William Shakespeare Biography

Playwright, Poet (c. 1564–1616)

William Shakespeare, also known as the "Bard of Avon," is often called

England's national poet and considered the greatest dramatist of all time.
Shakespeare's works are known throughout the world, but his personal life is
shrouded in mystery.

Who Was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare (baptized on April 26, 1564 to April 23, 1616) was an
English playwright, actor and poet also known as the “Bard of Avon” and
often called England’s national poet. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England,
he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of
theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Written records give little
indication of the way in which Shakespeare’s professional life molded his
artistry. All that can be deduced is that, in his 20 years as a playwright,
Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human
emotion and conflict.

Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been
performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more
than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of William Shakespeare is
somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide historians
with a basic outline of his life. One source is his work — the plays, poems
and sonnets — and the other is official documentation such as church and
court records. However, these only provide brief sketches of specific events
in his life and provide little on the person who experienced those events.

William Shakespeare’s Plays

While it’s difficult to determine the exact chronology of William
Shakespeare’s plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to
1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes:
histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, William
Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and
III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or
corrupt rulers, and have been interpreted by drama historians as
Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. Julius
Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with
viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had
no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the witty
romance A Midsummer Night's Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice,
the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming As You
Like It and Twelfth Night.

Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of
Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s
Labour’s Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.

Works after 1600: Tragedies and Tragicomedies

It was in William Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the
tragedies Hamlet,Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's
characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are
timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet,
which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral
failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying
the hero and those he loves.

In William Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies.

Among these areCymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Though
graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King
Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.
Other plays written during this period include All’s Well That Ends
Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of
Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles and Henry VIII.

When and Where Was William Shakespeare Born?

Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that
a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-
upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or
near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as William
Shakespeare's birthday. Located 103 miles west of London, during
Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a market town bisected with
a country road and the River Avon.

Family
William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and
Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and
Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before
William's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official
positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However,
records indicate John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of William's childhood, and virtually none regarding his
education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's
New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.
Being a public official's child, William would have undoubtedly qualified for
free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to
raise questions about the authorship of his work and even about whether or
notWilliam Shakespeare ever existed.

William Shakespeare’s Wife and Kids

William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in
Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small
village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it
turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was
born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet
and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.
Shakespeare’s Lost Years
There are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no records exist
after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the "lost years,"
and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period. One
theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the
local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have
been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. It is generally
believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found
work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario
updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in
Hollywood and Broadway.

Lord Chamberlain's Men

By the early 1590s, documents show William Shakespeare was a
managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in
London with which he was connected for most of his career. Considered
the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the
King's Men following the crowning of King James I, in 1603.

From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular. Records
show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.
Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly
admired by people of high rank, many of the nobility were good patrons of
the performing arts and friends of the actors.

William Shakespeare the Actor and Playwright

By 1592, there is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an
actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.
The September 20, 1592 edition of theStationers' Register (a guild
publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that
takes a few jabs at William Shakespeare: "...There is an upstart Crow,
beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a
Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as
the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own
conceit the only Shake-scene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.
Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it
was Greene's way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank,
trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher
Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry
Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first- and
second-published poems: "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "The Rape of
Lucrece" (1594).

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37

plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second largest
house in Stratford, called New House, for his family. It was a four-day ride
by horse from Stratford to London, so it is believed that Shakespeare spent
most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year
during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own
theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the
Globe. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near
Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60
pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and
scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays
uninterrupted.

Shakespeare’s Writing Style

William Shakespeare's early plays were written in the conventional style of
the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always
align naturally with the story's plot or characters. However, Shakespeare
was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and
creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation,
Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of
unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the
same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and
use forms of poetry or simple prose.
Shakespeare’s Death
Tradition has it that William Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April
23, 1616, though many scholars believe this is a myth. Church records
show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter,
Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone
to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed." This has
drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was
not close. However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult
marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers
to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistress — the marital
bed — and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests.

Did Shakespeare Write His Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of
William Shakespeare's plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float
names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon —
men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration — as
the true authors of the plays. Much of this stemmed from the sketchy
details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of contemporary primary
sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford
government record the existence of a William Shakespeare, but none of
these attest to him being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could

write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed
in Shakespeare's works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged
that question the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when
adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that
the only hard evidence surrounding William Shakespeare from Stratford-
upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young
and became successful in real estate. Members of the Shakespeare Oxford
Society (founded in 1957) put forth arguments that English aristocrat and
poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the
poems and plays of "William Shakespeare." The Oxfordians cite de Vere's
extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the
structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works
attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that William Shakespeare had
neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose
and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend

that William Shakespearewrote all his own plays. They point out that other
playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest
backgrounds. They contend that Stratford's New Grammar School
curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation
for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare's authorship argue that the
lack of evidence about Shakespeare's life doesn't mean his life didn't exist.
They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of
published poems and plays. Examples exist of authors and critics of the
time acknowledging William Shakespeare as author of plays such as The
Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and King John. Royal
records from 1601 show that William Shakespeare was recognized as a
member of the King's Men theater company (formerly known as the
Chamberlain's Men) and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King
James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays.
There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by
contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a
playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that William Shakespeare was a respected man

of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and
early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't
recognized until the 19th century. Beginning with the Romantic period of
the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and
reverence for William Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the
20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have
rediscovered and adopted his works.
Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and
reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts.
The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present
real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend
their origins in Elizabethan England.

