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"A pair of star-crossed lovers", Romeo and Juliet. From the opening scenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall in love together and eventually die together. How does the reader see this? How do we know it was fate which triggered these events? Coincidence caused the death of these two lovers. For this reason Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies. For coincidence to have caused the death of Romeo and Juliet it must have been evid
In Act I Scene II of Hamlet, Gertrude asks Hamlet, "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Since death is common to all, she asks, why does Hamlet seem to be making such a particular fuss about his father's death? He replies, "Seems Madam? Nay it is. I know not seems." It is not a question of seeming, but being: His black mourning clothes are simply a true representation of his deep unhappiness. With this line, Shakespeare develops the theme of appearance versus reality and that
The idea of a character feigning madness is not foreign to great literary works; in fact, many authors use it to show the sanity of the character. Odysseus shows his sanity by pretending to be mad in Homer's The Iliad to avoid going to war. If his plan had been successful, he would have stayed safe at home, away from the dangers of war. The idea of feigning madness is also apparent throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet. The tragic character puts on an act after he is told of his fath