English Literature

He resents Don Pedro and will do anything to get his own back after he lost the war. Other characters are jealous, too. Benedick does not like Hero, and does not want Claudio to marry...

Ironically, Much Ado About Nothing suggests that the characters fear of shame in love is more likely to lead to embarrassment than love itself will.

The idea that we live in a world of language and appearances, beyond which we cannot see, is common throughout Shakespeare. The famous quote that “All the world’s a stage,” is another example.

Don John and Don Pedro, enemies in the war before the play begins, face off again on the field of social life: one schemes to ruin a marriage, another to create one. Benedick and Beatrice are “ambushed"...

The men themselves have very different standards. They might look for sex with a prostitute when they are young, but then expect to marry later in life (and insist on marrying a virgin).

The action is bookended by a pair of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain and beheaded by Macduff.

Later, he sees Banquo's ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend.

"The king-becoming graces / [are] justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, [and] lowliness" (4.3.92 - 93).

To Malcolm's suggestion, "Dispute it like a man," Macduff replies, "I shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man" (4.3.221 - 223).

Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement.