double
entendres. He can be quite hotheaded, and hates people
who are affected, pretentious, or obsessed with the latest
fashions. He finds Romeo͛s romanticized ideas about love
tiresome, and tries to convince Romeo to view love as a
 simple matter of sexual appetite.
Romeo sneaks into Juliet͛s room that night, and at last
they consummate their marriage and their love. Morning
comes, and the lovers bid farewell, unsure when they will
see each other again. Juliet learns that her father, affected
by the recent events, now intends for her to marry Paris in
just three days. Unsure of how to proceedͶunable to
reveal to her parents that she is married to Romeo, but
unwilling to marry Paris now that she is Romeo͛s wifeͶ
Juliet asks her nurse for advice. She counsels Juliet to
proceed as if Romeo were dead and to marry Paris, who is
a better match anyway. Disgusted with the Nurse͛s
disloyalty, Juliet disregards her advice and hurries to Friar
Lawrence. He concocts a plan to reunite Juliet with Romeo
in Mantua. The night before her wedding to Paris, Juliet
must drink a potion that will make her appear to be dead.
After she is laid to rest in the family͛s crypt, the Friar and
Romeo will secretly retrieve her, and she will be free to
live with Romeo, away from their parents͛ feuding.
Juliet returns home to discover the wedding has been
 - The daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet. A
moved ahead one day, and she is to be married tomorrow.
That night, Juliet drinks the potion, and the Nurse
discovers her, apparently dead, the next morning. The
Capulets grieve, and Juliet is entombed according to plan.
But Friar Lawrence͛s message explaining the plan to
Romeo never reaches Mantua. Its bearer, Friar John, gets
confined to a quarantined house. Romeo hears only that
Juliet is dead.
Romeo learns only of Juliet͛s death and decides to kill
himself rather than live without her. He buys a vial of
poison from a reluctant Apothecary, then speeds back to
Verona to take his own life at Juliet͛s tomb. Outside the
Capulet crypt, Romeo comes upon Paris, who is scattering
flowers on Juliet͛s grave. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris.


  - A Franciscan friar, friend to both Romeo
He enters the tomb, sees Juliet͛s inanimate body, drinks


- The son and heir of Montague and Lady
Montague. A young man of about sixteen, Romeo is
handsome, intelligent, and sensitive. Though impulsive
and immature, his idealism and passion make him an
extremely likable character. He lives in the middle of a
violent feud between his family and the Capulets, but he is
not at all interested in violence. His only interest is love. At
the beginning of the play he is madly in love with a woman
named Rosaline, but the instant he lays eyes on Juliet, he
falls in love with her and forgets Rosaline. Thus,
Shakespeare gives us every reason to question how real
Romeo͛s new love is, but Romeo goes to extremes to
prove the seriousness of his feelings. He secretly marries
Juliet, the daughter of his father͛s worst enemy; he happily
takes abuse from Tybalt; and he would rather die than live
without his beloved. Romeo is also an affectionate and
devoted friend to his relative Benvolio, Mercutio, and Friar
Lawrence.

loathes Montagues.
beautiful thirteen-year-old girl, Juliet begins the play as a
naïve child who has thought little about love and marriage,
but she grows up quickly upon falling in love with Romeo,
the son of her family͛s great enemy. Because she is a girl in
an aristocratic family, she has none of the freedom Romeo
has to roam around the city, climb over walls in the middle
of the night, or get into swordfights. Nevertheless, she
shows amazing courage in trusting her entire life and
future to Romeo, even refusing to believe the worst
reports about him after he gets involved in a fight with her
cousin. Juliet͛s closest friend and confidant is her nurse,
though she͛s willing to shut the Nurse out of her life the
moment the Nurse turns against Romeo.

support.
and Juliet. Kind, civic-minded, a proponent of moderation,
    - Juliet͛s nurse, the woman who breast-fed
Juliet when she was a baby and has cared for Juliet her
entire life. A vulgar, long-winded, and sentimental
character, the Nurse provides comic relief with her
frequently inappropriate remarks and speeches. But, until
a disagreement near the play͛s end, the Nurse is Juliet͛s
faithful confidante and loyal intermediary in Juliet͛s affair
with Romeo. She provides a contrast with Juliet, given that
her view of love is earthy and sexual, whereas Juliet is
idealistic and intense. The Nurse believes in love and
wants Juliet to have a nice-looking husband, but the idea
that Juliet would want to sacrifice herself for love is
incomprehensible to her.

 - A Capulet, Juliet͛s cousin on her mother͛s side.
Vain, fashionable, supremely aware of courtesy and the
lack of it, he becomes aggressive, violent, and quick to
draw his sword when he feels his pride has been injured.
Once drawn, his sword is something to be feared. He
[
  - The patriarch of the Capulet family, father of
Juliet, husband of Lady Capulet, and enemy, for
unexplained reasons, of Montague. He truly loves his
daughter, though he is not well acquainted with Juliet͛s
thoughts or feelings, and seems to think that what is best
for her is a ͞good͟ match with Paris. Often prudent, he
commands respect and propriety, but he is liable to fly
into a rage when either is lacking.

 [
  - Juliet͛s mother, Capulet͛s wife. A woman
who herself married young (by her own estimation she
gave birth to Juliet at close to the age of fourteen), she is
eager to see her daughter marry Paris. She is an ineffectual
mother, relying on the Nurse for moral and pragmatic



 - Romeo͛s father, the patriarch of the
Montague clan and bitter enemy of Capulet. At the
beginning of the play, he is chiefly concerned about
Romeo͛s melancholy.




 - Romeo͛s mother, Montague͛s wife. She

dies of grief after Romeo is exiled from Verona.
ÿ

The name Romeo, in popular culture, has become nearly
synonymous with ͞lover.͟ Romeo, in £omeo and Juliet,
does indeed experience a love of such purity and passion
that he kills himself when he believes that the object of his
love, Juliet, has died. The power of Romeo͛s love,
however, often obscures a clear vision of Romeo͛s
Among his friends, especially while bantering with
Mercutio, Romeo shows glimpses of his social persona. He
is intelligent, quick-witted, fond of verbal jousting
(particularly about sex), loyal, and unafraid of danger.

Having not quite reached her fourteenth birthday, Juliet is
 - A kinsman of the Prince, and the suitor of Juliet
most preferred by Capulet. Once Capulet has promised
him he can marry Juliet, he behaves very presumptuous
toward her, acting as if they are already married.



- Montague͛s nephew, Romeo͛s cousin and
thoughtful friend, he makes a genuine effort to defuse
violent scenes in public places, though Mercutio accuses
him of having a nasty temper in private. He spends most of
the play trying to help Romeo get his mind off Rosaline,
even after Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet.
ÿ
character, which is far more complex. of an age that stands on the border between immaturity
Even Romeo͛s relation to love is not so simple. At the and maturity. At the play͛s beginning however she seems
beginning of the play, Romeo pines for Rosaline, merely an obedient, sheltered, naïve child. Though many
proclaiming her the paragon of women and despairing at girls her ageͶincluding her motherͶget married, Juliet
her indifference toward him. Taken together, Romeo͛s has not given the subject any thought. When Lady Capulet
Rosaline-induced histrionics seem rather juvenile. Romeo mentions Paris͛s interest in marrying Juliet, Juliet dutifully
is a great reader of love poetry, and the portrayal of his responds that she will try to see if she can love him, a
love for Rosaline suggests he is trying to re-create the response that seems childish in its obedience and in its
feelings that he has read about. After first kissing Juliet, immature conception of love. Juliet seems to have no
she tells him ͞you kiss by th͛ book,͟ meaning that he kisses friends her own age, and she is not comfortable talking
 
 - The Prince of Verona. A kinsman of
Mercutio and Paris. As the seat of political power in
Verona, he is concerned about maintaining the public
peace at all costs.



 - A Franciscan friar charged by Friar Lawrence
with taking the news of Juliet͛s false death to Romeo in
Mantua. Friar John is held up in a quarantined house, and
the message never reaches Romeo.
according to the rules, and implying that while proficient, about sex (as seen in her discomfort when the Nurse goes
his kissing lacks originality (1.5.107). In reference to on and on about a sexual joke at Juliet͛s expense in Act 1,
Rosaline, it seems, Romeo loves by the book. Rosaline, of scene 3).
course, slips from Romeo͛s mind at first sight of Juliet. But Juliet gives glimpses of her determination, strength, and
Juliet is no mere replacement. The love she shares with sober-mindedness, in her earliest scenes, and offers a
Romeo is far deeper, more authentic and unique than the preview of the woman she will become during the four-
clichéd puppy love Romeo felt for Rosaline. Romeo͛s love day span of £omeo and Juliet. While Lady Capulet proves
matures over the course of the play from the shallow unable to quiet the Nurse, Juliet succeeds with one word



- Romeo͛s dedicated servant, who brings desire to be in love to a profound and intense passion. (also in Act 1, scene 3). In addition, even in Juliet͛s dutiful
Romeo the news of Juliet͛s death, unaware that her death One must ascribe Romeo͛s development at least in part to acquiescence to try to love Paris, there is some seed of
is a ruse. Juliet. Her level-headed observations, such as the one steely determination. Juliet promises to consider Paris as a


 

 - Two servants of the house of about Romeo͛s kissing, seem just the thing to snap Romeo
Capulet, who, like their master, hate the Montagues. At
the outset of the play, they successfully provoke some
Montague men into a fight.

 - Montague͛s servant, who fights with Sampson
and Gregory in the first scene of the play.
  
 
 - An apothecary in Mantua. Had he been
wealthier, he might have been able to afford to value his
morals more than money, and refused to sell poison to
Romeo.
ÿ - A Capulet servant who invites guests to Capulet͛s
feast and escorts the Nurse to meet with Romeo. He is
illiterate, and a bad singer.
possible husband to the precise degree her mother
from his superficial idea of love and to inspire him to begin
to speak some of the most beautiful and intense love
poetry ever written.
Yet Romeo͛s deep capacity for love is merely a part of his
larger capacity for intense feeling of all kinds. Put another
way, it is possible to describe Romeo as lacking the
capacity for moderation. Love compels him to sneak into
the garden of his enemy͛s daughter, risking death simply
to catch a glimpse of her. Anger compels him to kill his
wife͛s cousin in a reckless duel to avenge the death of his
friend. Despair compels him to suicide upon hearing of
Juliet͛s death. Such extreme behavior dominates Romeo͛s
desires. While an outward show of obedience, such a
statement can also be read as a refusal through passivity.
Juliet will accede to her mother͛s wishes, but she will not
go out of her way to fall in love with Paris.
Juliet͛s first meeting with Romeo propels her full-force
toward adulthood. Though profoundly in love with him,
Juliet is able to see and criticize Romeo͛s rash decisions
and his tendency to romanticize things. After Romeo kills
Tybalt and is banished, Juliet does not follow him blindly.
She makes a logical and heartfelt decision that her loyalty
and love for Romeo must be her guiding priorities.
Essentially, Juliet cuts herself loose from her prior social



 - The woman with whom Romeo is infatuated at character throughout the play and contributes to the mooringsͶher nurse, her parents, and her social position
the beginning of the play. Rosaline never appears onstage, ultimate tragedy that befalls the lovers. Had Romeo in VeronaͶin order to try to reunite with Romeo. When
but it is said by other characters that she is very beautiful restrained himself from killing Tybalt, or waited even one she wakes in the tomb to find Romeo dead, she does not
and has sworn to live a life of chastity. day before killing himself after hearing the news of Juliet͛s kill herself out of feminine weakness, but rather out of an
  [
 - The Chorus is a single character who, as death, matters might have ended happily. Of course, intensity of love, just as Romeo did. Juliet͛s suicide actually
developed in Greek drama, functions as a narrator offering though, had Romeo not had such depths of feeling, the requires more nerve than Romeo͛s: while he swallows
commentary on the play͛s plot and themes. love he shared with Juliet would never have existed in the poison, she stabs herself through the heart with a dagger.