Hamlet
Hamlet has fascinated audiences and readers for centuries, and the first thing
to point out about him is that he is enigmatic. There is always more to him
than the other characters in the play can figure out; even the most careful and
clever readers come away with the sense that they don’t know everything
there is to know about this character. Hamlet actually tells other characters
that there is more to him than meets the eye—notably, his mother, and
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—but his fascination involves much more than
this. When he speaks, he sounds as if there’s something important he’s not
saying, maybe something even he is not aware of. The ability to write
soliloquies and dialogues that create this effect is one of Shakespeare’s most
impressive achievements.
A university student whose studies are interrupted by his father’s death,
Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative. He is particularly drawn
to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty.
Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, evidence that any
other character in a play would believe, Hamlet becomes obsessed with
proving his uncle’s guilt before trying to act. The standard of “beyond a
reasonable doubt” is simply unacceptable to him. He is equally plagued with
questions about the afterlife, about the wisdom of suicide, about what
happens to bodies after they die—the list is extensive.
But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet also
behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act, it is with surprising
swiftness and little or no premeditation, as when he stabs Polonius through a
curtain without even checking to see who he is. He seems to step very easily
into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other
characters with his wild speech and pointed innuendos.
It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely melancholy and
discontented with the state of affairs in Denmark and in his own family—
indeed, in the world at large. He is extremely disappointed with his mother for
marrying his uncle so quickly, and he repudiates Ophelia, a woman he once
claimed to love, in the harshest terms. His words often indicate his disgust
with and distrust of women in general. At a number of points in the play, he
contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide.
But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet professes dissatisfaction, it is
remarkable that the prince and heir apparent of Denmark should think about
these problems only in personal and philosophical terms. He spends relatively
little time thinking about the threats to Denmark’s national security from
without or the threats to its stability from within (some of which he helps to
create through his own carelessness).

Claudius
Hamlet’s major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king who contrasts
sharply with the other male characters in the play. Whereas most of the other
important men inHamlet are preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and
moral balance, Claudius is bent upon maintaining his own power. The old
King Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt politician
whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his skillful use
of language. Claudius’s speech is compared to poison being poured in the
ear—the method he used to murder Hamlet’s father. Claudius’s love for
Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely that he married her as a
strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after the death
of the king. As the play progresses, Claudius’s mounting fear of Hamlet’s
insanity leads him to ever greater self-preoccupation; when Gertrude tells him
that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark that Gertrude might
have been in danger, but only that he would have been in danger had he been
in the room. He tells Laertes the same thing as he attempts to soothe the
young man’s anger after his father’s death. Claudius is ultimately too crafty for
his own good. In Act V, scene ii, rather than allowing Laertes only two
methods of killing Hamlet, the sharpened sword and the poison on the blade,
Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned goblet. When Gertrude inadvertently
drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet is at last able to bring himself to kill
Claudius, and the king is felled by his own cowardly machination.

Gertrude
Few Shakespearean characters have caused as much uncertainty as
Gertrude, the beautiful Queen of Denmark. The play seems to raise more
questions about Gertrude than it answers, including: Was she involved with
Claudius before the death of her husband? Did she love her husband? Did
she know about Claudius’s plan to commit the murder? Did she love Claudius,
or did she marry him simply to keep her high station in Denmark? Does she
believe Hamlet when he insists that he is not mad, or does she pretend to
believe him simply to protect herself? Does she intentionally betray Hamlet to
Claudius, or does she believe that she is protecting her son’s secret?
These questions can be answered in numerous ways, depending upon one’s
reading of the play. The Gertrude who does emerge clearly in Hamlet is a
woman defined by her desire for station and affection, as well as by her
tendency to use men to fulfill her instinct for self-preservation—which, of
course, makes her extremely dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlet’s
most famous comment about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of women
in general: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (I.ii.146). This comment is as much
indicative of Hamlet’s agonized state of mind as of anything else, but to a
great extent Gertrude does seem morally frail. She never exhibits the ability to
think critically about her situation, but seems merely to move instinctively
toward seemingly safe choices, as when she immediately runs to Claudius
after her confrontation with Hamlet. She is at her best in social situations (I.ii
and V.ii), when her natural grace and charm seem to indicate a rich, rounded
personality. At times it seems that her grace and charm are
her only characteristics, and her reliance on men appears to be her sole way
of capitalizing on her abilities.
Polonius
is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is chief counsellor of
the king, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as
wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play,[1] Polonius
is described by William Hazlitt as a "sincere" father, but also "a busy-body,
[who] is accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent".[2] In Act II Hamlet
refers to Polonius as a "tedious old fool"[3] and taunts him as a latter day
"Jeptha".[4]
Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet unknowingly
kills Polonius, provoking Ophelia's fit of madness, ultimately resulting in her
early death and the climax of the play: a duel between Laertes and Hamlet.
Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counselor to King Claudius, he is
described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has
also been suggested that he only acts like a "foolish prating knave" to keep
his position and popularity safe and to keep anyone from discovering his
plots for social advancement. It is important to note that throughout the
play, Polonius is characterised as a typical Renaissance "new man", who
pays much attention to appearances and ceremonious behaviour. Some
adaptations show him conspiring with Claudius in the murder of King
Hamlet.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius gives advice to his son Laertes, who is leaving
for France, in the form of a list of sententious maxims. He finishes by giving
his son his blessing, and is apparently at ease with his son's departure.
However, in Act 2, Scene 1, he orders his servant Reynaldo to travel to
Paris and spy on Laertes and report if he is indulging in any local vice.
Laertes is not the only character Polonius spies upon. He is fearful that
Hamlet's relationship with his daughter will hurt his reputation with the king
and instructs Ophelia to "lock herself from [Hamlet's] resort". He later
suspects that Ophelia's rejection of Hamlet's attention has caused the
prince to lose his wits, and informs Gertrude and Claudius of his suspicion,
claiming that his reason for commanding Ophelia to reject Hamlet was that
the prince was above her station. He and the king test his hypothesis by
spying on and interrogating Ophelia.
In his last attempt to spy on Hamlet, Polonius hides himself behind
an arras in Gertrude's room. Hamlet deals roughly with his mother, causing
her to cry for help. Polonius echoes the request for help and is heard by
Hamlet, who then mistakes the voice for Claudius' and stabs through the
arras and kills him.
Polonius' death at the hands of Hamlet causes Claudius to fear for his own
life, Ophelia to go mad, and Laertes to seek revenge, which leads to the
duel in the final act.

Horatio
Horatio's role in the play is minor and most critics agree that he is not
developed beyond a character foil for the great Prince. However, Horatio
serves two purposes central to the drama, and it is through these purposes
that we can best discuss those qualities that make Horatio memorable.
Horatio is our harbinger of truth. It is through Horatio that the actions taken by
Hamlet and other characters gain credibility. He is the outside observer to the
madness. Hamlet could soliloquize to no end, but it is his conversations with
Horatio that ground the play in reality. Horatio believes Hamlet and thus we
have permission to believe. He sees the Ghost and so we can believe that
Hamlet has seen the Ghost. If Horatio were not there, Hamlet's sanity would
truly be in doubt.

Horatio's second purpose is to be Hamlet's one true confidant. Apart from

Hamlet's soliloquies, his conversations with Horatio are the only insight we
have into what the Prince is really thinking and feeling. But why Hamlet
chooses Horatio to become the sole person on whom he can rely is of primary
concern here. From the first scene we see that Horatio is calm, resolute, and
rational. Not afraid to confront the Ghost, Horatio demands that it speak if it
knows what future awaits Denmark or if it has come to make a confession:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate...

O, speak!
Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth...
Speak of it, stay and speak! (I.i.133-9)

Hamlet admires Horatio for the qualities that Hamlet himself does not
possess. He praises Horatio for his virtue and self-control: "Horatio, thou art
e'en as just a man/As e'er my conversation cop'd withal" (III.ii.56-7). Horatio's
strength of character is unwavering, and Hamlet longs for the peace of mind
that such stoicism must bring to Horatio:

Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
Hath seal'd thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commedled
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As i do thee. (III.ii.63-75)

Thus Horatio has reached an apex that Hamlet recognizes is the freedom
from emotional upheaval. Horatio feels deeply; he loves Hamlet with all his
heart; but he feels nothing to the extent that it will overrule him. Horatio is not
"passion's slave." His stability has made him the posterchild for the classical
world and Hamlet, in his deep friendship and admiration of Horatio tries to
learn from him. As Cicero writes, surely envisioning someone like Horatio,
"There is no one of any nation who, having found a leader, cannot arrive at
virtue" (Laws I.30).

When Hamlet lies dying, Horatio is prepared to commit the very passionate
act of suicide so that he will not have to live without his beloved friend, but
even in this he is resolute and level-headed, acting not out of uncontrollable
emotion but a sense of honour and duty. Horatio refers to himself as "more an
antique Roman than a Dane" (V.ii.346) (reminiscent of Brutus and Cassius).
Horatio's virtue is even more vivid in the light of Macbeth's cowardice
response: "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die/On mine own sword?"
(V.iii.1-2). In the final analysis, Hamlet does become a little more like his idol
Horatio in his acceptance of fate and the evil inherant in all men.

Ophelia
Good Girl Gone Bad
Of all the pivotal characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static and one-
dimensional. She has the potential to become a tragic heroine -- to overcome
the adversities inflicted upon her -- but she instead crumbles into insanity,
becoming merely tragic. It appears that Ophelia herself is not as important as
her representation of the dual nature of women in the play. The extent to
which Hamlet feels betrayed by Gertrude is far more apparent because of
Ophelia's presence. Hamlet's feelings of rage against his mother can be
directed toward Ophelia, who is, in his estimation, hiding her base nature
behind a guise of impeccability, just as is Gertrude.

Through Ophelia we witness Hamlet's evolution, or de-evolution into a man

convinced that all women are whores; that the women who seem most pure
are inside black with corruption and sexual desire. And if women are harlots,
then they must have their procurers. Gertrude has been made a whore by
Claudius, and Ophelia has been made a whore by her father. In Act II,
Polonius makes arrangements to use the alluring Ophelia to discover why
Hamlet is behaving so curiously. Hamlet is not in the room but it seems
obvious from the following lines that he has overheard Polonius trying to use
his daughter's charms to suit his underhanded purposes. In Hamlet's
distraught mind, there is no gray area: Polonius prostitutes his daughter. And
Hamlet tells Polonius so to his face, labeling him a "fishmonger" (despite the
fact that Polonius cannot decipher the meaning behind Hamlet's words). As
Kay Stanton argues in her essay Hamlet's Whores:

Perhaps it may be granted...that what makes a woman a whore in the

Hamlets' estimation is her sexual use by not one man but by more than one
man.... what seems to enrage [Hamlet] in the 'nunnery' interlude is that
Ophelia has put her sense of love and duty for another man above her sense
of love and duty for him, just as Gertrude put her sense of love and duty for
her new husband above her sense of love and duty for her old. Gertrude
chose a brother over a dead Hamlet; Ophelia chooses a father over a living
Hamlet: both choices can be read as additionally sexually perverse in being,
to Hamlet, 'incestuous' (Stanton, New Essays on Hamlet)

To the rest of us, Ophelia represents something very different. To outside

observers, Ophelia is the epitome of goodness. Like Gertrude, young Ophelia
is childlike and naive. But unlike Queen Gertrude, Ophelia has good reason to
be unaware of the harsh realities of life. She is very young, and has lost her
mother, possibly at birth. Her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes, love
Ophelia tremendously, and have taken great pains to shelter her. She is not
involved with matters of state; she spends her days engaged in needlepoint
and flower gathering. She returns the love shown to her by Polonius and
Laertes tenfold, and couples it with complete and unwavering loyalty. "Her
whole character is that of simple unselfish affection" (Bradley 130). Even
though her love for Hamlet is strong, she obeys her father when he tells her
not to see Hamlet again or accept any letters that Hamlet writes. Her heart is
pure, and when she does do something dishonest, such as tell Hamlet that
her father has gone home when he is really behind the curtain, it is out of
genuine fear. Ophelia clings to the memory of Hamlet treating her with respect
and tenderness, and she defends him and loves him to the very end despite
his brutality. She is incapable of defending herself, but through her timid
responses we see clearly her intense suffering:

Hamlet: ...I did love you once.

