Free Richard III Essays: The Seduction of Lady Anne :: Richard II Richard III Essays

Richard III and The Seduction of Lady Anne Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is a great seducer. However, it is easier when the seducee is rather frail in mind and heart, as I believe was the case with Lady Anne. Perhaps Lady Anne's ego was as much engaged as her anger was initially. Gloucester chips away at her resolve masterfully, but let's look at the facts. She knows that Gloucester killed her husband and her father-in-law. This fact is undisputed (within the play). Gloucester admits both murders to her saying, "[y]our beauty was the cause of that effect [the murders]" (I.ii.121). Her father-in-law's corpse is lying just feet away. Yet in under two hundred lines, Anne goes from calling him a "black magician" and "foul devil" to accepting his ring (I.ii.34; I.ii.50). This is quite a turnaround. She could have walked away but she was more intrigued or flattered than angered or humiliated. Richard uses flattery to woo her. He repeatedly tells her that he killed her husband and father-in-law to be able to "spend one hour in [her] sweet bosom" (I.ii.124). Gloucester goes on to tell her that "He lives, that loves thee better than he [Edward] could" (I.ii.141), meaning that Gloucester loves her better than her husband did. After she spits on him, he calls it (the spit), "poison from so sweet a place" (I.ii.146). Gloucester is unrelenting in his flatteries and she does not walk away. The most remarkable portion of this scene is when Gloucester bares his chest and hands his sword over to Anne to kill him and asks her to end his pain if she won't have him. She starts for him with the sword, but drops it when he tells her that "twas thy heavenly face that set me on [to kill her husband]" (I.ii.182). He then offers to turn the sword on himself. Within a few seconds, she goes from raising his own sword to him, to weakly replying, "I would I knew thy heart" (I.ii.192). She still questions his motives, but Gloucester has clearly already won her and slips a ring on her finger. It is little wonder that Gloucester brags to himself of this conquest. Her father-in-law's corpse is barely cold and she has accepted Gloucester as her next husband.

Pride, Prejudice, and Vanity Essay

For two hundred years Jane Austen’s novels have been read, reread, dog-eared and bookmarked. They have been opened with smiles and closed with reluctant sighs, picked up and not put down again until every word has been read, cherished, and safely secreted away within the reader. Austen’s novels are each a rich bouquet of themes, motifs, and imagery. Perhaps most prominent of these themes is Austen’s depiction of love in the face of potential lovers’ pride, prejudice, and vanity. In Pride and Prejudice, one of the most significant illustrations of these themes can be found in the romances between the Bennet girls and their suitors, as courtships are wrought with snap judgments, uncompromising ideals, and extreme concern with frivolity such as appearance and social standing; no relationship in the novel exemplifies this more than that of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. In Pride and Prejudice, love and propriety harmonized with humor and irony, as Austen displayed her special talent for creating interesting people, places, and things; through ironic humor, cynicism, and rapier-like puns, the techniques employed by Austen to name items in her novels provide significant insight into the characters, serve as a subtle means for social criticism, and prove a successful comedic device, creating humor out of the mundane and displaying love in the most unlikely places. Her title for Pride and Prejudice initially appears that she abandoned much of the similar wit for a straightforward description of her text, though upon reading, one is forced to question the appropriateness of the novel’s â€Å"prejudice. † While it can said to be in Darcy’s general contempt for the lower social classes, it is really more his own vanity that makes him crave status so. Similarly, the Bennets are also rife with pride and predetermined â€Å"facts† of life, as Elizabeth has tends to judge upon first impressions and is often highly critical of others. However, the title speaks to something greater than the words themselves, and really speaks of the flaws of most humans: â€Å"The meanings that ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ acquire are related to the central theme of all of Jane Austen’s novels—the limitations of human vision† (Zimmerman 65). This limitation of human vision, the inability to see moral and actual existence clearly, not only leads to pride, prejudice, but also vanity. Through the less-than-clever Mary Bennet, Austen gives her delineation of vanity and pride: â€Å"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us† (Austen). The romance between Lizzy and Darcy is not unlike Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley’s in that the lovers share similar personalities and ultimately find great joy in being together, although it does differ in the course it takes, hindered by the pride and vanity of each. While Jane and Bingley were immediately enamored with each other, Lizzy and Darcy begin the novel as ultimately, Lizzy and Darcy’s love epitomizes ardor and devotion in spite of pride and vanity of each, however prejudice may be a misnomer. Lizzy actually has ample reasons to dislike Darcy after she meets him: â€Å"1) his snobbish and insulting remarks about her at the ball; 2) his attempt to break up the romance between Jane and Bingley; and 3) his alleged injustice to Wickham† (Fox 186). However, her disposition exemplifies her vanity, not prejudice, and her vanity is apparent throughout the novel. When Lizzy writes to Mrs. Gardiner to inform her of the engagement she writes, â€Å"I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh† (250). Though Lizzy is happy, her vanity lies at the root of what she says, and: â€Å"It is clear that vanity here applies, not to the impression Elizabeth wants to make on others, but to her own opinion of herself† (Dooley 188). She is happy, after abandoning her initial judgments of Darcy, however she still compares her happiness to that of her sister. Through the two romances of Jane and Lizzy, Austen has painted a portrait of the good and of the great and how vanity often leads to greater significance in relationships. While the love between Jane and Bingley is sweet and honest, the love between Lizzy and Darcy is real, visceral, and passionate; one produces a smile, the other a rapturous laughter that only fills the void where words prove lacking. This is due greatly to the pride and the vanity of both Lizzy and Darcy, who each create higher ideals for them to live by, and the only real prejudice that exists in the novel is that which exists in every human.

Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller - 1660 Words

What is the correct definition of tragedy anyways? Many people would define tragedy as a disaster, but according to the book The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre by Martin Banham, the word tragedy is â€Å"a word whose meaning changes with time and place† (1002). In Medieval times, â€Å"tragedy came to mean the downfall of a person of high degree† (Banham 1002), but in recent times, the meaning of the word tragedy has many definitions. According to Banham, â€Å"realists refused to limit tragedy to privileged protagonists† (1002). Two famous tragic plays that I found to have a genre of tragedy are Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. In both of these plays, the downfall was not of a person of high degree but there was a†¦show more content†¦Willy probably might have felt guilty about borrowing money from Charley each week just to show his wife that he is making plenty of money. He was unsatisfied with his earning and lied to his wife by bringing home extra cash from his neighbor. By borrowing money and not earning enough from his job, certainly causes him to suffer. Another example of Willy’s sufferings was when he lost his job. For instance, Willy is dissatisfied with his career and decides to ask his boss Howard to work in the town instead of traveling for work from New York to New England every two weeks. Howard ends up saying â€Å"there just is no spot here for you† (Miller 56) and ends up firing him. Although Willy had a long career with the company and was very productive, Howard let him go. Willy defends himself by saying â€Å"I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance!† (Miller 57). Howard fires Willy at a time when he was most desperate. This shows the â€Å"change in the hero’s fortunes† (Nardo 73). Regardless being fired from his job, Willy still had hopes for his sons Biff and Happy to start a new business. Things did not go according to the plan and the business ends up not happening which causes Willy to suffer even more. Willy goes through financial troubles which prevent him to achieve the American Dream, keep his job, and provide for his family. These are all signs of disappointment and