[

  first place. Juliet͛s development from a wide-eyed girl into a self-


 assured, loyal, and capable woman is one of Shakespeare͛s
early triumphs of characterization. It also marks one of his
most confident and rounded treatments of a female
character.



 
Friar Lawrence occupies a strange position in £omeo and
Juliet. He is a kindhearted cleric who helps Romeo and
Juliet throughout the play. He performs their marriage and
gives generally good advice, especially in regard to the
need for moderation. He is the sole figure of religion in the
play. But Friar Lawrence is also the most scheming and
political of characters in the play: he marries Romeo and
Juliet as part of a plan to end the civil strife in Verona; he
spirits Romeo into Juliet͛s room and then out of Verona;
he devises the plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet through
the deceptive ruse of a sleeping potion that seems to arise
from almost mystic knowledge. This mystical knowledge
seems out of place for a Catholic friar; why does he have
such knowledge, and what could such knowledge mean?
The answers are not clear. In addition, though Friar
Lawrence͛s plans all seem well conceived and well
intentioned, they serve as the main mechanisms through
which the fated tragedy of the play occurs. Readers should
recognize that the Friar is not only subject to the fate that
dominates the playͶin many ways he brings that fate
about.

Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that
supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions. In the
course of the play, the young lovers are driven to defy
their entire social world: families (͞Deny thy father and
refuse thy name,͟ Juliet asks, ͞Or if thou wilt not, be but
sworn my love, / And I͛ll no longer be a Capulet͟); friends
(Romeo abandons Mercutio and Benvolio after the feast in
order to go to Juliet͛s garden); and ruler (Romeo returns to
Verona for Juliet͛s sake after being exiled by the Prince on
pain of death in 2.1.76ʹ78). Love is the overriding theme
of the play, but a reader should always remember that
Shakespeare is uninterested in portraying a prettied-up,
dainty version of the emotion, the kind that bad poets
write about, and whose bad poetry Romeo reads while
pining for Rosaline. Love in £omeo and Juliet is a brutal,
powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults
them against their world, and, at times, against
themselves.
The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is
described, or, more accurately, the way descriptions of it
so consistently fail to capture its entirety. At times love is
described in the terms of religion, as in the fourteen lines
when Romeo and Juliet first meet. At others it is described
as a sort of magic: ͞Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks͟
(2.Prologue.6). Juliet, perhaps, most perfectly describes
From that point on, love seems to push the lovers closer to
love and violence, not farther from it. Romeo and Juliet
are plagued with thoughts of suicide, and a willingness to
experience it: in Act 3, scene 3, Romeo brandishes a knife
in Friar Lawrence͛s cell and threatens to kill himself after
he has been banished from Verona and his love. Juliet also
pulls a knife in order to take her own life in Friar
Lawrence͛s presence just three scenes later. After Capulet
decides that Juliet will marry Paris, Juliet says, ͞If all else
fail, myself have power to die͟ (3.5.242). Finally, each
imagines that the other looks dead the morning after their
first, and only, sexual experience (͞Methinks I see thee,͟
Juliet says, ͞. . . as one dead in the bottom of a tomb͟
(3.5.55ʹ56). This theme continues until its inevitable
conclusion: double suicide. This tragic choice is the
highest, most potent expression of love that Romeo and
Juliet can make. It is only through death that they can
preserve their love, and their love is so profound that they
are willing to end their lives in its defense. In the play, love
emerges as an amoral thing, leading as much to
destruction as to happiness. But in its extreme passion, the
love that Romeo and Juliet experience also appears so
exquisitely beautiful that few would want, or be able, to
resist its power.
 

 



 

 her love for Romeo by refusing to describe it: ͞But my true
With a lightning-quick wit and a clever mind, Mercutio is a
scene stealer and one of the most memorable characters
in all of Shakespeare͛s works. Though he constantly puns,
jokes, and teasesͶsometimes in fun, sometimes with
bitternessͶMercutio is not a mere jester or prankster.
With his wild words, Mercutio punctures the romantic
sentiments and blind self-love that exist within the play.
He mocks Romeos self-indulgence just as he ridicules
Tybalt͛s hauteur and adherence to fashion. The critic
Stephen Greenblatt describes Mercutio as a force within
Much of £omeo and Juliet involves the lovers͛ struggles
love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of
half my wealth͟ (3.1.33ʹ34). Love, in other words, resists
any single metaphor because it is too powerful to be so
easily contained or understood.
£omeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral
statement about the relationships between love and
society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos
and passion of being in love, combining images of love,
violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic
rush leading to the play͛s tragic conclusion.
against public and social institutions that either explicitly
or implicitly oppose the existence of their love. Such
structures range from the concrete to the abstract:
families and the placement of familial power in the father;
law and the desire for public order; religion; and the social
importance placed on masculine honor. These institutions
often come into conflict with each other. The importance
of honor, for example, time and again results in brawls
that disturb the public peace.
Though they do not always work in concert, each of these
the play that functions to deflate the possibility of 


[



 societal institutions in some way present obstacles for
romantic love and the power of tragic fate. Unlike the The themes of death and violence permeate £omeo and Romeo and Juliet. The enmity between their families,
other characters who blame their deaths on fate, Mercutio Juliet, and they are always connected to passion, whether coupled with the emphasis placed on loyalty and honor to
dies cursing all Montagues and Capulets. Mercutio that passion is love or hate. The connection between hate, kin, combine to create a profound conflict for Romeo and
believes that specific people are responsible for his death violence, and death seems obvious. But the connection Juliet, who must rebel against their heritages. Further, the
rather than some external impersonal force. between love and violence requires further investigation. patriarchal power structure inherent in Renaissance
  Love, in £omeo and Juliet, is a grand passion, and as such it families, wherein the father controls the action of all other
 
 


£omeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the
English literary tradition. Love is naturally the play͛s
dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on
romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs
up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In £omeo and
is blinding; it can overwhelm a person as powerfully and
completely as hate can. The passionate love between
Romeo and Juliet is linked from the moment of its
inception with death: Tybalt notices that Romeo has
crashed the feast and determines to kill him just as Romeo
catches sight of Juliet and falls instantly in love with her.
family members, particularly women, places Juliet in an
extremely vulnerable position. Her heart, in her family͛s
mind, is not hers to give. The law and the emphasis on
social civility demands terms of conduct with which the
blind passion of love cannot comply. Religion similarly
demands priorities that Romeo and Juliet cannot abide by
because of the intensity of their love. Though in most possible readings of fate in the play: as a force determined seem to revel in their capacity for drama, the servants͛
situations the lovers uphold the traditions of Christianity by the powerful social institutions that influence Romeo lives are such that they cannot afford tragedy of the epic
(they wait to marry before consummating their love), their and Juliet͛s choices, as well as fate as a force that emerges kind.
love is so powerful that they begin to think of each other from Romeo and Juliet͛s very personalities. 

in blasphemous terms. For example, Juliet calls Romeo


 ÿ



͞the god of my idolatry,͟ elevating Romeo to level of God
 


  In his first appearance, in Act 2, scene 2, Friar Lawrence
(2.1.156). The couple͛s final act of suicide is likewise un-
Christian. The maintenance of masculine honor forces
Romeo to commit actions he would prefer to avoid. But
the social emphasis placed on masculine honor is so
profound that Romeo cannot simply ignore them.
It is possible to see £omeo and Juliet as a battle between
the responsibilities and actions demanded by social
institutions and those demanded by the private desires of
the individual. Romeo and Juliet͛s appreciation of night,
with its darkness and privacy, and their renunciation of
their names, with its attendant loss of obligation, make
sense in the context of individuals who wish to escape the
public world. But the lovers cannot stop the night from
becoming day. And Romeo cannot cease being a
Montague simply because he wants to; the rest of the
world will not let him. The lovers͛ suicides can be
understood as the ultimate night, the ultimate privacy.
 




 woes͟ (3.5.36).

One of the play͛s most consistent visual motifs is the
contrast between light and dark, often in terms of
night/day imagery. This contrast is not given a particular
metaphoric meaningͶlight is not always good, and dark is
not always evil. On the contrary, light and dark are
generally used to provide a sensory contrast and to hint at
opposed alternatives. One of the more important
instances of this motif is Romeo͛s lengthy meditation on
the sun and the moon during the balcony scene, in which
Juliet, metaphorically described as the sun, is seen as
banishing the ͞envious moon͟ and transforming the night
into day (2.1.46). A similar blurring of night and day occurs
in the early morning hours after the lovers͛ only night
together. Romeo, forced to leave for exile in the morning,
and Juliet, not wanting him to leave her room, both try to
pretend that it is still night, and that the light is actually
darkness: ͞More light and light, more dark and dark our
pointless Capulet-Montague feud turns Romeo and Juliet͛s
remarks that every plant, herb, and stone has its own
special properties, and that nothing exists in nature that
cannot be put to both good and bad uses. Thus, poison is
not intrinsically evil, but is instead a natural substance
made lethal by human hands. Friar Lawrence͛s words
prove true over the course of the play. The sleeping potion
he gives Juliet is concocted to cause the appearance of
death, not death itself, but through circumstances beyond
the Friar͛s control, the potion does bring about a fatal
result: Romeo͛s suicide. As this example shows, human
beings tend to cause death even without intending to.
Similarly, Romeo suggests that society is to blame for the
apothecary͛s criminal selling of poison, because while
there are laws prohiting the Apothecary from selling
poison, there are no laws that would help the apothecary
make money. Poison symbolizes human society͛s tendency
to poison good things and make them fatal, just as the
In its first address to the audience, the Chorus states that 

ÿ



 love to poison. After all, unlike many of the other
Romeo and Juliet are ͞star-crossed͟Ͷthat is to say that
fate (a power often vested in the movements of the stars)
controls them (Prologue.6). This sense of fate permeates
the play, and not just for the audience. The characters also


are quite aware of it: Romeo and Juliet constantly see
omens. When Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he cries
out, ͞Then I defy you, stars,͟ completing the idea that the
love between Romeo and Juliet is in opposition to the
decrees of destiny (5.1.24). Of course, Romeo͛s defiance
itself plays into the hands of fate, and his determination to
spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths. The
mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding
the lovers: the feud between their families (it is worth
noting that this hatred is never explained; rather, the
reader must accept it as an undeniable aspect of the world
of the play); the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar
Lawrence͛s seemingly well-intentioned plans at the end of
the play; and the tragic timing of Romeo͛s suicide and
Juliet͛s awakening. These events are not mere
coincidences, but rather manifestations of fate that help
bring about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers͛
deaths.
The concept of fate described above is the most
commonly accepted interpretation. There are other
Shakespeare includes numerous speeches and scenes in
Romeo and Juliet that hint at alternative ways to evaluate
the play. Shakespeare uses two main devices in this
regard: Mercutio and servants. Mercutio consistently
skewers the viewpoints of all the other characters in play:
he sees Romeo͛s devotion to love as a sort of blindness
that robs Romeo from himself; similarly, he sees Tybalt͛s
devotion to honor as blind and stupid. His punning and the
Queen Mab speech can be interpreted as undercutting
virtually every passion evident in the play. Mercutio serves
as a critic of the delusions of righteousness and grandeur
held by the characters around him.
Where Mercutio is a nobleman who openly criticizes other
nobles, the views offered by servants in the play are less
explicit. There is the Nurse who lost her baby and
husband, the servant Peter who cannot read, the
musicians who care about their lost wages and their
lunches, and the Apothecary who cannot afford to make
the moral choice, the lower classes present a second tragic
world to counter that of the nobility. The nobles͛ world is
full of grand tragic gestures. The servants͛ world, in
contrast, is characterized by simple needs, and early
deaths brought about by disease and poverty rather than
dueling and grand passions. Where the nobility almost
tragedies, this play does not have an evil villain, but rather
people whose good qualities are turned to poison by the
world in which they live.
 
In Act 1, scene 1, the buffoonish Samson begins a brawl
between the Montagues and Capulets by flicking his
thumbnail from behind his upper teeth, an insulting
gesture known as biting the thumb. He engages in this
juvenile and vulgar display because he wants to get into a
fight with the Montagues but doesn͛t want to be accused
of starting the fight by making an explicit insult. Because of
his timidity, he settles for being annoying rather than
challenging. The thumb-biting, as an essentially
meaningless gesture, represents the foolishness of the
entire Capulet/Montague feud and the stupidity of
violence in general.



In Act 1, scene 4, Mercutio delivers a dazzling speech
about the fairy Queen Mab, who rides through the night
on her tiny wagon bringing dreams to sleepers. One of the
most noteworthy aspects of Queen Mab͛s ride is that the
dreams she brings generally do not bring out the best
sides of the dreamers, but instead serve to confirm them
in whatever vices they are addicted toͶfor example,
greed, violence, or lust. Another important aspect of
Mercutio͛s description of Queen Mab is that it is complete
nonsense, albeit vivid and highly colorful. Nobody believes
in a fairy pulled about by ͞a small grey-coated gnat͟
whipped with a cricket͛s bone (1.4.65). Finally, it is worth
noting that the description of Mab and her carriage goes
 as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains
to extravagant lengths to emphasize how tiny and
insubstantial she and her accoutrements are. Queen Mab
and her carriage do not merely symbolize the dreams of
sleepers, they also symbolize the power of waking
fantasies, daydreams, and desires. Through the Queen
Mab imagery, Mercutio suggests that all desires and
fantasies are as nonsensical and fragile as Mab, and that
they are basically corrupting. This point of view contrasts
starkly with that of Romeo and Juliet, who see their love as
real and ennobling.
MACBETH
Shakespeare͛s shortest and bloodiest tragedy, Macbeth
tells the story of a brave Scottish general (Macbeth) who
receives a prophecy from a trio of sinister witches that one
day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed with
ambitious thoughts and spurred to action by his wife,
Macbeth murders King Duncan and seizes the throne for
himself. He begins his reign racked with guilt and fear and
soon becomes a tyrannical ruler, as he is forced to commit
more and more murders to protect himself from enmity
and suspicion. The bloodbath swiftly propels Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and death.
Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, early in the reign
of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he
succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a
patron of Shakespeare͛s acting company, and of all the
plays Shakespeare wrote under James͛s reign, Macbeth
most clearly reflects the playwright͛s close relationship
with the sovereign. In focusing on Macbeth, a figure from
Scottish history, Shakespeare paid homage to his king͛s
Scottish lineage. Additionally, the witches͛ prophecy that
Banquo will found a line of kings is a clear nod to James͛s
family͛s claim to have descended from the historical
Banquo. In a larger sense, the theme of bad versus good
kingship, embodied by Macbeth and Duncan, respectively,
would have resonated at the royal court, where James was
busy developing his English version of the theory of divine
right.
Macbeth is not Shakespeare͛s most complex play, but it is
certainly one of his most powerful and emotionally
intense. Whereas Shakespeare͛s other major tragedies,
such as Hamlet and Othello, fastidiously explore the
intellectual predicaments faced by their subjects and the
fine nuances of their subjects͛ characters, Macbeth
tumbles madly from its opening to its conclusion. It is a
sharp, jagged sketch of theme and character; as such, it
has shocked and fascinated audiences for nearly four
hundred years.
ÿ
 
T HE PLAY BEGINS with the brief appearance of a trio of
witches and then moves to a military camp, where the
Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals,
Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate
invading armiesͶone from Ireland, led by the rebel
Macdonald, and one from Norway. Following their pitched
battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo
encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches
prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of
Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of
Scotland. They also prophesy that Macbeth͛s companion,
Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although
Banquo will never be king himself. The witches vanish, and
Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically
until some of King Duncan͛s men come to thank the two
generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth
that he has indeed been named thane of Cawdor. The
previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the
Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death.
Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the remainder
of the witches͛ prophecyͶthat he will be crowned kingͶ
might be true, but he is uncertain what to expect. He visits
with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at
Inverness, Macbeth͛s castle, that night. Macbeth writes
ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her all that has
happened.
Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband͛s uncertainty.
She desires the kingship for him and wants him to murder
Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at
Inverness, she overrides all of her husband͛s objections
and persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and
Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan͛s two chamberlains
drunk so they will black out; the next morning they will
blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be
defenseless, as they will remember nothing. While Duncan
is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a
number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a
bloody dagger. When Duncan͛s death is discovered the
next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlainsͶostensibly
out of rage at their crimeͶand easily assumes the
kingship. Duncan͛s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to
England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever
killed Duncan desires their demise as well.
Fearful of the witches͛ prophecy that Banquo͛s heirs will
seize the throne, Macbeth hires a group of murderers to
kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on
his way to a royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who
escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious: as long
insecure. At the feast that night, Banquo͛s ghost visits
Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves
fearfully, startling his guests, who include most of the
great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize
the damage, but Macbeth͛s kingship incites increasing
resistance from his nobles and subjects. Frightened,
Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There,
they show him a sequence of demons and spirits who
present him with further prophecies: he must beware of
Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth͛s
accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed
by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until
Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is
relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men
are born of women and that forests cannot move. When
he learns that Macduff has fled to England to join
Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff͛s castle be seized
and, most cruelly, that Lady Macduff and her children be
murdered.
When news of his family͛s execution reaches Macduff in
England, he is stricken with grief and vows revenge. Prince
Malcolm, Duncan͛s son, has succeeded in raising an army
in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland
to challenge Macbeth͛s forces. The invasion has the
support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and
frightened by Macbeth͛s tyrannical and murderous
behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued
with fits of sleepwalking in which she bemoans what she
believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth͛s
opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has
killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and
pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English
and fortifies Dunsinane, to which he seems to have
withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the
witches͛ prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck
numb with fear, however, when he learns that the English
army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut
from Birnam Wood. Birnam Wood is indeed coming to
Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches͛ prophecy.
In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English
forces gradually overwhelm his army and castle. On the
battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff,
who declares that he was not ͞of woman born͟ but was
instead ͞untimely ripped͟ from his mother͛s womb (what using their knowledge of the future to toy with and serve as contrasts to Lady Macbeth and the hellish world
we now call birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes destroy human beings. of Inverness.
that he is doomed, Macbeth continues to fight until 

- The brave, noble general whose children,




 - Duncan͛s son and Malcolm͛s younger brother.
Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of according to the witches͛ prophecy, will inherit the 





[

 
Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious

 
country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone. thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded
[

 
 action. In a sense, Banquo͛s character stands as a rebuke


 - Macbeth is a Scottish general and the thane of
Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of
the three witches, especially after their prophecy that he
will be made thane of Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a
brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not a virtuous
one. He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his
ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first
crime and is crowned King of Scotland, he embarks on


 - The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout the play.
further atrocities with increasing ease. Ultimately,
Macbeth proves himself better suited to the battlefield
than to political intrigue, because he lacks the skills
necessary to rule without being a tyrant. His response to
every problem is violence and murder. Unlike
Shakespeare͛s great villains, such as Iago in Othello and
Richard III in £ichard III, Macbeth is never comfortable in
his role as a criminal. He is unable to bear the
psychological consequences of his atrocities.



 - Macbeth͛s wife, a deeply ambitious
woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the play
she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the
two, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the
crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady
Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even
greater degree than her husband. Her conscience affects
her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide.
Interestingly, she and Macbeth are presented as being
deeply in love, and many of Lady Macbeth͛s speeches
imply that her influence over her husband is primarily
sexual. Their joint alienation from the world, occasioned
by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the
attachment that they feel to each another.
  
captain͛s account of his battlefield valor, our initial
to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose
not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to
betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo͛s
ghostͶand not Duncan͛sͶthat haunts Macbeth. In
addition to embodying Macbeth͛s guilt for killing Banquo,
the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate
Banquo͛s reaction to the witches͛ prophecy.

in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the
model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler. His
death symbolizes the destruction of an order in Scotland
that can be restored only when Duncan͛s line, in the
person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.


 - A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth͛s
kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of
the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade͛s mission is
to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but
Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth͛s murder of
Macduff͛s wife and young son.



 - The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the
throne signals Scotland͛s return to order following
Macbeth͛s reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious
challenge to Macbeth with Macduff͛s aid (and the support
of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain
of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland
after their father͛s murder.
c
 - The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the three
witches work their mischief on Macbeth.
 
 - Banquo͛s son, who survives Macbeth͛s attempt
to murder him. At the end of the play, Fleance͛s
whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to
impression is of a brave and capable warrior. This
perspective is complicated, however, once we see
Macbeth interact with the three witches. We realize that
his physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and
a tendency to self-doubtͶthe prediction that he will be
king brings him joy, but it also creates inner turmoil. These
three attributesͶbravery, ambition, and self-doubtͶ
Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects
that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks
strength of character. We may classify Macbeth as
irrevocably evil, but his weak character separates him from
Shakespeare͛s great villainsͶIago in Othello, Richard III in
£ichard III, Edmund in King LearͶwho are all strong
enough to conquer guilt and self-doubt. Macbeth, great
warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychic
consequences of crime.
Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by worry and
almost aborts the crime. It takes Lady Macbeth͛s steely
sense of purpose to push him into the deed. After the
murder, however, her powerful personality begins to
disintegrate, leaving Macbeth increasingly alone. He
fluctuates between fits of fevered action, in which he plots
a series of murders to secure his throne, and moments of
terrible guilt (as when Banquo͛s ghost appears) and
absolute pessimism (after his wife͛s death, when he seems
to succumb to despair). These fluctuations reflect the
tragic tension within Macbeth: he is at once too ambitious
to allow his conscience to stop him from murdering his
way to the top and too conscientious to be happy with
himself as a murderer. As things fall apart for him at the
  - Three ͞black and midnight hags͟ who rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches͛ prophecy that end of the play, he seems almost relievedͶwith the
plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and Banquo͛s sons will sit on the Scottish throne. English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a
prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder 

- A Scottish nobleman. warrior, and he displays a kind of reckless bravado as his
Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to 
 - A Scottish nobleman. enemies surround him and drag him down. In part, this
blindly believe in his own immortality. The play leaves the
witches͛ true identity unclearͶaside from the fact that
they are servants of Hecate, we know little about their
place in the cosmos. In some ways they resemble the
mythological Fates, who impersonally weave the threads
of human destiny. They clearly take a perverse delight in
 
    - A group of ruffians conscripted by
Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail to
kill), and Macduff͛s wife and children.
ÿ
 - The drunken doorman of Macbeth͛s castle.



 - Macduff͛s wife. The scene in her castle
provides our only glimpse of a domestic realm other than
that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home
stems from his fatal confidence in the witches͛ prophecies,
but it also seems to derive from the fact that he has
returned to the arena where he has been most successful
and where his internal turmoil need not affect himͶ
namely, the battlefield. Unlike many of Shakespeare͛s
other tragic heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate
suicide: ͞Why should I play the Roman fool,͟ he asks, ͞and
die / On mine own sword?͟ (5.10.1ʹ2). Instead, he goes
down fighting, bringing the play full circle: it begins with
Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends with him
dying in combat.



 
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare͛s most famous and
frightening female characters. When we first see her, she
is already plotting Duncan͛s murder, and she is stronger,
more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She
weaknesses of their specific interlocutorsͶthey play upon
Macbeth͛s ambition like puppeteers.
The witches͛ beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech
make them seem slightly ridiculous, like caricatures of the
supernatural. Shakespeare has them speak in rhyming
couplets throughout (their most famous line is probably
͞Double, double, toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron
bubble͟ in 4.1.10ʹ11), which separates them from the
other characters, who mostly speak in blank verse. The
on her conscience. In each case, ambitionͶhelped, of
course, by the malign prophecies of the witchesͶis what
drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The
problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use
violence to further one͛s quest for power, it is difficult to
stop. There are always potential threats to the throneͶ
Banquo, Fleance, MacduffͶand it is always tempting to
use violent means to dispose of them.
 



[  





seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to
push Macbeth into committing murder. At one point, she
wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it
herself. This theme of the relationship between gender
and power is key to Lady Macbeth͛s character: her
husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a
female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition
and violence. Shakespeare, however, seems to use her,
and the witches, to undercut Macbeth͛s idea that
͞undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males͟
(1.7.73ʹ74). These crafty women use aemale methods of
achieving powerͶthat is, manipulationͶto further their
supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can
be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints
deny them the means to pursue these ambitions on their
own.
Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable
effectiveness, overriding all his objections; when he
hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his
manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to
prove himself. Lady Macbeth͛s remarkable strength of will
persists through the murder of the kingͶit is she who
witches͛ words seem almost comical, like malevolent
nursery rhymes. Despite the absurdity of their ͞eye of
newt and toe of frog͟ recipes, however, they are clearly
the most dangerous characters in the play, being both
tremendously powerful and utterly wicked (4.1.14).
The audience is left to ask whether the witches are
independent agents toying with human lives, or agents of
fate, whose prophecies are only reports of the inevitable.
The witches bear a striking and obviously intentional
resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse
and Greek mythology who weave the fabric of human lives
and then cut the threads to end them. Some of their
prophecies seem self-fulfilling. For example, it is doubtful
that Macbeth would have murdered his king without the
push given by the witches͛ predictions. In other cases,
though, their prophecies are just remarkably accurate
readings of the futureͶit is hard to see Birnam Wood
coming to Dunsinane as being self-fulfilling in any way. The
play offers no easy answers. Instead, Shakespeare keeps
the witches well outside the limits of human
comprehension. They embody an unreasoning, instinctive
evil.
Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell on issues of
gender. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by
questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be
͞unsexed,͟ and does not contradict Macbeth when he says
that a woman like her should give birth only to boys. In the
same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to
murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill
Banquo by questioning their manhood. Such acts show
that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity
with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about
manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of
manhood allows the political order depicted in the play to
descend into chaos.
At the same time, however, the audience cannot help
noticing that women are also sources of violence and evil.
The witches͛ prophecies spark Macbeth͛s ambitions and
then encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth
provides the brains and the will behind her husband͛s
plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the
goddess of witchcraft. Arguably, Macbeth traces the root
of chaos and evil to women, which has led some critics to
argue that this is Shakespeare͛s most misogynistic play.
steadies her husband͛s nerves immediately after the crime
has been perpetrated. Afterward, however, she begins a
ÿ
 
  


 evil as the women, the aggression of the female characters
slow slide into madnessͶjust as ambition affects her more
strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt
plague her more strongly afterward. By the close of the
play, she has been reduced to sleepwalking through the
castle, desperately trying to wash away an invisible
bloodstain. Once the sense of guilt comes home to roost,
Lady Macbeth͛s sensitivity becomes a weakness, and she is
unable to cope. Significantly, she (apparently) kills herself,
signaling her total inability to deal with the legacy of their
crimes.
  
 
 [

The main theme of MacbethͶthe destruction wrought
when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraintsͶ
finds its most powerful expression in the play͛s two main
characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who
is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he
deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan
against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt
and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into
a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the
other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination,
While the male characters are just as violent and prone to
is more striking because it goes against prevailing
expectations of how women ought to behave. Lady
Macbeth͛s behavior certainly shows that women can be as
ambitious and cruel as men. Whether because of the
constraints of her society or because she is not fearless
enough to kill, Lady Macbeth relies on deception and
manipulation rather than violence to achieve her ends.
Ultimately, the play does put forth a revised and less
destructive definition of manhood. In the scene where
Macduff learns of the murders of his wife and child,
  yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of Malcolm consoles him by encouraging him to take the
Throughout the play, the witchesͶreferred to as the her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare͛s most forcefully news in ͞manly͟ fashion, by seeking revenge upon
͞weird sisters͟ by many of the charactersͶlurk like dark drawn female characters, she spurs her husband Macbeth. Macduff shows the young heir apparent that he
thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil. In part, the mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the has a mistaken understanding of masculinity. To Malcolm͛s
mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers, murder͛s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to suggestion, ͞Dispute it like a man,͟ Macduff replies, ͞I
but mainly it is the result of their understanding of the distraction by the effect of Macbeth͛s repeated bloodshed shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man͟ (4.3.221ʹ223).
At the end of the play, Siward receives news of his son͛s
death rather complacently. Malcolm responds: ͞He͛s
worth more sorrow [than you have expressed] / And that
I͛ll spend for him͟ (5.11.16ʹ17). Malcolm͛s comment


shows that he has learned the lesson Macduff gave him on
the sentient nature of true masculinity. It also suggests
that, with Malcolm͛s coronation, order will be restored to
the Kingdom of Scotland.
 
 
is ambiguous whether the vision is real or purely
hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths read them
uniformly as supernatural signs of their guilt.

consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that
Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of
the killings take place offstage, but throughout the play
the characters provide the audience with gory descriptions
of the carnage, from the opening scene where the captain
she asks as she wanders through the halls of their castle
near the close of the play (5.1.30ʹ34). Blood symbolizes
the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the
hounds them to their graves.
 
  
As in other Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeth͛s grotesque
murder spree is accompanied by a number of unnatural



 describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the
In the play, Duncan is always referred to as a ͞king,͟ while
Macbeth soon becomes known as the ͞tyrant.͟ The
difference between the two types of rulers seems to be
expressed in a conversation that occurs in Act 4, scene 3,
when Macduff meets Malcolm in England. In order to test
Macduff͛s loyalty to Scotland, Malcolm pretends that he
would make an even worse king than Macbeth. He tells
Macduff of his reproachable qualitiesͶamong them a
thirst for personal power and a violent temperament, both
of which seem to characterize Macbeth perfectly. On the
other hand, Malcolm says, ͞The king-becoming graces /
[are] justice, verity, temp͛rance, stableness, / Bounty,
perseverance, mercy, [and] lowliness͟ (4.3.92ʹ93). The
model king, then, offers the kingdom an embodiment of
order and justice, but also comfort and affection. Under
him, subjects are rewarded according to their merits, as
when Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after
Macbeth͛s victory over the invaders. Most important, the
king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests.
Macbeth, by contrast, brings only chaos to ScotlandͶ
symbolized in the bad weather and bizarre supernatural
eventsͶand offers no real justice, only a habit of
capriciously murdering those he sees as a threat. As the
embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by Malcolm
occurrences in the natural realm. From the thunder and
battlefield, to the endless references to the bloodstained
hands of Macbeth and his wife. The action is bookended
by a pair of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats
the invaders; in the second, he is slain and beheaded by
Macduff. In between is a series of murders: Duncan,
Duncan͛s chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and
Macduff͛s son all come to bloody ends. By the end of the
action, blood seems to be everywhere.
ÿ
 
Prophecy sets Macbeth͛s plot in motionͶnamely, the
witches͛ prophecy that Macbeth will become first thane of
Cawdor and then king. The weird sisters make a number of
other prophecies: they tell us that Banquo͛s heirs will be
kings, that Macbeth should beware Macduff, that Macbeth
is safe till Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, and that no
man born of woman can harm Macbeth. Save for the
prophecy about Banquo͛s heirs, all of these predictions are
fulfilled within the course of the play. Still, it is left
deliberately ambiguous whether some of them are self-
fulfillingͶfor example, whether Macbeth wills himself to
be king or is fated to be king. Additionally, as the Birnam
Wood and ͞born of woman͟ prophecies make clear, the
prophecies must be interpreted as riddles, since they do
not always mean what they seem to mean.
lightning that accompany the witches͛ appearances to the
terrible storms that rage on the night of Duncan͛s murder,
these violations of the natural order reflect corruption in
the moral and political orders.
MERCHANT OF VENICE
|he Merchant oa Venice was probably written in either
1596 or 1597, after Shakespeare had written such plays as
£omeo and Juliet and £ichard III, but before he penned the
great tragedies of his later years. Its basic plot outline,
with the characters of the merchant, the poor suitor, the
fair lady, and the villainous Jew, is found in a number of
contemporary Italian story collections, and Shakespeare
borrowed several details, such the choice of caskets that
Portia inflicts on all her suitors, from preexisting sources.
|he Merchant oa Venice͛s Italian setting and marriage plot
are typical of Shakespeare͛s earlier comedies, but the
characters of Portia, Shakespeare͛s first great heroine, and
the unforgettable villain Shylock elevate this play to a new
level.
Shylock͛s cries for a pound of flesh have made him one of
literature͛s most memorable villains, but many readers
and playgoers have found him a compelling and
sympathetic figure. The question of whether or not
Shakespeare endorses the anti-Semitism of the Christian
so that Scotland can have a true king once more. 
 characters in the play has been much debated. Jews in



 

 Shakespeare͛s England were a marginalized group, and
c




 Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the
Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and
serve as reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth͛s joint
culpability for the growing body count. When he is about
to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air.
Covered with blood and pointed toward the king͛s
chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on
which Macbeth is about to embark. Later, he sees
Banquo͛s ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, pricking his
conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his
former friend. The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth
also eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and
believes that her hands are stained with blood that cannot
be washed away by any amount of water. In each case, it
Shakespeare͛s contemporaries would have been very
opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian
invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the
wounded captain in Act 1, scene 2. Once Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey,
blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to
feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that
cannot be washed clean. ͞Will all great Neptune͛s ocean
wash this blood / Clean from my hand?͟ Macbeth cries
after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and
says that a little water will do the job (2.2.58ʹ59). Later,
though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being
stained: ͞Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would have
thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?͟
familiar with portrayals of Jews as villains and objects of
mockery. For example, Christopher Marlowe͛s |he Jew oa
Malta, a bloody farce about a murderous Jewish villain,
was a great popular success and would have been fresh in
Shakespeare͛s mind as he set about creating his own
Jewish character. Shakespeare certainly draws on this anti-
Semitic tradition in portraying Shylock, exploiting Jewish
stereotypes for comic effect. But Shylock is a more
complex character than the Jew in Marlowe͛s play, and
Shakespeare makes him seem more human by showing
that his hatred is born of the mistreatment he has suffered
in a Christian society. Shakespeare͛s character includes an
element of pathos as well as comedy, meaning that he
elicits from readers and audiences pity and compassion,
rather than simply scorn and derision.
ÿ
 
 that he wait before choosing, Bassanio immediately picks
A NTONIO, A VENETIAN MERCHANT, complains to his friends of a
melancholy that he cannot explain. His friend Bassanio is
desperately in need of money to court Portia, a wealthy
heiress who lives in the city of Belmont. Bassanio asks
Antonio for a loan in order to travel in style to Portia͛s
estate. Antonio agrees, but is unable to make the loan
incorrect. Bassanio arrives at Portia͛s estate, and they accuse them of faithlessly giving their rings to other
declare their love for one another. Despite Portia͛s request women. Before the deception goes too far, however,
Portia reveals that she was, in fact, the law clerk, and both
the correct casket, which is made of lead. He and Portia she and Nerissa reconcile with their husbands. Lorenzo
rejoice, and Gratiano confesses that he has fallen in love and Jessica are pleased to learn of their inheritance from
with Nerissa. The couples decide on a double wedding. Shylock, and the joyful news arrives that Antonio͛s ships
Portia gives Bassanio a ring as a token of love, and makes have in fact made it back safely. The group celebrates its
him swear that under no circumstances will he part with it. good fortune.
They are joined, unexpectedly, by Lorenzo and Jessica. The [