Ophelia: Indeed, my, lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet: You should not have believed me...I loved you not.
Ophelia: I was the more deceived.

Her frailty and innocence work against her as she cannot cope with the
unfolding of one traumatic event after another. Ophelia's darling Hamlet
causes all her emotional pain throughout the play, and when his hate is
responsible for her father's death, she has endured all that she is capable of
enduring and goes insane. But even in her insanity she symbolizes, to
everyone but Hamlet, incorruption and virtue. "In her wanderings we hear from
time to time an undertone of the deepest sorrow, but never the agonized cry
of fear or horror which makes madness dreadful or shocking. And the picture
of her death, if our eyes grow dim in watching it, is still purely beautiful".
(Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy132-3). The bawdy songs that she sings in
front of Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius are somber reminders that the
corrupt world has taken its toll on the pure Ophelia. They show us that only in
her insanity does she live up to Hamlet's false perception of her as a
lascivious woman.

Laertes - Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man who spends
much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly
a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras - The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king (also named
Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet). Now
Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his father’s honor, making him
another foil for Prince Hamlet.

The Ghost - The specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The ghost,
who claims to have been murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge
him. However, it is not entirely certain whether the ghost is what it appears to
be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be
a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of
what the ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern - Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former

friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and
Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior.
Osric - The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes.
Voltimand And Cornelius - Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to
persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from attacking.

Marcellus And Bernardo - The officers who first see the ghost walking the
ramparts of Elsinore and who summon Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is
present when Hamlet first encounters the ghost.

Francisco - A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo - Polonius’s servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check

up on and spy on Laertes.

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Impossibility of Certainty

What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays (and maybe from every play
written before it) is that the action we expect to see, particularly from Hamlet
himself, is continually postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more certain
knowledge about what he is doing. This play poses many questions that other
plays would simply take for granted. Can we have certain knowledge about
ghosts? Is the ghost what it appears to be, or is it really a misleading fiend?
Does the ghost have reliable knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost
itself deluded? Moving to more earthly matters: How can we know for certain
the facts about a crime that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the state of
Claudius’s soul by watching his behavior? If so, can he know the facts of what
Claudius did by observing the state of his soul? Can Claudius (or the
audience) know the state of Hamlet’s mind by observing his behavior and
listening to his speech? Can we know whether our actions will have the
consequences we want them to have? Can we know anything about the
afterlife?
Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and thus
about Hamlet’s failure to act appropriately. It might be more interesting to
consider that the play shows us how many uncertainties our lives are built
upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or
when they evaluate one another’s actions.

The Complexity of Action

Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it

possible to take reasonable, effective, purposeful action? In Hamlet, the
question of how to act is affected not only by rational considerations, such as
the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and psychological
factors. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that it’s even possible to
act in a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do it
blindly, recklessly, and violently. The other characters obviously think much
less about “action” in the abstract than Hamlet does, and are therefore less
troubled about the possibility of acting effectively. They simply act as they feel
is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that Hamlet is right, because all
of their actions miscarry. Claudius possesses himself of queen and crown
through bold action, but his conscience torments him, and he is beset by
threats to his authority (and, of course, he dies). Laertes resolves that nothing
will distract him from acting out his revenge, but he is easily influenced and
manipulated into serving Claudius’s ends, and his poisoned rapier is turned
back upon himself.
The Mystery of Death

In the aftermath of his father’s murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of
death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great many
perspectives. He ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in
the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead, such as by Yorick’s skull
and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Throughout, the idea of death is
closely tied to the themes of spirituality, truth, and uncertainty in that death
may bring the answers to Hamlet’s deepest questions, ending once and for all
the problem of trying to determine truth in an ambiguous world. And, since
death is both the cause and the consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied
to the theme of revenge and justice—Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet
initiates Hamlet’s quest for revenge, and Claudius’s death is the end of that
quest.
The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly
contemplates whether or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an
unbearably painful world. Hamlet’s grief and misery is such that he frequently
longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he commits suicide, he
will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because of the Christian religion’s
prohibition of suicide. In his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy (III.i), Hamlet
philosophically concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life
if he or she were not afraid of what will come after death, and that it is this fear
which causes complex moral considerations to interfere with the capacity for
action.

The Nation as a Diseased Body

Everything is connected in Hamlet, including the welfare of the royal family and
the health of the state as a whole. The play’s early scenes explore the sense
of anxiety and dread that surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the
next. Throughout the play, characters draw explicit connections between the
moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation. Denmark is frequently
described as a physical body made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius and
Gertrude, and many observers interpret the presence of the ghost as a
supernatural omen indicating that “[s]omething is rotten in the state of
Denmark” (I.iv.67). The dead King Hamlet is portrayed as a strong, forthright
ruler under whose guard the state was in good health, while Claudius, a
wicked politician, has corrupted and compromised Denmark to satisfy his own
appetites. At the end of the play, the rise to power of the upright Fortinbras
suggests that Denmark will be strengthened once again.

Key Facts
Full Title · The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Author · William Shakespeare
Type Of Work · Play
Genre · Tragedy, revenge tragedy
Language · English
Time And Place Written · London, England, early seventeenth century
(probably 1600–1602)
Date Of First Publication · 1603, in a pirated quarto edition titled The
Tragicall Historie of Hamlet; 1604 in a superior quarto edition
Protagonist · Hamlet
Major Conflict · Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his father’s murder
by his uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected.
Moreover, Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the
ghost and whether killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do.
Rising Action · The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells Hamlet to revenge
his murder; Hamlet feigns madness to his intentions; Hamlet stages the
mousetrap play; Hamlet passes up the opportunity to kill Claudius while he
is praying.
Climax · When Hamlet stabs Polonius through the arras in Act III, scene
iv, he commits himself to overtly violent action and brings himself into
unavoidable conflict with the king. Another possible climax comes at the
end of Act IV, scene iv, when Hamlet resolves to commit himself fully to
violent revenge.
Falling Action · Hamlet is sent to England to be killed; Hamlet returns to
Denmark and confronts Laertes at Ophelia’s funeral; the fencing match; the
deaths of the royal family
Setting (Time) · The late medieval period, though the play’s chronological
setting is notoriously imprecise
Settings (Place) · Denmark
Foreshadowing · The ghost, which is taken to foreshadow an ominous
future for Denmark
Tone · Dark, ironic, melancholy, passionate, contemplative, desperate,
violent
Themes · The impossibility of certainty; the complexity of action; the
mystery of death; the nation as a diseased body
Motifs · Incest and incestuous desire; ears and hearing; death and
suicide; darkness and the supernatural; misogyny
Symbols · The ghost (the spiritual consequences of death); Yorick’s skull
(the physical consequences of death)
Plot Overview
On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in
Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio,
the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother
Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen
Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of
Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring
ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by
none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who
usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn.
Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he
is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep
melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about
the prince’s erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a
pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When
Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad
with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in
conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does
not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that
he wishes to ban marriages.
A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an
idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely
resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have
murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the
moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the
room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill
Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in
prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would
be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of
Hamlet’s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent
to England at once.
Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has
hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet
believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the
fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to
England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudius’s plan for
Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be
put to death.
In the aftermath of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns
in the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns
to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his
father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from
Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates
attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use
Laertes’ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet’s death. Laertes will fence with
Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if he
draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a
goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or
second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as
Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and
declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells
Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come
at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudius’s orders to
arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.
The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink
from the king’s proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is
swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though
Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own
sword’s blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for
the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs
Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the
rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after
achieving his revenge.
At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army
to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors
from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying
sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio,
fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic story. Fortinbras
orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
Plot Overview
On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in
Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio,
the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother
Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen
Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of
Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring
ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by
none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who
usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn.
Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he
is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep
melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry about
the prince’s erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a
pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When
Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad
with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in
conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does
not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that
he wishes to ban marriages.
A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an
idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely
resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have
murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the
moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the
room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill
Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in
prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would
be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of
Hamlet’s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent
to England at once.

Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has

hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet
believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the
fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to
England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudius’s plan for
Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be
put to death.

In the aftermath of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns
in the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns
to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his
father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from
Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates
attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use
Laertes’ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet’s death. Laertes will fence with
Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if he
draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a
goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or
second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as
Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and
declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells
Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come
at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudius’s orders to
arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.

The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink
from the king’s proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and is
swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though
Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own
sword’s blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for
the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs
Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the
rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after
achieving his revenge.

At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army
to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors
from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying
sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio,
fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic story. Fortinbras
orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.
OTHELLO
by: William Shakespeare

Othello
Beginning with the opening lines of the play, Othello remains at a distance
from much of the action that concerns and affects him. Roderigo and Iago
refer ambiguously to a “he” or “him” for much of the first scene. When they
begin to specify whom they are talking about, especially once they stand
beneath Brabanzio’s window, they do so with racial epithets, not names.
These include “the Moor” (I.i.57), “the thick-lips” (I.i.66), “an old black ram”
(I.i.88), and “a Barbary horse” (I.i.113). Although Othello appears at the
beginning of the second scene, we do not hear his name until well into Act I,
scene iii (I.iii.48). Later, Othello’s will be the last of the three ships to arrive at
Cyprus in Act II, scene i; Othello will stand apart while Cassio and Iago
supposedly discuss Desdemona in Act IV, scene i; and Othello will assume
that Cassio is dead without being present when the fight takes place in Act V,
scene i. Othello’s status as an outsider may be the reason he is such easy
prey for Iago.
Although Othello is a cultural and racial outsider in Venice, his skill as a
soldier and leader is nevertheless valuable and necessary to the state, and he
is an integral part of Venetian civic society. He is in great demand by the duke
and senate, as evidenced by Cassio’s comment that the senate “sent about
three several quests” to look for Othello (I.ii.46). The Venetian government
trusts Othello enough to put him in full martial and political command of
Cyprus; indeed, in his dying speech, Othello reminds the Venetians of the
“service” he has done their state (V.ii.348).
Those who consider Othello their social and civic peer, such as Desdemona
and Brabanzio, nevertheless seem drawn to him because of his exotic
qualities. Othello admits as much when he tells the duke about his friendship
with Brabanzio. He says, -“[Desdemona’s] father loved me, oft invited me, /
Still questioned me the story of my life / From year to year” (I.iii.127–129). -
Othello is also able to captivate his peers with his speech. The duke’s reply to
Othello’s speech about how he wooed Desdemona with his tales of adventure
is: “I think this tale would win my daughter too” (I.iii.170).
Othello sometimes makes a point of presenting himself as an outsider,
whether because he recognizes his exotic appeal or because he is self-
conscious of and defensive about his difference from other Venetians. For
example, in spite of his obvious eloquence in Act I, scene iii, he protests,
“Rude am I in my speech, / And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace”
(I.iii.81–82). While Othello is never rude in his speech, he does allow his
eloquence to suffer as he is put under increasing strain by Iago’s plots. In the
final moments of the play, Othello regains his composure and, once again,
seduces both his onstage and offstage audiences with his words. The speech
that precedes his suicide is a tale that could woo almost anyone. It is the
tension between Othello’s victimization at the hands of a foreign culture and
his own willingness to torment himself that makes him a tragic figure rather
than simply Iago’s ridiculous puppet.

Desdemona
Desdemona is a more plausible, well-rounded figure than much criticism has
given her credit for. Arguments that see Desdemona as stereotypically weak
and submissive ignore the conviction and authority of her first speech (“My
noble father, / I do perceive here a divided duty” [I.iii.179–180]) and her terse
fury after Othello strikes her (“I have not deserved this” [IV.i.236]). Similarly,
critics who argue that Desdemona’s slightly bizarre bawdy jesting with Iago in
Act II, scene i, is either an interpolation not written by Shakespeare or a mere
vulgarity ignore the fact that Desdemona is young, sexual, and recently
married. She later displays the same chiding, almost mischievous wit in Act III,
scene iii, lines 61–84, when she attempts to persuade Othello to forgive
Cassio.
Desdemona is at times a submissive character, most notably in her
willingness to take credit for her own murder. In response to Emilia’s question,
“O, who hath done this deed?” Desdemona’s final words are, “Nobody, I
myself. Farewell. / Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell” (V.ii.133–134).
The play, then, depicts Desdemona contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful
wife and as a bold, independent personality. This contradiction may be
intentional, meant to portray the way Desdemona herself feels after defending
her choice of marriage to her father in Act I, scene iii, and then almost
immediately being put in the position of defending her fidelity to her husband.
She begins the play as a supremely independent person, but midway through
she must struggle against all odds to convince Othello that she is
not too independent. The manner in which Desdemona is murdered—
smothered by a pillow in a bed covered in her wedding sheets—is symbolic:
she is literally suffocated beneath the demands put on her fidelity. Since her
first lines, Desdemona has seemed capable of meeting or even rising above
those demands. In the end, Othello stifles the speech that made Desdemona
so powerful.
Tragically, Desdemona is apparently aware of her imminent death. She, not
Othello, asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed, and she asks
Emilia to bury her in these sheets should she die first. The last time we see
Desdemona before she awakens to find Othello standing over her with murder
in his eyes, she sings a song she learned from her mother’s maid: “She was in
love; and he proved mad / And did forsake her. She had a song of willow. / . . .
/ And she died singing it. That song tonight / Will not go from my mind”
(IV.iii.27–30). Like the audience, Desdemona seems able only to watch as her
husband is driven insane with jealousy. Though she maintains to the end that
she is “guiltless,” Desdemona also forgives her husband (V.ii.133). Her
forgiveness of Othello may help the audience to forgive him as well.

Iago
Possibly the most heinous villain in Shakespeare, Iago is fascinating for his
most terrible characteristic: his utter lack of convincing motivation for his
actions. In the first scene, he claims to be angry at Othello for having passed
him over for the position of lieutenant (I.i.7–32). At the end of Act I, scene iii,
Iago says he thinks Othello may have slept with his wife, Emilia: “It is thought
abroad that ’twixt my sheets / He has done my office” (I.iii.369–370). Iago
mentions this suspicion again at the end of Act II, scene i, explaining that he
lusts after Desdemona because he wants to get even with Othello “wife for
wife” (II.i.286). None of these claims seems to adequately explain Iago’s deep
hatred of Othello, and Iago’s lack of motivation—or his inability or
unwillingness to express his true motivation—makes his actions all the more
terrifying. He is willing to take revenge on anyone—Othello, Desdemona,
Cassio, Roderigo, even Emilia—at the slightest provocation and enjoys the
pain and damage he causes. Iago is often funny, especially in his scenes with
the foolish Roderigo, which serve as a showcase of Iago’s manipulative -
abilities. He seems almost to wink at the audience as he revels in his own
skill. As entertained spectators, we find ourselves on Iago’s side when he is
with Roderigo, but the interactions between the two also reveal a streak of
cowardice in Iago—a cowardice that becomes manifest in the final scene,
when Iago kills his own wife (V.ii.231–242).
Iago’s murder of Emilia could also stem from the general hatred of women
that he displays. Some readers have suggested that Iago’s true, underlying
motive for persecuting Othello is his homosexual love for the general. He
certainly seems to take great pleasure in preventing Othello from enjoying
marital happiness, and he expresses his love for Othello frequently and
effusively.
It is Iago’s talent for understanding and manipulating the desires of those
around him that makes him both a powerful and a compelling figure. Iago is
able to take the handkerchief from Emilia and know that he can deflect her
questions; he is able to tell Othello of the handkerchief and know that Othello
will not doubt him; he is able to tell the audience, “And what’s he then that
says I play the villain,” and know that it will laugh as though he were a clown
(II.iii.310). Though the most inveterate liar, Iago inspires all of the play’s
characters the trait that is most lethal to Othello: trust.

