Shakespeare William Research Topics

1. An eye of pity : A Discussion of Justice and Mercy in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Desc: This paper will explore the depiction of justice and mercy in the play. In the process, it will be argued that Shakespeare uses them to interrogate the underlying value system upon which they depend. As will be seen, it is very easy - both in Shakespeare's time as today - to apply justice and mercy to those of whom we approve and favour. However, the true test of the "quality" of our mercy may actually lie - Shakespeare suggests - in its application to those who lack power or popularity in our culture. 5.5 pgs. 10 f/c. 1b.

2. A Brief Overview of the Structure of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Desc: This paper provides a brief but clear outline on Shakespeare's classic work Hamlet, in respect to the format and structure of the play. This paper functions as a literature analysis of Hamlet. 3 pgs. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

3. A Changing of the Guard: A Revolutionary Character Analysis of King Lear in the Play: King Lear by William Shakespeare

Desc: This paper will exact a character analysis of King Lear in the play: King Lear by William Shakespeare. By understanding the senility of King Lear, we find that he is not capable of ruling any longer in a reasonable manner. He chooses his two most evil daughters to rule his kingdom, and they overthrow their own Father. By knowing Lear's poor judgment in this manner, he is a symbol and catalyst for revolution in his kingdom.

4. A Character Analysis of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in William Shakespeares Play: Macbeth

Desc: This paper will explain both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. By understanding how both of these characters work in the play, we can see Lady Macbeth as a cunning power monger, and her husband, Macbeth, a victim to all of these deeds. By ruling vicariously through Macbeth, we can see how Lady Macbeth transforms their lives into a tragedy on a grand scale.

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5. A Character Psychoanalysis: The Freudian Argument for Insanity for Hamlet in William Shakespeares Play: Hamlet

Desc: This paper will seek to understand character psychoanalysis with a Freudian argument for insanity in William Shakespeare's Play: Hamlet. Hamlet portrays a deranged character, which can be analyzed here to reveal the basic psychology through visions of his ghostly father. In this way, we can see why his mindset eventually causes tragedy in Shakespeare's masterpiece.

6. A Comparison and Contrast of Richard the III by William Shakespeare and Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

Desc: This paper will seek to understand the play Richard the III by Shakespeare in comparison with Josephine Tey's novel, Daughter of Time. A making a comparison and contrast between the main characters of each of these stories, we can see how the authors characterize their stories.

7. A Comparison of A Midsummer's Night Dream, A Merchant of Venice and The Taming of The Shrew by William Shakespeare.

Desc: This paper will discuss the three comedy plays A Midsummer's Night Dream, A Merchant of Venice and The Taming of The Shrew by William Shakespeare and compare they ways that wooing is an integral part of the plays for its own sake. The theme of love is a constant reminder of Shakespeare's ability to make loving a part of his comedies and how they create the comedy itself. 3 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.

8. A Gender and Hierarchy Analysis of Taming the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Desc: This paper will explain the hierarchy and gender roles of Katherine and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. By understanding specific examples from the text, we can see how Shakespeare creates rebelious gender roles, only to change them into traditional forms at the end of his play. In this manner, we can see how traditional gender roles in Katherine and Petruchio create a format for male domination.

9. A Literary Analysis of the Concept of Leadership in Hamlet and The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Desc: This paper will seek to understand a literary analysis of the concept of leadership in Hamlet and The Tempest by William Shakespeare. By revealing why Hamlet and Prospero show the greatest leadership qualities in these plays by Shakespeare, we can realize why they can manipulate others into doing their bidding. They can accomplish this through justice, courage, morality, and with a sense of conviction that over rides all other characters Shakespeare places within both Hamlet and in The Tempest.

10. A Literature Scrutiny of Hamlet - William Shakespeare.

Desc: This is a literature scrutiny of a very eminent play, "Hamlet". The paper discusses the line taken from the Scene 1 Act V, which is "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio". The main principle of the paper is to discuss that to what extent would you consent death is a major obsession in Hamlet and why would this theme have been of special interest to Elizabethan and later audiences?

11. A Machiavellian Perspective on Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Desc: This piece is a 4-page, 3-source analysis of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in Machiavellian terms. The assignment is to either take a Christian or Machiavellian analysis of Hamlet's actions. The author's thesis, instead of jumping on one side or the other, includes both; the argument presented is that while Hamlet's goal of redeeming his dead father's soul is ultimately Christian, his means of doing so are Machiavellian. The author argues this point of view by first giving an overview of Machiavellian philosophy, then showing how Hamlet's actions and words evidence a consistency with that. The author closes by discussing how the play's final act culminates in actions both Christian and Machiavellian. 4 pgs. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

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12. A Merchant in Venice.

Desc: This 5-page junior level paper discusses Shylock as a Jew, usurer and alien in the William Shakespeare play, A Merchant in Venice. Three sources were used in this paper.

13. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Love-Bites.

Desc: In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the characters all have an opportunity to reveal the varied and peculiar faces of love - in all of these portrayals of love, Shakespeare invariably situates a perfect contradiction. In doing this, "love" is revealed as more ridiculous than romantic, and the faces of love in this play are often unrecognizable. This paper reads this play in an effort to reveal the many faces of love that are shown by Shakespeare. 6 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.

