Plays

The Signalman was published by Charles Dickens in 1866. The protagonist was a railway signalman who was introduced at the beginning of the story.

The Senators plan to make Caesar king the following day.

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Dramatic devices are element's of the play which allow the writer to build up tension or other intended effects.

The major theme of Artemidorus' letter was "Beware the Ides of March". He was trying to warn Julius Caesar of the assassination plans of Brutus.

In one sense, The Merchant of Venice falls into the literary genre of a drama or play. One might then ask, what genre of play is it? When it was published in Shakespeare's lifetime ( in 1600) it was described as a "comicall history". Clearly it was intended to be a comedy.

However, especially since the 19th century, the character of Shylock has come to dominate the play, and Shylock's story is a terrible tragedy. However, there are often characters in Shakespeare's comedies who have unhappy ends, usually due to some character defect. Thus Jaques in As You Like It, who is dominated by melancholy, refuses to return to the court. More biting is the fate of the vain Malvolio in Twelfth Night who is locked up and publicly shamed. The merciless Shylock is treated more harshly yet. Modern audiences probably find the idea of forced conversions and stripping someone of his cultural identity more appalling than the Elizabethans did, especially in an era where religious conformism was strictly enforced, but nevertheless Shylock escapes terribly diminished even if he is still alive.

Of course at the end of the play just about everyone is married, although Jessica and Lorenzo do not look too happy with each other and we have to wonder about Portia and Nerissa beginning their marriages by deceiving their husbands and Bassanio and Graziano by breaking their promises.

All in all, Merchant of Venice feels more like later plays like Measure for Measure or All's Well That Ends Well, where the characters end up alive, married, and sort of happy . . . maybe. They are still comedies, though.

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables." Hamlet says that the reason Claudius and Gertrude got married so soon after King Hamlet's death was to save money, since they could use the leftovers from the funeral for the wedding feast. Hamlet's tongue is firmly in cheek here.

Shakespeare never uses the word "cod" by itself, just in the words "codpiece" and "peascod". A peascod was a pea-pod, the container peas grow in. The codpiece was the part of the pants (worn during that era) which was a pouch sewn to the front of the pants in order to contain the male genitalia. Presumably it got its name because it looked a bit like a pea-pod.

She means the comment to be negative, even though the words seem positive.

Dr Faustus sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.

Juliet tells her mother that she will "look to like if looking liking move." Later, she refuses to marry Paris, supposedly because of her grief over Tybalt, but actually because Romeo is banished.

Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus

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because Echo knows Judge wants him to leave.

"Thine", "thee" and "thy" are some of a set of pronouns for the second person singular which have gradually become less and less used over the years. (But are still a part of modern English: "What is thy bidding, my master?"--Darth Vader, 1983). In Shakespeare's time they were more commonly used when addressing a child, a servant, a lover, an animal, or God, but Shakespeare's usage is flexible: people will change in midstream. The situation is similar to that of the use of "tu" and "vous" in French.

"Thine" is like mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, or hers. E.g. "Let's divide it into two parts: this is mine and this is thine."

"Thee" is like me, you, us, them, him or her. E.g. "I have only one copy but I'll give it to thee"

"Thy" is like my, your, our, their, his or her. E.g. "If you insult my mother, I'll insult thy father."

The fourth pronoun in the series, not referred to in the question, is "Thou" which is like I, you, we, they, he and she. When this pronoun is used, verbs take a form ending in -st. "Thou camest, thou saw'st, thou didst conquer." This is the only time those -st forms are used. The verb "to be" has the irregular form "thou art." (It conjugates in the present indicative as I am, thou art, he/she is, we are, you (earlier ye) are, they are.)

The word marry means exactly what you think it does most of the time: "A Thursday, tell her, she shall be married to this noble earl." (Romeo and Juliet, Act 3 Scene 4). However, the usage is more precise than ours. Friar Lawrence will marry Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo and Juliet will be married by him, but they will wed (not marry) each other. The Elizabethans would not have got the joke "Reverend, will you marry me and my fiancee?" "I can't, I'm already married."

"Marry" is also a mild curse word, derived from the name of the Virgin Mary. Mercutio says "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough." Context will tell you whether it is this or the verb that is being used.

I would write my own English paper with my own ideas.

It was an accident. He didn't know it was Polonius. He thought it was the King. O.k. in one scene of "Hamlet", when Hamlet approached his Mother, the Queen and argued with her, saying that she's evil and has no love for her previous husband (Hamlet's father, the King) and doesn't like being his Mother. Enraged, she walked away, but Hamlet grabbed her by the wrist and said "Listen to me!". She was so frightened, she called for help. Then Polonius, who was hiding behing a curtain, called "Help!". Then Hamlet, mistaking it for the King's voice, took out his sword and stabbed the curtain, killing Polonius.

Claudius...Apexxx

There are two: Richard II and King John

This is an excellent question. The correct quotation is "Now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that."

Two possibilities suggest themselves. First, Yorick was the King's Jester, that is, the jester to Hamlet's father and mother and Hamlet himself when he was a child. Although he has been dead for 23 years, Hamlet can still remember how "he hath borne me on his back", that is, gave him piggyback rides as a child. The "lady" Yorick was employed to entertain was Queen Gertrude. She was the one who he had to make laugh.

But it is also possible that Hamlet may be talking about women in general. He could be saying that women, who vainly cover their faces with makeup, will all end up looking like Yorick does now. Death is not beautiful. It takes away beauty. Even in the hands of the most gifted jester, that's not funny.

If Hamlet means this in a general sense, then, although he may not specifically be thinking about her, we cannot help connecting his remarks with the girl to whom he said, "God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another" (He had a thing about makeup). And although he doesn't know it now, that girl is going into the same hole Yorick's skull came out of, to begin the 8 or 9 year transformation into his lookalike.

When Laertes says, "and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring", the picture of Yorick's skull must have flashed before Hamlet's eyes. Laertes wants to make death beautiful, but it's not. It's ugly. Laertes's attempt to make death beautiful and romantic by "painting an inch thick" are a sham and a lie and Hamlet hates him for it.

Had Macbeth been less susceptible to his wife's charms and had said to her, "If you think it's such a good idea to kill Duncan, kill him yourself," she would not have had the guts to do it because he looks too much like her father when he sleeps. There would be no murder, Macbeth would not have gone crazy, his wife would not have gone crazy, (although there may have been some serious strain in the marriage). When Duncan died, the nobles might have chosen Macbeth as king anyway, or after a short time under an incompetent King Malcolm, Macduff and Ross and Lennox would have begged Macbeth to claim the throne himself. It would have been a play about the virtues of patience in the face of temptation.

There were pirated production almost immediately after publication.

Stabbing his eyes (heal himself and everyone else). He purifies himself, he must suffer for the pain that he caused the city. He does not kill himself because he will not suffer. He wants to suffer like the city did. By doing this, he evokes pity and fear from the audience as well

You already get the sense that while Stanley treats Stella roughly, Stella enjoys it, an aspect of their relationship which Blanche struggles to grasp. A good metaphor for this is when Stanley just shouts "Catch!" then throws some meat at her. The stage directions describe her crying out in protest but then after managing to catch it laughing breathlessly.