Michael Cassio - Othello’s lieutenant. Cassio is a young and inexperienced

soldier, whose high position is much resented by Iago. Truly devoted to
Othello, Cassio is extremely ashamed after being implicated in a drunken
brawl on Cyprus and losing his place as lieutenant. Iago uses Cassio’s youth,
good looks, and friendship with Desdemona to play on Othello’s insecurities
about Desdemona’s fidelity.
Emilia - Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s attendant. A cynical, worldly woman,
she is deeply attached to her mistress and distrustful of her husband.
Roderigo - A jealous suitor of Desdemona. Young, rich, and foolish,
Roderigo is convinced that if he gives Iago all of his money, Iago will help him
win Desdemona’s hand. Repeatedly frustrated as Othello marries Desdemona
and then takes her to Cyprus, Roderigo is ultimately desperate enough to
agree to help Iago kill Cassio after Iago points out that Cassio is another
potential rival for Desdemona.
Bianca - A courtesan, or prostitute, in Cyprus. Bianca’s favorite customer is
Cassio, who teases her with promises of marriage.
Brabanzio - Desdemona’s father, a somewhat blustering and self-important
Venetian senator. As a friend of Othello, Brabanzio feels betrayed when the
general marries his daughter in secret.
Duke Of Venice - The official authority in Venice, the duke has great respect
for Othello as a public and military servant. His primary role within the play is
to reconcile Othello and Brabanzio in Act I, scene iii, and then to send Othello
to Cyprus.
Montano - The governor of Cyprus before Othello. We see him first in Act II,
as he recounts the status of the war and awaits the Venetian ships.
Lodovico - One of Brabanzio’s kinsmen, Lodovico acts as a messenger from
Venice to Cyprus. He arrives in Cyprus in Act IV with letters announcing that
Othello has been replaced by Cassio as governor.
Graziano - Brabanzio’s kinsman who accompanies Lodovico to Cyprus.
Amidst the chaos of the final scene, Graziano mentions that Desdemona’s
father has died.
Clown - Othello’s servant. Although the clown appears only in two short
scenes, his appearances reflect and distort the action and words of the main
plots: his puns on the word “lie” in Act III, scene iv, for example, anticipate
Othello’s confusion of two meanings of that word in Act IV, scene i.
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Incompatibility of Military Heroism & Love

Before and above all else, Othello is a soldier. From the earliest moments in
the play, his career affects his married life. Asking “fit disposition” for his wife
after being ordered to Cyprus (I.iii.234), Othello notes that “the tyrant custom .
. . / Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war / My thrice-driven bed of
down” (I.iii.227–229). While Desdemona is used to better “accommodation,”
she nevertheless accompanies her husband to Cyprus (I.iii.236). Moreover,
she is unperturbed by the tempest or Turks that threatened their crossing, and
genuinely curious rather than irate when she is roused from bed by the
drunken brawl in Act II, scene iii. She is, indeed, Othello’s “fair warrior,” and
he is happiest when he has her by his side in the midst of military conflict or
business (II.i.179). The military also provides Othello with a means to gain
acceptance in Venetian society. While the Venetians in the play are generally
fearful of the prospect of Othello’s social entrance into white society through
his marriage to Desdemona, all Venetians respect and honor him as a soldier.
Mercenary Moors were, in fact, commonplace at the time.
Othello predicates his success in love on his success as a soldier, wooing
Desdemona with tales of his military travels and battles. Once the Turks are
drowned—by natural rather than military might—Othello is left without
anything to do: the last act of military administration we see him perform is the
viewing of fortifications in the extremely short second scene of Act III. No
longer having a means of proving his manhood or honor in a public setting
such as the court or the battlefield, Othello begins to feel uneasy with his
footing in a private setting, the bedroom. Iago capitalizes on this uneasiness,
calling Othello’s epileptic fit in Act IV, scene i, “[a] passion most unsuiting such
a man.” In other words, Iago is calling Othello unsoldierly. Iago also takes care
to mention that Cassio, whom Othello believes to be his competitor, saw him
in his emasculating trance (IV.i.75).
Desperate to cling to the security of his former identity as a soldier while his
current identity as a lover crumbles, Othello begins to confuse the one with
the other. His expression of his jealousy quickly devolves from the
conventional—“Farewell the tranquil mind”—to the absurd:
Farewell the plum’d troops and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell,
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!”
(III.iii.353–359)

One might well say that Othello is saying farewell to the wrong things—he is
entirely preoccupied with his identity as a soldier. But his way of thinking is
somewhat justified by its seductiveness to the audience as well. Critics and
audiences alike find comfort and nobility in Othello’s final speech and the
anecdote of the “malignant and . . . turbaned Turk” (V.ii.362), even though in
that speech, as in his speech in Act III, scene iii, Othello depends on his
identity as a soldier to glorify himself in the public’s memory, and to try to
make his audience forget his and Desdemona’s disastrous marital
experiment.
The Danger of Isolation
The action of Othello moves from the metropolis of Venice to the island of
Cyprus. Protected by military fortifications as well as by the forces of nature,
Cyprus faces little threat from external forces. Once Othello, Iago,
Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo have come to Cyprus, they have nothing to
do but prey upon one another. Isolation enables many of the play’s most
important effects: Iago frequently speaks in soliloquies; Othello stands apart
while Iago talks with Cassio in Act IV, scene i, and is left alone onstage with
the bodies of Emilia and Desdemona for a few moments in Act V, scene ii;
Roderigo seems attached to no one in the play except Iago. And, most
prominently, Othello is visibly isolated from the other characters by his
physical stature and the color of his skin. Iago is an expert at manipulating the
distance between characters, isolating his victims so that they fall prey to their
own obsessions. At the same time, Iago, of necessity always standing apart,
falls prey to his own obsession with revenge. The characters cannot be
islands, the play seems to say: self-isolation as an act of self-preservation
leads ultimately to self-destruction. Such self-isolation leads to the deaths of
Roderigo, Iago, Othello, and even Emilia.

