Essay on the Vengeful and the Virtuous in William Shakespeare :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Vengeful and the Virtuous in Shakespeare Whether you hate your King, your Christian rival or a neighboring foe, if youre in a Shakespeare play then you will be punished. In the initial act of each play Shakespeare shows a conflict between two groups of people, one is vengeful the other virtuous. After the conflict is introduced, the malignant characters have important parts of their lives taken extraneous and in the end the last-ditch penalties of each are inflicted. All of the antagonists are left desolate in the end of the plays by either lost fortunes or their lives. Shakespeare takes good care to carry the protagonists of the plays much reward for being on the right side of the spectrum. As the characters hate increases throughout the play they begin to loose what is precious to them, first in sm all in all amounts, but in the end, they are stripped of all they love and value. The basis for the hate is introduced to the auditory sense very early on in all three plays. T he Capulets and the Montagues were neighboring feuding families. Shakespeare never states the reason for the dispute between the two but he does distinctly show the hatred from the beginning. Two households, both equivalent in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean (I i 1-4). These first few lines of the play clearly describe the hatred between the two families and at the same time foreshadow an unpleasant end. In The Merchant of Venice, usurer more boldly states, I hate him for he is a Christian (I iii 39). This cry of hate is also early on in the play, which clearly helps show the reader that he is the antagonist of the play. In Henry IV it is revealed in the first scene that a young Hotspur has kept prisoners of war away from the King. He calls the King Bolingbroke behind his back out of disrespect. All studies here I solemnly defy, save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke. And th at same sword and shield Prince of Wales (I iii 227-229). In Shakespearean plays, a character who hates or plots against the King is automatically the villain of the play. The first act in all three plays revealed the characters for the audience to root against throughout the play.