 

himself because his own money is all invested in a number
of trade ships that are still at sea. Antonio suggests that
Bassanio secure the loan from one of the city͛s
moneylenders and name Antonio as the loan͛s guarantor.
In Belmont, Portia expresses sadness over the terms of her
father͛s will, which stipulates that she must marry the man
who correctly chooses one of three caskets. None of
Portia͛s current suitors are to her liking, and she and her
lady-in-waiting, Nerissa, fondly remember a visit paid
some time before by Bassanio.
In Venice, Antonio and Bassanio approach Shylock, a

- A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia͛s beauty is
Jewish moneylender, for a loan. Shylock nurses a long-
standing grudge against Antonio, who has made a habit of
berating Shylock and other Jews for their usury, the
practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest,
and who undermines their business by offering interest-
free loans. Although Antonio refuses to apologize for his
behavior, Shylock acts agreeably and offers to lend
Bassanio three thousand ducats with no interest. Shylock

- The merchant whose love for his friend
adds, however, that should the loan go unpaid, Shylock
will be entitled to a pound of Antonio͛s own flesh. Despite
Bassanio͛s warnings, Antonio agrees. In Shylock͛s own
household, his servant Launcelot decides to leave
Shylock͛s service to work for Bassanio, and Shylock͛s
daughter Jessica schemes to elope with Antonio͛s friend
celebration, however, is cut short by the news that
Antonio has indeed lost his ships, and that he has forfeited
his bond to Shylock. Bassanio and Gratiano immediately
travel to Venice to try and save Antonio͛s life. After they
leave, Portia tells Nerissa that they will go to Venice
disguised as men.
Shylock ignores the many pleas to spare Antonio͛s life, and
a trial is called to decide the matter. The duke of Venice,
who presides over the trial, announces that he has sent for
a legal expert, who turns out to be Portia disguised as a
young man of law. Portia asks Shylock to show mercy, but
he remains inflexible and insists the pound of flesh is
rightfully his. Bassanio offers Shylock twice the money due
him, but Shylock insists on collecting the bond as it is
written. Portia examines the contract and, finding it legally
binding, declares that Shylock is entitled to the merchant͛s
flesh. Shylock ecstatically praises her wisdom, but as he is
on the verge of collecting his due, Portia reminds him that
he must do so without causing Antonio to bleed, as the
contract does not entitle him to any blood. Trapped by this
logic, Shylock hastily agrees to take Bassanio͛s money
instead, but Portia insists that Shylock take his bond as
written, or nothing at all. Portia informs Shylock that he is
guilty of conspiring against the life of a Venetian citizen,
which means he must turn over half of his property to the
 
 - A Jewish moneylender in Venice. Angered by his
mistreatment at the hands of Venice͛s Christians,
particularly Antonio, Shylock schemes to eke out his
revenge by ruthlessly demanding as payment a pound of
Antonio͛s flesh. Although seen by the rest of the play͛s
characters as an inhuman monster, Shylock at times
diverges from stereotype and reveals himself to be quite
human. These contradictions, and his eloquent
expressions of hatred, have earned Shylock a place as one
of Shakespeare͛s most memorable characters.
ÿ

matched only by her intelligence. Bound by a clause in her
father͛s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor
chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia is
nonetheless able to marry her true love, Bassanio. Far and
away the most clever of the play͛s characters, it is Portia,
in the disguise of a young law clerk, who saves Antonio
from Shylock͛s knife.


Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock͛s contract and
almost lose his life. Antonio is something of a mercurial
figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock
points out, possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews.
Nonetheless, Antonio is beloved of his friends and proves
merciful to Shylock, albeit with conditions.
Lorenzo. That night, the streets of Venice fill up with

- A gentleman of Venice, and a kinsman and
revelers, and Jessica escapes with Lorenzo by dressing as
his page. After a night of celebration, Bassanio and his
friend Gratiano leave for Belmont, where Bassanio intends
to win Portia͛s hand.
In Belmont, Portia welcomes the prince of Morocco, who
has come in an attempt to choose the right casket to




- A friend of Bassanio͛s who accompanies him to
marry her. The prince studies the inscriptions on the three
caskets and chooses the gold one, which proves to be an
incorrect choice. In Venice, Shylock is furious to find that
his daughter has run away, but rejoices in the fact that
state and the other half to Antonio. The duke spares
Shylock͛s life and takes a fine instead of Shylock͛s
property. Antonio also forgoes his half of Shylock͛s wealth
on two conditions: first, Shylock must convert to
Christianity, and second, he must will the entirety of his
estate to Lorenzo and Jessica upon his death. Shylock
agrees and takes his leave.
Bassanio, who does not see through Portia͛s disguise,
showers the young law clerk with thanks, and is eventually
pressured into giving Portia the ring with which he
promised never to part. Gratiano gives Nerissa, who is



dear friend to Antonio. Bassanio͛s love for the wealthy
Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with
Antonio as his guarantor. An ineffectual businessman,
Bassanio proves himself a worthy suitor, correctly
identifying the casket that contains Portia͛s portrait.
Belmont. A coarse and garrulous young man, Gratiano is
Shylock͛s most vocal and insulting critic during the trial.
While Bassanio courts Portia, Gratiano falls in love with
and eventually weds Portia͛s lady-in-waiting, Nerissa.
Antonio͛s ships are rumored to have been wrecked and

- Although she is Shylock͛s daughter, Jessica hates
that he will soon be able to claim his debt. In Belmont, the
prince of Arragon also visits Portia. He, too, studies the
caskets carefully, but he picks the silver one, which is also
disguised as Portia͛s clerk, his ring. The two women return 
to Belmont, where they find Lorenzo and Jessica declaring life in her father͛s house, and elopes with the young
their love to each other under the moonlight. When Christian gentleman, Lorenzo. The fate of her soul is often
Bassanio and Gratiano arrive the next day, their wives in doubt: the play͛s characters wonder if her marriage can
overcome the fact that she was born a Jew, and we
wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her
mother is excessively callous.


- A friend of Bassanio and Antonio, Lorenzo is in


love with Shylock͛s daughter, Jessica. He schemes to help
Jessica escape from her father͛s house, and he eventually
elopes with her to Belmont.

been reached on whether to read him as a bloodthirsty
bogeyman, a clownish Jewish stereotype, or a tragic figure
whose sense of decency has been fractured by the
persecution he endures. Certainly, Shylock is the play͛s
antagonist, and he is menacing enough to seriously imperil
the happiness of Venice͛s businessmen and young lovers
alike. Shylock is also, however, a creation of circumstance;
still takes it far enough to berate Bassanio and Gratiano for
their callousness, and she even insinuates that she has
been unfaithful.


Although the play͛s title refers to him, Antonio is a rather
lackluster character. He emerges in Act I, scene i as a
hopeless depressive, someone who cannot name the

- Portia͛s lady-in-waiting and confidante. She even in his single-minded pursuit of a pound of flesh, his source of his melancholy and who, throughout the course
marries Gratiano and escorts Portia on Portia͛s trip to frequent mentions of the cruelty he has endured at of the play, devolves into a self-pitying lump, unable to
Venice by disguising herself as her law clerk. Christian hands make it hard for us to label him a natural muster the energy required to defend himself against





- Bassanio͛s servant. A comical, clownish born monster. In one of Shakespeare͛s most famous execution. Antonio never names the cause of his
figure who is especially adept at making puns, Launcelot monologues, for example, Shylock argues that Jews are melancholy, but the evidence seems to point to his being
leaves Shylock͛s service in order to work for Bassanio. humans and calls his quest for vengeance the product of in love, despite his denial of this idea in Act I, scene i. The
  





- A Moorish prince who seeks lessons taught to him by the cruelty of Venetian citizens. most likely object of his affection is Bassanio, who takes
Portia͛s hand in marriage. The prince of Morocco asks On the other hand, Shylock͛s coldly calculated attempt to full advantage of the merchant͛s boundless feelings for
Portia to ignore his dark countenance and seeks to win her revenge the wrongs done to him by murdering his him. Antonio has risked the entirety of his fortune on
by picking one of the three caskets. Certain that the persecutor, Antonio, prevents us from viewing him in a overseas trading ventures, yet he agrees to guarantee the
caskets reflect Portia͛s beauty and stature, the prince of primarily positive light. Shakespeare gives us unmistakably potentially lethal loan Bassanio secures from Shylock. In
Morocco picks the gold chest, which proves to be human moments, but he often steers us against Shylock as the context of his unrequited and presumably
incorrect. well, painting him as a miserly, cruel, and prosaic figure. unconsummated relationship with Bassanio, Antonio͛s
  



 - An arrogant Spanish nobleman ÿ


 willingness to offer up a pound of his own flesh seems
who also attempts to win Portia͛s hand by picking a casket. Quick-witted, wealthy, and beautiful, Portia embodies the particularly important, signifying a union that grotesquely
Like the prince of Morocco, however, the prince of virtues that are typical of Shakespeare͛s heroinesͶit is no alludes to the rites of marriage, where two partners
Arragon chooses unwisely. He picks the silver casket, surprise that she emerges as the antidote to Shylock͛s become ͞one flesh.͟
which gives him a message calling him an idiot instead of malice. At the beginning of the play, however, we do not Further evidence of the nature of Antonio͛s feelings for
Portia͛s hand. see Portia͛s potential for initiative and resourcefulness, as Bassanio appears later in the play, when Antonio͛s




- A Venetian gentleman, and friend to Antonio, she is a near prisoner, feeling herself absolutely bound to proclamations resonate with the hyperbole and self-
Bassanio, and Lorenzo. Salarino escorts the newlyweds follow her father͛s dying wishes. This opening appearance, satisfaction of a doomed lover͛s declaration: ͞Pray God
Jessica and Lorenzo to Belmont, and returns with Bassanio however, proves to be a revealing introduction to Portia, Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt, and then I care
and Gratiano for Antonio͛s trial. He is often almost who emerges as that rarest of combinationsͶa free spirit not͟ (III.iii.35ʹ36). Antonio ends the play as happily as he
indistinguishable from his companion Solanio. who abides rigidly by rules. Rather than ignoring the can, restored to wealth even if not delivered into love.




