What role does love play in the story? What does love cause to happen? Cite specific examples from the story to support your answer.

As the old saying says “Love conquers all things’”, but this was not really the case in the tragic-comedy, Winter’s tale.

In the novel, the theme of love plays a significant role in creating the form of drama that the play encompasses which is tragic comedy. Shakespeare introduces the theme of love and makes major reference to it in many ways. He goes about doing this by allowing the reader/audience to visualize the different aspects of love by the use of different scenarios which display or emphasize how powerful love can really be. Shakespeare goes further by allowing his readers/audience to not only witness and understand the theme of love in the play but also what love is capable of doing. Shakespeare also reminds us that love does not only have to exist between a man and a woman. Take Paulina and Hermione for instance. Although Paulina was a mere servant or waiting lady to Hermione, we see in the novel Winters Tale that the love Paulina had for Hermione went way beyond her duties. In this novel we see that during Hermione’s time of crisis, Paulina acted as her backbone and walked with her until the end. This unconditional love is portrayed in the novel when Paulina makes it a priority to visit Hermione at the prison. Even though she was not allowed in she persuaded the guard to let her through. Also Paulina continued showing her love for Hermione by taking the new born (perdita) in her care and to the king (Leontes) in the hopes of getting him to reconcile the relationship he once had with his wife Hermione. Furthermore, although Paulina knew she could have been punished for her actions of going against all moral statutes by speaking out to the king, she did not care much; she made it her duty to do it anyway hoping that her actions helped in clearing the name of her beloved queen Hermione. Additionally, this love between both characters was evident when, even though Hermione was accused of the adulterous act, Paulina didn’t for one minute believe that her queen could have committed the act. She remained adamant in her stance that Hermione could not have and did not commit such act.

In addition to that, love is also introduced as Camillo reminds the readers/audience of how much he missed his rightful home, Sicilia. The overwhelming love Camillo had for his home caused him to do anything he could to get back to Sicilia, even if it meant using Florizel and Perdita as an excuse to do so.

Another aspect of love is identified in the relationship between the characters of Florizel and Perdita. In the novel, we see Florizel as being a prince and Perdita a mere Shepherd's daughter; two opposing entities display their love for each other. Florizel loved perdita so much that he laid down his pride of being a prince just to be with her. He even made it his duty to keep it a secret from his father and best friend or basically everyone in order to keep her safe. Also, even when his father found out and threatened to destroy the relationship they had, the love between them was so strong that florizel stuck with her and denied the kingdom and all the riches and ran away with her just so that they can be together.

Leontes also caused one to identify the power of love since it was his love for Hermione that caused his jealous feelings to get the best of him and as a result, he loosed everything he dearly loved. This emphasizes that aspect of love that can cause a person to do things they would not normally find themselves doing. It also shines light on the old saying that says “love can make a man/woman do stupid things”.

In conclusion, take a look at the love Hermione had for her daughter, Perdita. It was Hermione’s love for perdita that is responsible for her miraculous resurrection in the plays final act. This goes on to say that the theme of love in the play not only restores domestic and political order, but it offers an optimistic view of society on a whole.

Group; Tia-Marie Haywood
          Shaqueilla Samuel
          Dijonya Roberts
          Shamantha Farrell
          Akera Meade

Literature homework

1. Just like every human being, I myself have experienced the feeling of betrayal.

2. I had a best friend and we were really close and then I met this guy and after getting to know each other we got together. Now, it never crossed my mind that my best friend would ever want to hook up with him even though we made a pact that we would never date each others ex partners. Anyway she decided that she wanted him and so she started talking bad about me behind my back. The guy believed every word she said and as a result we broke up. They both hurt me really bad and it took me a long while to forgive them but I did. But it was at that moment that I came to realize who my “friend” really was.

At the end of it all, I didn’t do anything. I did not confront either of them about the situation because at that time the guy was no longer mine so I developed a ‘big girl attitude’ and figured ‘if that made him happy, then I’m all for his happiness’. (NOT!).

3. I have never gotten the feeling that I was betrayed and then later down, I find out that it was a misunderstanding because one thing about me personally is I think before I act so in other words, I make sure I explore all my options and cover all odds of the situation before I come to the conclusion of whether I was betrayed or not.