14. A Modern Analysis of the Play Othello by William Shakespeare.

Desc: This paper will discuss the play Othello by William Shakespeare and discover the elements of heroism, racial intermarriage, and male domination in society, within the context of a modern day interpretation in the play. By evaluating all of these elements, we can see how the play relates to today's world and the older world that Shakespeare dominated in the seventeenth century and how they all relate to each other in the scope of the play. 5 pgs. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

15. A New Critical Reading of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Desc: In this work, The Tempest is subject to a New Critical analysis that yields interesting results with respect to its religious symbolism and political paradoxes. This paper will argue that the form of The Tempest is rather one of unresolved stresses and (quite literally) disharmony. 5 pgs. 15 f/c. 1b.

16. A Racial Analysis in Shakespearian Drama: A Comparison and Contrast of Character and Thematic Content in Othello, The Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare and in Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears

Desc: This paper will seek to understand racial themes within the plays: Othello, The Moor of Venice, and Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears. By analyzing the characters of Othello, Desdemona, and Billie within this scope, we can realize the racial issues that were created from Elizabethan England, as well as those modern issues of race, which appear in American history.

17. A Reading of Shakespeare's The Life of Henry the Fifth in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.

Desc: This paper argues a comparison of Branagh's and Shakespeare's texts, that the power of the film derives from Branagh's awareness of the necessity of translating the text to film as opposed to simply adapting it. It will be shown that Branagh's success in Henry V is a product of his situating the film in a Hollywood cinematic context as opposed to a West End or academic Shakespearean context, and this should not be seen as "selling out", but rather acknowledging Branagh's part in contextualizing the Shakespearean playtext in a new medium. 10.5 pgs. 19f/c. 8b.

18. A Study In Contrasts Written Many Years Apart.

Desc: This eight-page paper compares and contrasts "The Tempest" and "Oedipus the King". The authors, the themes, the writing styles and the characters are all contrasted and compared. 8 pgs. Bibliography lists 8 sources.

19. A Tripartite Father/Son Character Analysis in the Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Desc: This paper will present a study on the relationships of three father/son relationships in the play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. By analyzing all three of these difficult familial ties, we can see how Fortinbras gives the best solution as to how Hamlet could have solved his problems with Claudius and his treacherous acts against his father.

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20. A World Where Nothing Is What It Seems To Be.

Desc: The witches in Macbeth play an important role in foretelling that he will be king or at least that is what Macbeth believes he is saying. He decides to take action to make the fortune come true.

21. Addressing the Theme of Vengeance within Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

Desc: This paper explores how Shakespeare utilizes vengeance in Hamlet as a driving force for both the plot and the developing characterization of Hamlet himself. Through exploring Hamlet in terms of vengeance, it is seen that that Hamlet carried with him a mortal flaw yet still was able to experience significant development in terms of his person and his evolution into an adult. The impact of vengeance according to plot motivation and the vengeance conducted by King Claudius are also be discussed.

22. Although a Comedy of Errors is based on Plautus's the latter play is definitely more sophisticated, discuss why.

Desc: This is a 2 page paper with 2 sources cited that bases its topic on the basis that Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors is less sophisticated than the play on which it is based. The reason provided for this difference is that the Plautus's play was catering to a different audience. 2 pgs. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

23. An Analysis of the Character of Iago in Shakespeare's Othello .

Desc: This paper shall examine the character of Iago in Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Othello". The main theme is that Iago is representative of "evil", where all of Iago's motivations and behaviors are dictated by evil purposes. Here, the term "evil" is presented as being both a betrayal of human decency and representative of demonic influences. 6 pgs. Bibliography lists 9 sources.

24. An Analysis in the use of Humor by Shakespeare in the play Hamlet.

Desc: This paper will analyze the play Hamlet by Shakespeare and will discover how the character Hamlet, through his mocking sense of humor, eventually becomes mad and kills many people in the tale. By analyzing the events in the play, a clear conclusion can be made as to why this happens within the theatrics posed by Shakespeare. 3 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.

25. An Argument for the Insanity of Hamlet .

Desc: This paper will discuss the nature of hamlet and the proofs for his insanity in the self-titled play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The many examples of this sense of insanity will be presented here to better magnify the evidence that suggests that he, beyond a doubt, a madman. The abilities of his metal behavior will be discussed, as well as the nature of his thought that contributes to the insanity, By revealing these motifs within the text of Shakespeare's writing, we can understand the events that places hamlet into madness throughout the play. 9 pgs. Bibliography lists 8 sources.

26. Analysis of Macbeth.

Desc: This three-page sophomore level paper on Analysis Of Macbeth presents an in depth contrast between the similarities and dissimilarities of character of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth through out the play. This paper also reviews the transformation of personalities of the leading characters at the beginning and at the end of the play. The paper also concentrates on how the lust for power can make a person once so powerful so powerless.

27. Analysis of a scene from one of shakespeare's play.

Desc: This paper examines Act III, Scene 1 in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

28. Analyzation Of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 129.

Desc: This three-page first year English paper explains the imagery and poetic tools of the sonnet, as well as its ideas and meanings. Those elements are examined against other interpretations of the sonnet, and the author finally concludes that despite the poems initial difficulties in its understanding, it remains applicable in today's society. 3 pgs. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

29. Annotated Bibliography for William Shakespeare and the Theme of Tragedy.

Desc: This paper will discuss an annotated bibliography of William Shakespeare, and discuss the main theme of tragedy for a research methodology.

30. Appearance And Reality In William Shakespeare's Hamlet .

Desc: In this four-page, five paragraph high school English essay, several quotations and citations from Hamlet illustrate Shakespeare's deft ability to use his language to blur the lines between appearance and reality and ultimately propel his characters from fictional literary interpretations into the collective imagination of literate humanity. 4 pgs. Bibliography lists 1 source.

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