- A Venetian gentleman, and frequent counterpart stipulations of her father͛s will, she watches a stream of Without a mate, he is indeed the ͞tainted wether͟Ͷor
to Salarino. suitors pass her by, happy to see these particular suitors castrated ramͶof the flock, and he will likely return to his
  
 
 - The ruler of Venice, who presides go, but sad that she has no choice in the matter. When favorite pastime of moping about the streets of Venice
over Antonio͛s trial. Although a powerful man, the duke͛s Bassanio arrives, however, Portia proves herself to be (IV.i.113). After all, he has effectively disabled himself from
state is built on respect for the law, and he is unable to highly resourceful, begging the man she loves to stay a pursuing his other hobbyͶabusing ShylockͶby insisting
help Antonio. while before picking a chest, and finding loopholes in the that the Jew convert to Christianity. Although a sixteenth-
 


- Launcelot͛s father, also a servant in Venice. will͛s provision that we never thought possible. Also, in her century audience might have seen this demand as

- A Jew in Venice, and one of Shylock͛s friends. defeat of Shylock Portia prevails by applying a more rigid merciful, as Shylock is saving himself from eternal


 


- A wealthy Paduan lawyer and Portia͛s standard than Shylock himself, agreeing that his contract damnation by converting, we are less likely to be
cousin. Doctor Bellario never appears in the play, but he very much entitles him to his pound of flesh, but adding convinced. Not only does Antonio͛s reputation as an anti-
gives Portia͛s servant the letters of introduction needed that it does not allow for any loss of blood. Anybody can Semite precede him, but the only instance in the play
for her to make her appearance in court. break the rules, but Portia͛s effectiveness comes from her when he breaks out of his doldrums is his ͞storm͟ against



- Portia͛s servant, whom she dispatches to get ability to make the law work for her. Shylock (I.iii.132). In this context, Antonio proves that the
the appropriate materials from Doctor Bellario. Portia rejects the stuffiness that rigid adherence to the law dominant threads of his character are melancholy and






[

  might otherwise suggest. In her courtroom appearance, cruelty.
 
 she vigorously applies the law, but still flouts convention  
Although critics tend to agree that Shylock is |he Merchant by appearing disguised as a man. After depriving Bassanio    

oa Venice͛s most noteworthy figure, no consensus has of his ring, she stops the prank before it goes to far, but
On the surface, the main difference between the Christian
characters and Shylock appears to be that the Christian
characters value human relationships over business ones,
whereas Shylock is only interested in money. The Christian
characters certainly view the matter this way. Merchants
like Antonio lend money free of interest and put
themselves at risk for those they love, whereas Shylock
agonizes over the loss of his money and is reported to run
through the streets crying, ͞O, my ducats! O, my
daughter!͟ (II.viii.15). With these words, he apparently
values his money at least as much as his daughter,
understanding of mercy is based on the way Christians in
Shakespeare͛s time understood the difference between
the Old and New Testaments. According to the writings of
St. Paul in the New Testament, the Old Testament depicts
God as requiring strict adherence to rules and exacting
harsh punishments for those who stray. The New
Testament, in contrast, emphasizes adherence to the spirit
rather than the letter of the law, portraying a God who
forgives rather than punishes and offers salvation to those
followers who forgive others. Thus, when Portia warns
Shylock against pursuing the law without regard for mercy,
shall go hard but I will better the instruction͟ (III.i.60ʹ61).
Not all of Shylock͛s actions can be blamed on poor
teachings, and one could argue that Antonio understands
his own culpability in his near execution. With the trial͛s
conclusion, Antonio demands that Shylock convert to
Christianity, but inflicts no other punishment, despite the
threats of fellow Christians like Gratiano. Antonio does
not, as he has in the past, kick or spit on Shylock. Antonio,
as well as the duke, effectively ends the conflict by
starving it of the injustices it needs to continue.




suggesting that his greed outweighs his love. However,
upon closer inspection, this supposed difference between
Christian and Jew breaks down. When we see Shylock in
Act III, scene i, he seems more hurt by the fact that his
daughter sold a ring that was given to him by his dead wife
before they were married than he is by the loss of the
ring͛s monetary value. Some human relationships do
indeed matter to Shylock more than money. Moreover, his
insistence that he have a pound of flesh rather than any
amount of money shows that his resentment is much
stronger than his greed.
Just as Shylock͛s character seems hard to pin down, the
Christian characters also present an inconsistent picture.
Though Portia and Bassanio come to love one another,
Bassanio seeks her hand in the first place because he is
monstrously in debt and needs her money. Bassanio even
asks Antonio to look at the money he lends Bassanio as an
investment, though Antonio insists that he lends him the
money solely out of love. In other words, Bassanio is
anxious to view his relationship with Antonio as a matter
of business rather than of love. Finally, Shylock eloquently
argues that Jews are human beings just as Christians are,
but Christians such as Antonio hate Jews simply because
they are Jews. Thus, while the Christian characters may
talk more about mercy, love, and charity, they are not
she is promoting what Elizabethan Christians would have
seen as a pro-Christian, anti-Jewish agenda.
The strictures of Renaissance drama demanded that
Shylock be a villain, and, as such, patently unable to show
even a drop of compassion for his enemy. A sixteenth-
century audience would not expect Shylock to exercise
mercyͶtherefore, it is up to the Christians to do so. Once
she has turned Shylock͛s greatest weaponͶthe lawͶ
against him, Portia has the opportunity to give freely of
the mercy for which she so beautifully advocates. Instead,
she backs Shylock into a corner, where she strips him of
his bond, his estate, and his dignity, forcing him to kneel
and beg for mercy. Given that Antonio decides not to seize
Shylock͛s goods as punishment for conspiring against him,
we might consider Antonio to be merciful. But we may
also question whether it is merciful to return to Shylock
half of his goods, only to take away his religion and his
profession. By forcing Shylock to convert, Antonio disables
him from practicing usury, which, according to Shylock͛s
reports, was Antonio͛s primary reason for berating and
spitting on him in public. Antonio͛s compassion, then,
seems to stem as much from self-interest as from concern
for his fellow man. Mercy, as delivered in |he Merchant oa
Venice, never manages to be as sweet, selfless, or full of
grace as Portia presents it.
 

|he Merchant oa Venice depends heavily upon laws and
rulesͶthe laws of the state of Venice and the rules
stipulated in contracts and wills. Laws and rules can be
manipulated for cruel or wanton purposes, but they are
also capable of producing good when executed by the
right people. Portia͛s virtual imprisonment by the game of
caskets seems, at first, like a questionable rule at best, but
her likening of the game to a lottery system is belied by
the fact that, in the end, it works perfectly. The game
keeps a host of suitors at bay, and of the three who try to
choose the correct casket to win Portia͛s hand, only the
man of Portia͛s desires succeeds. By the time Bassanio
picks the correct chest, the choice seems like a more
efficient indicator of human nature than any person could
ever provide. A similar phenomenon occurs with Venetian
law. Until Portia͛s arrival, Shylock is the law͛s strictest
adherent, and it seems as if the city͛s adherence to
contracts will result in tragedy. However, when Portia
arrives and manipulates the law most skillfully of all, the
outcome is the happiest ending of all, at least to an
Elizabethan audience: Antonio is rescued and Shylock
forced to abandon his religion. The fact that the trial is
such a close call does, however, raise the fearful specter of
how the law can be misused. Without the proper
always consistent in how they display these qualities. c
 

[

ÿ 

 guidance, the law can be wielded to do horrible things.
 






  Throughout the play, Shylock claims that he is simply

The conflict between Shylock and the Christian characters
comes to a head over the issue of mercy. The other
characters acknowledge that the law is on Shylock͛s side,
but they all expect him to show mercy, which he refuses to
do. When, during the trial, Shylock asks Portia what could
possibly compel him to be merciful, Portia͛s long reply,
beginning with the words, ͞The quality of mercy is not
strained,͟ clarifies what is at stake in the argument
(IV.i.179). Human beings should be merciful because God
is merciful: mercy is an attribute of God himself and
therefore greater than power, majesty, or law. Portia͛s
[
 
applying the lessons taught to him by his Christian
neighbors; this claim becomes an integral part of both his
character and his argument in court. In Shylock͛s very first
appearance, as he conspires to harm Antonio, his entire
plan seems to be born of the insults and injuries Antonio
has inflicted upon him in the past. As the play continues,
and Shylock unveils more of his reasoning, the same idea
rears its head over and overͶhe is simply applying what
years of abuse have taught him. Responding to Salarino͛s
query of what good the pound of flesh will do him, Shylock
responds, ͞The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it
Twice in the play, daring escapes are executed with the
help of cross-dressing. Jessica escapes the tedium of
Shylock͛s house by dressing as a page, while Portia and
Nerissa rescue Antonio by posing as officers of the
Venetian court. This device was not only familiar to
Renaissance drama, but essential to its performance:
women were banned from the stage and their parts were
performed by prepubescent boys. Shakespeare was a
great fan of the potentials of cross-dressing and used the
device often, especially in his comedies. But Portia reveals
that the donning of men͛s clothes is more than mere
comedy. She says that she has studied a ͞thousand raw
tricks of these bragging Jacks,͟ implying that male
authority is a kind of performance that can be imitated
successfully (III.iv.77). She feels confident that she can
outwit any male competitor, declaring, ͞I͛ll prove the
prettier fellow of the two, / And wear my dagger with the
braver grace͟ (III.iv.64ʹ65). In short, by assuming the
clothes of the opposite sex, Portia enables herself to
assume the power and position denied to her as a woman.


ÿ
 one does in making a leap of faith. Portia͛s father has
Like Shakespeare͛s other comedies, |he Merchant oa
Venice seems to endorse the behavior of characters who
treat filial piety lightly, even though the heroine, Portia,
sets the opposite example by obeying her father͛s will.
Launcelot greets his blind, long lost father by giving the old
man confusing directions and telling the old man that his
Christian teachings, such as the idea that desire is an
unreliable guide and should be resisted, and the idea that
human beings do not deserve God͛s grace but receive it in
spite of themselves. Christianity teaches that appearances
are often deceiving, and that people should not trust the
evidence provided by the sensesͶhence the humble
appearance of the lead casket. Faith and charity are the
central values of Christianity, and these values are evoked
by the lead casket͛s injunction to give all and risk all, as
sharply with the darker humor and deeper
presented marriage as one in which the proper suitor risks
and gives everything for the spouse, in the hope of a divine
recompense he can never truly deserve. The contest
certainly suits Bassanio, who knows he does not deserve
his good fortune but is willing to risk everything on a
gamble.
TAMING OF THE SHREW
|he |aming oa the Shrew is one of Shakespeare͛s earliest
comedies, and it shares many essential characteristics with
his other romantic comedies, such as Much Ado About
Nothing and A Midsummer Night͛s Dream. These
characteristics include lighthearted and slapstick humor,
disguises and deception, and a happy ending in which
most of the characters come out satisfied. The
lightheartedness of these romantic comedies contrasts
characterization of Shakespeare͛s later plays, both comic
and tragic. The youthfulness of the playwright can be seen
in the whimsical spirit of the early plays. Like the other
romantic comedies, |he |aming oa the Shrew focuses on
courtship and marriage, but, unlike most of them, it
devotes a great deal of attention to married life after the
beloved son Launcelot is dead. This moment of
impertinence can be excused as essential to the comedy of
the play, but it sets the stage for Jessica͛s far more
complex hatred of her father. Jessica can list no specific
complaints when she explains her desire to leave Shylock͛s
house, and in the one scene in which she appears with
Shylock, he fusses over her in a way that some might see
as tender. Jessica͛s desire to leave is made clearer when
the other characters note how separate she has become
from her father, but her behavior after departing seems
questionable at best. Most notably, she trades her father͛s
ring, given to him by her dead mother, for a monkey. The
frivolity of this exchange, in which an heirloom is tossed
away for the silliest of objects, makes for quite a disturbing
image of the esteem in which |he Merchant oa Venice͛s
children hold their parents, and puts us, at least
temporarily, in Shylock͛s corner.
 ÿ