4. Over the years of studying various works of Shakespeare like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The taming of the shrew, Julius Caesar, The merchant of Venice etc, there is a small trend that constantly seems to repeat itself. That trend is that the characters in the novels always seem to resort to violence, trickery or some form of evilness and the main reasons for this type of act is as a result of either betrayal, lies, deceit, misunderstandings that never get resolved, greed for money or other materialistic treasures, hate, love, family feuds and others. Due to the disturbing listings above, persons in the play either end up dying, loosing something valuable, being locked away etc.

5. Christian and pagan worldviews interacted with each other in rich and often paradoxical ways, and signs of that complicated interaction are present in The Winter's Tale.

Torn by internal strife between Catholics and Protestants, an economy in tatters, and unstable leadership, England was vulnerable to invasion by her stronger rivals on the continent. By the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, she had turned the weakling of Western Europe into a power of the first rank, poised to become the mightiest nation in the world.

Conflict and War. Religious tensions in Bohemia Europe between the Catholic Habsburgs and the Hussite nobles continued into the 1600s. Both Rudolf II and Ferdinand II (ruled 1619–1637) tried to restore the power of the Roman Catholic Church. However, in 1619 the Bohemian nobles revolted and overthrew Ferdinand. The uprising led to the outbreak of the THIRTY YEARS' WAR, a conflict involving many states of Europe. The war ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), a treaty that confirmed the political and religious control of the Habsburgs over Bohemia.

6. The Elizabethan era was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth 1's reign (1558–1603) and is often depicted as the golden age  in English history . The symbol of Britannia was first used in 1572 and often thereafter to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the hated Spanish foe. In terms of the entire century, Guy (1988) argues that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time in a thousand years.

It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature. The era is most famous for theater, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre.

 

 7. The Globe Theatre

8. Theatre of the absurd

The term refers to particular plays written by a number of (mostly) European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work.
In a nutshell, the philosophy underneath is that life is inherently without meaning, and so one must find one's own meaning. This genre of theatre achieved popularity when World War II highlighted the essential precariousness of human life. Most plays belonging to this category will make you both think and even laugh if you get to appreciate their hilarious sense of humor, often with an important message.
Actually, some experts dislike the label "Absurd Theatre" and use "Anti-Theater" or "New Theater" instead.

        

9.  Synopsis of William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26th, 1564 and died on April 23rd, 1616. William was the eldest son of Mary Arden, a land owner and John Shakespeare, a Glover and wood dealer. It was believed that William Shakespeare was educated at the King's New School in Stratford. At age 18, he married 26 year old Anne Hathaway, and six months after the marriage, Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susana. Hamlet and Judith, twins, followed almost two years after. Hamlet died of unknown causes at age 11 and was buried on the 11th August, 1596.

Shakespeare wrote many plays, poems, and novels which fell under the category of being either a Tragedy (eg.King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello etc), a History (e.g. King John, Edward iii, Richard ii, Henry vi etc), Comedies (e.g. Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer's Night Dream etc) or Romance (eg.Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet etc). He was known as the "Bard of Avon" and his serving works included some collaboration of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and several other poems. His plays were translated into every major living language and are performed more often than that of any other play writer. After 1606-1607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher who succeeded him as the "house play writes for the King's Man".

Shakespeare died on 23rd April, 1616, and was survived by his wife, Anne Hathaway, and two daughters, Susana and Judith. His works have made lasting impressions on later theatre and literature.

Shakespeare was known as the greatest play writer because of his understanding of human nature, the keen Development of his characters, his effective use of literary devices, and his superiority in writing, his ways of understanding and explaining, and his expression of humanity through complex characters. He also earned this title by his plot developments and story lines which have served to inspire more literature and art than any other writer.

Pride and Prejudice.

1.  The disadvantages that Elizabeth are referring to is the fact that her parent’s marriage is not a happy, settled one since her father is no longer really inlove with her mother, but instead he finds it much easier to just simply tolerate her . Mr and Mrs Bennet have been married for a long time , but they do not really communicate with each other. Mr.  Bennet no longer demonstrates any affection towards his wife and is tired of the way she behaves and as a result he has lost all respect for her. they both can never agree on anything because they each have different views for how they see things., Mrs. Bennet’s attitude easily annoys her husband because she makes a big scene or ‘fuss’ out of everything and as a result, this causes Mr. Bennet do nothing else but to keep his distance.

 2.  Every single ounce of energy that adults put into their relationship will come back to haunt them through your children.This is because children are great imitators of less than perfect behavior and if they see the two adults constantly arguing, calling each other names, putting each other down, or hitting each other, you will probably see them repeating these negative behaviors. They will probably feel insecure, and this insecurity might be reflected in poor grades, bad behavior at school or home, or even depression. If the two adults are going through a tough time, they should work on their relationship and in this way, the entire family will benefit from that, not just the two of them.

3.  FOR:   By not separating, they give their kids a good example of how to deal with problems and how to overcome such great obstacles in life. Kids learn the importance of teamwork and compromise. If each parent makes up their mind to forgive each other and start all over, the life of the child will be much better in the future. This is because the children will have  positive role models and an ideal family to live for, they will be proud that they have such a strong family and will always look up to their parents. As a result also, the children would not have to worry about separation of their parents or any other disadvantages that would have been introduced due to the separation.

 AGAINST:  First of all, if a marriage is failing and there is no hope of fixing it, it makes no sense to stay just for the sake of the children. Even though children are resilient they are better off with parents in different households than to grow up in an environment that is often filled with bicker, arguments, fights and most of all a “loveless” relationship which they will most likely imitate in relationships that they have when they get older. I don’t think that it is acceptable to have children grow up and function in an environment of hatred or extreme dislike because this could scar them mentally and emotionally and allow academical disturbance.

Betrayal's place in the book 'Much Ado About Nothing'

Betrayal is a theme introduced at the very beginning of this play. How does this constant stream of betrayal affect the outcome of the plot, and which characters are most affected by it?

   In Shakespeare's Novel, Much Ado About Nothing', Shakespeare emphasises or highlights the theme of betrayal and makes it one of his focus points in the book.
   The constant stream of betrayal affects the plot in many ways, but one would agree or advocate that it adds some aspect of drama or interest to the play. It also plays its part by helping in the developing of conflict, which jumpsatrts or gives way to the climax or the most 'heated' part of the play.
    As mentioned earlier, betrayal helps in the development of conflict throughout the play, and thus, gives the reader a chance to understand how each character feels toward or about another. Due to this, the conflict between each character is understood and complications between the reader and the book becomes non-existant.
    The main conflict in the book was between Don John and his brother Don Pedro, who in the book is titled 'the Prince of Aaragon'. Don John's hatred for his brother, as well him being jealous of Don Pedro and Claudio's friendship is what pushed him to act in the manner that he did, hence he developed a feeling of hate which gave way to his acts of betrayal.
    As a result of Don John's irresponsible and careless actions, the innocent suffered for the guilty, and Hero, who is Claudio's lover, was caught in a trap worst than she could ever imagine. Now although Don John had nothing against Hero, he saw her as the one thing that would cause his brother to fall to the ground in shame and ruin the friendship between Claudio and himself. Long story short, Hero ended up being framed for framed for something which in those times was potrayed as extremely bad, dishonorable, and shameful; she was accused of being unchaste which means that she was no longer pure. This brought a whole lot of humiliation to Hero since she was wrongly accused and confonted on her wedding day along with disgrace to her father.
     This entire scene gives the reader an idea of some of the complications that can occur through betrayal behavoirs or acts, and the consequences at the end of it all if the person's actions are taken out of proportion.'Look at Don John's experience'!.

Much Ado About Nothing

Humor is the form of entertainment and a form of human communication intended to make people laugh and feel happy.

Personally, I agree that humour os vital in any comedy. This can be seen in Much Ado About Nothing with Dogberry and his constable, Verges. Dogberry and Verges expressed their comic side throughout the book and this si portrayed in some of their conversations in and throughout Act 3 and Act 4.

 Dogberry and Verges's statements were of poor English quality and only a bit understanding, which was what gave way to the humour of their characters and the comedic side of the book.
Although they managed to play a minor roll in the play, their ignorance helped to make their rolls memorable or more outstanding.

Finally, even though humour wasn't a major aspect in the book, the fact that it was still present contributed to not only the adventurous and comic side of the book, but it also managed to create a soft side to the book, with all the drama and all that took place.