  
The pound of flesh that Shylock seeks lends itself to
multiple interpretations: it emerges most as a metaphor
for two of the play͛s closest relationships, but also calls
attention to Shylock͛s inflexible adherence to the law. The
fact that Bassanio͛s debt is to be paid with Antonio͛s flesh
is significant, showing how their friendship is so binding it
has made them almost one. Shylock͛s determination is
strengthened by Jessica͛s departure, as if he were seeking
recompense for the loss of his own flesh and blood by
collecting it from his enemy. Lastly, the pound of flesh is a
constant reminder of the rigidity of Shylock͛s world, where
numerical calculations are used to evaluate even the most
serious of situations. Shylock never explicitly demands that
Antonio die, but asks instead, in his numerical mind, for a
pound in exchange for his three thousand ducats. Where
the other characters measure their emotions with long
wedding. The other comedies usually conclude with the
wedding ceremony itself.
A play focusing on the concerns of married life would have
seemed particularly relevant to English audiences of the
Renaissance period. Theirs was a society concerned with
marriage in general, thanks in part to Henry VIII͛s
separation of England from the Catholic Church in 1534 in
order to secure a divorce that the pope had refused to
grant him. Henry͛s troubles highlight one important aspect
of Elizabethan marriages among the upper class: they
were most often arranged for money, land, or power,
rather than for love. Moreover, unless you were the king
of England, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries offered few ways out of an unhappy marriage.
Thus, the resolution of marital disputes became an
important topic in the popular literature of the era.
Of particular worry to this society were ͞shrews͟ or

 metaphors and words, Shylock measures everything in far ͞scolds͟Ͷthat is, cantankerous or gossipy wives, who
  [
 more prosaic and numerical quantities. resisted or undermined the assumed authority of the
The contest for Portia͛s hand, in which suitors from various
 husband within a marriage. A large number of sermons,
countries choose among a gold, a silver, and a lead casket,
resembles the cultural and legal system of Venice in some
respects. Like the Venice of the play, the casket contest
presents the same opportunities and the same rules to
men of various nations, ethnicities, and religions. Also like
Venice, the hidden bias of the casket test is fundamentally
Christian. To win Portia, Bassanio must ignore the gold
casket, which bears the inscription, ͞Who chooseth me
shall gain what many men desire͟ (II.vii.5), and the silver
casket, which says, ͞Who chooseth me shall get as much
as he deserves͟ (II.vii.7). The correct casket is lead and
warns that the person who chooses it must give and risk
everything he has. The contest combines a number of


The ring given to Shylock in his bachelor days by a woman
named Leah, who is most likely Shylock͛s wife and Jessica͛s
mother, gets only a brief mention in the play, but is still an
object of great importance. When told that Jessica has
stolen it and traded it for a monkey, Shylock very
poignantly laments its loss: ͞I would not have given it for a
wilderness of monkeys͟ (III.i.101ʹ102). The lost ring allows
us to see Shylock in an uncharacteristically vulnerable
position and to view him as a human being capable of
feeling something more than anger. Although Shylock and
Tubal discuss the ring for no more than five lines, the ring
stands as an important symbol of Shylock͛s humanity, his
ability to love, and his ability to grieve.
plays, and pamphlets of the time address related topics:
the taming of shrews by their husbands or the public
punishment of scolds by, for example, repeatedly dunking
them in a river. Part of this body of literature took a very
diplomatic attitude toward women, although much of it
was extremely misogynistic. In some of this literature, it is
difficult to distinguish between behavior that is being
parodied and behavior that is presented as an ideal. This
ambiguity may also be found in |he |aming oa the Shrew,
which manages to lampoon chauvinistic behavior while
simultaneously reaffirming its social validity. The play
celebrates the quick wit and fiery spirit of its heroine even
while reveling in her humiliation.
ÿ
 
 Petruchio forces Katherine to leave for his country house
I N THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE, a poor tinker named Christopher
Sly becomes the target of a prank by a local lord. Finding
Sly drunk out of his wits in front of an alehouse, the lord
has his men take Sly to his manor, dress him in his finery,
and treat him as a lord. When Sly recovers, the men tell
him that he is a lord and that he only believes himself to
be a tinker because he has been insane for the past several
years. Waking in the lord͛s bed, Sly at first refuses to

- Petruchio is a gentleman from Verona. Loud,
accept the men͛s story, but when he hears of his ͞wife,͟ a
pageboy dressed in women͛s clothing, he readily agrees
that he is the lord they purport him to be. Sly wants to be
left alone with his wife, but the servants tell him that a
troupe of actors has arrived to present a play for him. The
play that Sly watches makes up the main story of |he
|aming oa the Shrew.
In the Italian city of Padua, a rich young man named


- The younger daughter of Baptista. The lovely
Lucentio arrives with his servants, Tranio and Biondello, to
attend the local university. Lucentio is excited to begin his
studies, but his priorities change when he sees Bianca, a
beautiful, mild young woman with whom Lucentio
instantly falls in love. There are two problems: first, Bianca
already has two suitors, Gremio and Hortensio; second,
Bianca͛s father, a wealthy old man named Baptista Minola,
prone to violence, particularly against anyone who tries to
before the feast, telling all in earshot that she is now his
property and that he may do with her as he pleases. Once
they reach his country house, Petruchio continues the
process of ͞taming͟ Katherine by keeping her from eating
or sleeping for several daysͶhe pretends that he loves her
so much he cannot allow her to eat his inferior food or to
sleep in his poorly made bed.
In Padua, Lucentio wins Bianca͛s heart by wooing her with
a Latin translation that declares his love. Hortensio makes
the same attempt with a music lesson, but Bianca loves
Lucentio, and Hortensio resolves to marry a wealthy
widow. Tranio secures Baptista͛s approval for Lucentio to
marry Bianca by proposing a huge sum of money to lavish
on her. Baptista agrees but says that he must have this
sum confirmed by Lucentio͛s father before the marriage
can take place. Tranio and Lucentio, still in their respective
disguises, feel there is nothing left to do but find an old
man to play the role of Lucentio͛s father. Tranio enlists the
help of an old pedant, or schoolmaster, but as the pedant
speaks to Baptista, Lucentio and Bianca decide to
circumvent the complex situation by eloping.
Katherine and Petruchio soon return to Padua to visit
Baptista. On the way, Petruchio forces Katherine to say
marry her. Her hostility toward suitors particularly
distresses her father. But her anger and rudeness disguise
her deep-seated sense of insecurity and her jealousy
toward her sister, Bianca. She does not resist her suitor
Petruchio forever, though, and she eventually subjugates
herself to him, despite her previous repudiation of
marriage.
ÿ 
boisterous, eccentric, quick-witted, and frequently drunk,
he has come to Padua ͞to wive and thrive.͟ He wishes for
nothing more than a woman with an enormous dowry,
and he finds Kate to be the perfect fit. Disregarding
everyone who warns him of her shrewishness, he
eventually succeeds not only in wooing Katherine, but in
silencing her tongue and temper with his own.

Bianca proves herself the opposite of her sister, Kate, at
the beginning of the play: she is soft-spoken, sweet, and
unassuming. Thus, she operates as Kate͛s principal female
foil. Because of her large dowry and her mild behavior,
several men vie for her hand. Baptista, however, will not
let her marry until Kate is wed.



- Minola Baptista is one of the wealthiest men in
has declared that no one may court Bianca until first her
older sister, the vicious, ill-tempered Katherine, is married.
Lucentio decides to overcome this problem by disguising
himself as Bianca͛s Latin tutor to gain an excuse to be in
her company. Hortensio disguises himself as her music
teacher for the same reason. While Lucentio pretends to
be Bianca͛s tutor, Tranio dresses up as Lucentio and begins
to confer with Baptista about the possibility of marrying

- A young student from Pisa, the good-natured
his daughter.
The Katherine problem is solved for Bianca͛s suitors when
Hortensio͛s friend Petruchio, a brash young man from
Verona, arrives in Padua to find a wife. He intends to
marry a rich woman, and does not care what she is like as
long as she will bring him a fortune. He agrees to marry
Katherine sight unseen. The next day, he goes to Baptista͛s
house to meet her, and they have a tremendous duel of

- Lucentio͛s servant. Tranio accompanies Lucentio
words. As Katherine insults Petruchio repeatedly,
Petruchio tells her that he will marry her whether she
agrees or not. He tells Baptista, falsely, that Katherine has
consented to marry him on Sunday. Hearing this claim,

that the sun is the moon and that an old man is really a
beautiful young maiden. Since Katherine͛s willfulness is
dissipating, she agrees that all is as her husband says. On
the road, the couple meets Lucentio͛s father, Vincentio,
who is on his way to Padua to see his son. In Padua,
Vincentio is shocked to find Tranio masquerading as
Lucentio. At last, Bianca and Lucentio arrive to spread the
news of their marriage. Both Vincentio and Baptista finally
agree to the marriage.
At the banquet following Hortensio͛s wedding to the
widow, the other characters are shocked to see that
Katherine seems to have been ͞tamed͟Ͷshe obeys
everything that Petruchio says and gives a long speech
advocating the loyalty of wives to their husbands. When
the three new husbands stage a contest to see which of
their wives will obey first when summoned, everyone
expects Lucentio to win. Bianca, however, sends a
message back refusing to obey, while Katherine comes
immediately. The others acknowledge that Petruchio has
won an astonishing victory, and the happy Katherine and
Padua, and his daughters become the prey of many suitors
due to the substantial dowries he can offer. He is good-
natured, if a bit superficial. His absentmindedness
increases when Kate shows her obstinate nature. Thus, at
the opening of the play, he is already desperate to find her
a suitor, having decided that she must marry before Bianca
does.

and intrepid Lucentio comes to Padua to study at the city͛s
renowned university, but he is immediately sidetracked
when he falls in love with Bianca at first sight. By disguising
himself as a classics instructor named Cambio, he
convinces Gremio to offer him to Baptista as a tutor for
Bianca. He wins her love, but his impersonation gets him
into trouble when his father, Vincentio, visits Padua.


from Pisa. Wry and comical, he plays an important part in
his master͛s charadeͶhe assumes Lucentio͛s identity and
bargains with Baptista for Bianca͛s hand.


c


- Two gentlemen of Padua. Gremio
Katherine is strangely silent, and the wedding is set. Petruchio leave the banquet to go to bed. and Hortensio are Bianca͛s suitors at the beginning of the
On Sunday, Petruchio is late to his own wedding, leaving [

 
 play. Though they are rivals, these older men also become
Katherine to fear she will become an old maid. When 
 
 - The ͞shrew͟ of the play͛s title, Katherine, or friends during their mutual frustration with and rejection
Petruchio arrives, he is dressed in a ridiculous outfit and Kate, is the daughter of Baptista Minola, with whom she by Bianca. Hortensio directs Petruchio to Kate and then
rides on a broken-down horse. After the wedding, lives in Padua. She is sharp-tongued, quick-tempered, and dresses up as a music instructor to court Bianca. He and
Gremio are both thwarted in their efforts by Lucentio.
Hortensio ends up marrying a widow.


- Petruchio͛s servant and the fool of the playͶa
source of much comic relief.



- Lucentio͛s second servant, who assists his
master and Tranio in carrying out their plot.
[
level, since even if she dislikes the role of wife, playing it at subsequently puts into motion a romantic and fanciful
least means she can command respect and consideration plan to do so. Whereas love in the play is often mitigated
from others rather than suffer the universal revulsion she by economic and social concerns, Lucentio is swept up in a
receives as a shrew. Having a social role, even if it is not vision of courtly love that does not include the practical
ideal, must be less painful than continually rejecting any considerations of men like Petruchio. Throughout much of
social role at all. Thus, Katherine͛s eventual compliance the play, then, Lucentio and Bianca͛s relationship appears

    - The principal character in the play͛s brief with Petruchio͛s self-serving ͞training͟ appears more to be refreshing and pure in comparison to the
Induction, Sly is a drunken tinker, tricked by a mischievous rational than it might have seemed at first: by the end of relationship between Petruchio and Katherine. Petruchio͛s
nobleman into thinking that he is really a lord. the play, she has gained a position and even an decision to marry is based on his self-proclaimed desire to






[

  authoritative voice that she previously had been denied.

 
 ÿ 


Widely reputed throughout Padua to be a shrew,
Katherine is foul-tempered and sharp-tongued at the start
of the play. She constantly insults and degrades the men
around her, and she is prone to wild displays of anger,
during which she may physically attack whomever enrages
her. Though most of the play͛s characters simply believe
Katherine to be inherently ill-tempered, it is certainly
plausible to think that her unpleasant behavior stems from
unhappiness. She may act like a shrew because she is
miserable and desperate. There are many possible sources
of Katherine͛s unhappiness: she expresses jealousy about
her father͛s treatment of her sister, but her anxiety may
also stem from feelings about her own undesirability, the
fear that she may never win a husband, her loathing of the
way men treat her, and so on. In short, Katherine feels out
of place in her society. Due to her intelligence and
independence, she is unwilling to play the role of the
maiden daughter. She clearly abhors society͛s
expectations that she obey her father and show grace and
courtesy toward her suitors. At the same time, however,
Katherine must see that given the rigidity of her social
win a fortune, while Lucentio͛s is based on romantic love.
Moreover, while Petruchio devotes himself to taming his
The boastful, selfish, mercurial Petruchio is one of the
most difficult characters in |he |aming oa the Shrew: his
behavior is extremely difficult to decipher, and our
interpretation of the play as a whole changes dramatically
depending on how we interpret Petruchio͛s actions. If he is
nothing more than a vain, uncaring, greedy chauvinist who
treats marriage as an act of domination, then the play
becomes a dark comedy about the materialism and hunger
for power that dictate marriages under the guise of courtly
love. If, on the other hand, Petruchio is actually capable of
loving Kate and conceives of taming her merely as a means
to realize a happy marriage, then the play becomes an
examination of the psychology of relationships.
A case can be made for either interpretation, but the truth
about Petruchio probably lies somewhere in between: he
is unabashedly selfish, materialistic, and determined to be
his wife͛s lord and master, but he also loves her and
realizes on some level that domestic harmony (on his
terms, of course) would be better for her than her current
life as a shrew in Padua. To this extent, Petruchio goes to
alarming lengths to impose his mastery on Kate, keeping
bride, Lucentio devotes himself to submitting to and
ingratiating himself with his. While Petruchio stages his
wedding as a public spectacle, Lucentio elopes with
Bianca.
The contrast between Lucentio and Petruchio
distinguishes |he |aming oa the Shrew from other
Elizabethan plays. Through Lucentio and Bianca, the play
looks beyond the moment when the romantic lovers are
wed and depicts the consequences of the disguises and
subterfuges they have charmingly employed to facilitate
their romance. Once the practical business of being
married begins, Lucentio͛s preoccupation with courtly love
seems somewhat outmoded and ridiculous. In the end, it is
Petruchio͛s disturbing, flamboyant pragmatism that
produces a happy and functioning marriage, and
Lucentio͛s poeticized instincts leave him humiliated when
Bianca refuses to answer his summons. Love certainly
exists in the world of |he |aming oa the Shrew, but
Lucentio͛s theatrical love, attractive though it is, appears
unable to cope with the full range of problems and
considerations facing married couples in adult life.
situation, her only hope to find a secure and happy place her tired and hungry for some time after their marriage,  
in the world lies in finding a husband. These inherently but he also insists on framing this treatment in a language












conflicting impulses may lead to her misery and poor
temper. A vicious circle ensues: the angrier she becomes,
the less likely it seems she will be able to adapt to her
prescribed social role; the more alienated she becomes
socially, the more her anger grows.
Despite the humiliations and deprivations that Petruchio
adds to her life, it is easy to understand why Katherine
might succumb to marry a man like him. In their first
conversation, Petruchio establishes that he is Katherine͛s


intellectual and verbal equal, making him, on some level,
an exciting change from the easily dominated men who
normally surround her. Petruchio͛s forcible treatment of
Katherine is in every way designed to show her that she
has no real choice but to adapt to her social role as a wife.
This adaptation must be attractive to Katherine on some
of love, indicating his eagerness for Kate to adapt to her
rightful, socially appointed place and his willingness to
make their marriage a happy one. Above all, Petruchio is a
comic figure, an exaggerated persona who continually
makes the audience laugh. And though we laugh with
Petruchio as he ͞tames͟ Kate, we also laugh at him, as we
see him satirize the very gender inequalities that the plot
of |he |aming oa the Shrew ultimately upholds.

round out its exploration of the social dimension of love.
Just as Bianca is Katherine͛s foilͶher oppositeͶthe
intrepid, lovesick Lucentio serves as a foil for Petruchio
throughout the play. Lucentio reflects the sort of idyllic,
poetical view of love that Petruchio͛s pragmatism
dismisses: Lucentio is struck by love for Bianca at first
sight, says that he will die if he cannot win her heart, and
As a romantic comedy, the play focuses principally on the
romantic relationships between men and women as they
develop from initial interest into marriage. In this respect,
the play is a typical romantic comedy. However, unlike
other Shakespearean comedies, |he |aming oa the Shrew
does not conclude its examination of love and marriage
with the wedding. Rather, it offers a significant glimpse
into the future lives of married couples, one that serves to
Unlike in £omeo and Juliet, inner emotional desire plays
only a secondary role in |he |aming oa the Shrew͛s
exploration of love. Instead, |he |aming oa the Shrew
emphasizes the economic aspects of marriageͶ
specifically, how economic considerations determine who
marries whom. The play tends to explore romantic
relationships from a social perspective, addressing the put on the clothes of a lord, but he remains a servant, one her like a ͞falcon͟ and plans to ͞kill a wife with kindness.͟
institutions of courtship and marriage rather than the who must return to his place, as we see with Tranio. Hortensio even conceives of Petruchio͛s house as a place
inner passions of lovers. Moreover, the play focuses on Likewise, Lucentio must reveal his subterfuge to his father where other men may learn how to domesticate women,
how courtship affects not just the lovers themselves, but and to Baptista before moving forward with Bianca. Kate͛s calling it a ͞taming-school.͟
also their parents, their servants, and their friends. In
[
 
general, while the husband and the wife conduct the
marriage relationship after the wedding, the courtship
relationship is negotiated between the future husband and
the father of the future wife. As such, marriage becomes a
transaction involving the transfer of money. Lucentio wins
Bianca͛s heart, but he is given permission to marry her
only after he is able to convince Baptista that he is
fabulously rich. Had Hortensio offered more money, he
would have married Bianca, regardless of whether she
loved Lucentio.
 


development over the course of the play is basically
determined by her gradual adaptation to her new social
role as wife. She complies with Petruchio͛s humiliating
regimen of taming because she knows on some level that,
whether she likes the role of wife or not, she will be
happier accepting her social obligations than living as she
has been at odds with everyone connected to her. In fact,
the primary excitement in |he |aming oa the Shrew stems
from its permeable social boundaries, crisscrossed
continually by those who employ a disguise or a clever lie.
In the end, however, the conventional order reestablishes

  
 
The several father/child relationships in the playͶ
Baptista/Bianca, Baptista/Katherine, Vincentio/LucentioͶ
focus on parents dealing with children of marriageable age
and concerned with making good matches for them. Even
the sham father/son relationship between the disguised
pedant and the disguised Tranio portrays a father
attempting to make a match for his son, as the pedant
attempts to negotiate Tranio͛s marriage to Bianca.
Through the recurrence of this motif, Shakespeare shows
the broader social ramifications of the institution of






c

 itself, and those characters who harmonize with that order marriage. Marriage does not merely concern the future
Each person in the play occupies a specific social position achieve personal happiness. bride and groom, but many other people as well,
that carries with it certain expectations about how that


 especially parents, who, in a sense, transfer their
person should behave. A character͛s social position is


 responsibility for their children onto the new spouses.
defined by such things as his or her wealth, age, gender, Disguise figures prominently in |he |aming oa the Shrew: 

profession, parentage, and education; the rules governing Sly dresses as a lord, Lucentio dresses as a Latin tutor, ÿ 


[

how each of them should behave are harshly enforced by
family, friends, and society as a whole. For instance,
Lucentio occupies the social role of a wealthy young
student, Tranio that of a servant, and Bianca and Katherine
the roles of upper-class young maidens-in-waiting. At the
very least, they are supposed to occupy these rolesͶbut,
as the play shows, in reality, Kate wants nothing to do with
her social role, and her shrewishness results directly from
her frustration concerning her position. Because she does
not live up to the behavioral expectations of her society,
she faces the cold disapproval of that society, and, due to
her alienation, she becomes miserably unhappy. Kate is
only one of the many characters in |he |aming oa the
Shrew who attempt to circumvent or deny their socially
defined roles, however: Lucentio transforms himself into a
working-class Latin tutor, Tranio transforms himself into a
wealthy young aristocrat, Christopher Sly is transformed
Tranio dresses as Lucentio, Hortensio dresses as a music
tutor, and the pedant dresses as Vincentio. These disguises
enable the characters to transgress barriers in social
position and class, and, for a time, each of them is
successful. The play thus poses the question of whether
clothes make the manͶthat is, whether a person can
change his or her role by putting on new clothes. The
ultimate answer is no, of course. In |he |aming oa the
Shrew, society involves a web of antecedents that are
always able to uncover one͛s true nature, no matter how
differently one wishes to portray oneself. Tranio, disguised
as Lucentio, needs only to bump into Vincentio, and his
true identity surfaces. As Petruchio implies on his wedding
day, a garment is simply a garment, and the person
beneath remains the same no matter what disguise is
worn.
The ridiculous outfit Petruchio wears to his wedding with
Kate symbolizes his control over her. Simply by wearing
the costume, he is able to humiliate her. It may be
shameful for Kate to be matched to someone in such
attire, but she knows she has no choice if she does not
wish to become an old maid. She consents to let the
ceremony proceed, even with Petruchio dressed like a
clown, and thus yields to his authority before the wedding
even begins.
The outfit also symbolizes the transient nature of clothing.
Petruchio declares that Kate is marrying him, not his
clothes, indicating that the man beneath the attire is not
the same as the attire itself. Thus, Lucentio, dressed as a
tutor, cannot escape the fact that he must return to his
true identity. By the same token, when Kate plays the role
of a dutiful wife, she remains, essentially, Kate.





  c
 
  [







from a tinker into a lord, and so forth.
Compared with Katherine͛s more serious anguish about
her role, the other characters͛ attempts to circumvent
social expectations seem like harmless fun. However, the
play illustrates that each transformation must be undone
before conventional life can resume at the end of the play.
Ultimately, society͛s happiness depends upon everyone
playing his or her prescribed roles. Through the motif of
disguise, the play entertains the idea that a person͛s
apparel determines his or her social position, but it
ultimately affirms that this is not the case. A servant may
The motif of domestication is broadcasted in the play͛s
title by the word ͞taming.͟ A great part of the action
consists of Petruchio͛s attempts to cure Katherine of her
antisocial hostility. Katherine is thus frequently referred to
as a wild animal that must be domesticated. Petruchio
considers himself, and the other men consider him, to be a
tamer who must train his wife, and most of the men
secretly suspect at first that her wild nature will prove too
much for him. After the wedding, Petruchio and
Katherine͛s relationship becomes increasingly defined by
the rhetoric of domestication. Petruchio speaks of training
The cap and gown that Petruchio denies Katherine, despite
the fact that she finds them truly appealing, symbolizes yet
again his power over her. The outfit functions as a kind of
bait used to help convince Kate to recognize and comply
with Petruchio͛s wishes. Only he has the power to satisfy
her needs and desires, and this lesson encourages her to
satisfy him in return.