Key Facts
Full Title · The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
Author · William Shakespeare
Type Of Work · Play
Genre · Tragedy
Language · English
Time And Place Written · Between 1601 and 1604, England
Date Of First Publication · 1622
Publisher · Thomas Walkley
Tone · Shakespeare clearly views the events of the play as tragic. He seems
to view the marriage between Desdemona and Othello as noble and heroic,
for the most part.
Setting (Time) · Late sixteenth century, during the wars between Venice and
Turkey
Setting (Place) · Venice in Act I; the island of Cyprus thereafter
Protagonist · Othello
Major Conflict · Othello and Desdemona marry and attempt to build a life
together, despite their differences in age, race, and experience. Their
marriage is sabotaged by the envious Iago, who convinces Othello that
Desdemona is unfaithful.
Rising Action · Iago tells the audience of his scheme, arranges for Cassio to
lose his position as lieutenant, and gradually insinuates to Othello that
Desdemona is unfaithful.
Climax · The climax occurs at the end of Act III, scene iii, when Othello kneels
with Iago and vows not to change course until he has achieved bloody
revenge.
Falling Action · Iago plants the handkerchief in Cassio’s room and later
arranges a conversation with Cassio, which Othello watches and sees as
“proof” that Cassio and Desdemona have slept together. Iago unsuccessfully
attempts to kill Cassio, and Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow. Emilia
exposes Iago’s deceptions, Othello kills himself, and Iago is taken away to be
tortured.
Themes · The incompatibility of military heroism and love; the danger of
isolation
Motifs · Sight and blindness; plants; animals; hell, demons, and monsters
Symbols · The handkerchief; the song “Willow”
Foreshadowing · Othello and Desdemona’s speeches about love
foreshadow the disaster to come; Othello’s description of his past and of his
wooing of Desdemona foreshadow his suicide speech; Desdemona’s “Willow”
song and remarks to Emilia in Act IV, scene iii, foreshadow her death.
Plot Overview
Othello begins on a street in Venice, in the midst of an argument between
Roderigo, a rich man, and Iago. Roderigo has been paying Iago to help him in
his suit to Desdemona. But Roderigo has just learned that Desdemona has
married Othello, a general whom Iago begrudgingly serves as ensign. Iago
says he hates Othello, who recently passed him over for the position of
lieutenant in favor of the inexperienced soldier Michael Cassio.
Unseen, Iago and Roderigo cry out to Brabanzio that his daughter
Desdemona has been stolen by and married to Othello, the Moor. Brabanzio
finds that his daughter is indeed missing, and he gathers some officers to find
Othello. Not wanting his hatred of Othello to be known, Iago leaves Roderigo
and hurries back to Othello before Brabanzio sees him. At Othello’s lodgings,
Cassio arrives with an urgent message from the duke: Othello’s help is
needed in the matter of the imminent Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Not long
afterward, Brabanzio arrives with Roderigo and others, and accuses Othello of
stealing his daughter by witchcraft. When he finds out that Othello is on his
way to speak with the duke, -Brabanzio decides to go along and accuse
Othello before the assembled senate.
Brabanzio’s plan backfires. The duke and senate are very sympathetic toward
Othello. Given a chance to speak for himself, Othello explains that he wooed
and won Desdemona not by witchcraft but with the stories of his adventures in
travel and war. The duke finds Othello’s explanation convincing, and
Desdemona herself enters at this point to defend her choice in marriage and
to announce to her father that her allegiance is now to her husband.
Brabanzio is frustrated, but acquiesces and allows the senate meeting to
resume. The duke says that Othello must go to Cyprus to aid in the defense
against the Turks, who are headed for the island. Desdemona insists that she
accompany her husband on his trip, and preparations are made for them to
depart that night.
In Cyprus the following day, two gentlemen stand on the shore with Montano,
the governor of Cyprus. A third gentleman arrives and reports that the Turkish
fleet has been wrecked in a storm at sea. Cassio, whose ship did not suffer
the same fate, arrives soon after, followed by a second ship carrying Iago,
Roderigo, Desdemona, and Emilia, Iago’s wife. Once they have landed,
Othello’s ship is sighted, and the group goes to the harbor. As they wait for
Othello, Cassio greets Desdemona by clasping her hand. Watching them,
Iago tells the audience that he will use “as little a web as this” hand-holding to
ensnare Cassio (II.i.169).
Othello arrives, greets his wife, and announces that there will be reveling that
evening to celebrate Cyprus’s safety from the Turks. Once everyone has left,
Roderigo complains to Iago that he has no chance of breaking up Othello’s
marriage. Iago assures Roderigo that as soon as Desdemona’s “blood is
made dull with the act of sport,” she will lose interest in Othello and seek
sexual satisfaction elsewhere (II.i.222). However, Iago warns that “elsewhere”
will likely be with Cassio. Iago counsels Roderigo that he should cast Cassio
into disgrace by starting a fight with Cassio at the evening’s revels. In a
soliloquy, Iago explains to the audience that eliminating Cassio is the first
crucial step in his plan to ruin Othello. That night, Iago gets Cassio drunk and
then sends Roderigo to start a fight with him. Apparently provoked by
Roderigo, Cassio chases Roderigo across the stage. Governor Montano
attempts to hold Cassio down, and Cassio stabs him. Iago sends Roderigo to
raise alarm in the town.
The alarm is rung, and Othello, who had left earlier with plans to consummate
his marriage, soon arrives to still the commotion. When Othello demands to
know who began the fight, Iago feigns reluctance to implicate his “friend”
Cassio, but he ultimately tells the whole story. Othello then strips Cassio of his
rank of lieutenant. Cassio is extremely upset, and he laments to Iago, once
everyone else has gone, that his reputation has been ruined forever. Iago
assures Cassio that he can get back into Othello’s good graces by using
Desdemona as an intermediary. In a soliloquy, Iago tells us that he will frame
Cassio and Desdemona as lovers to make -Othello jealous.
In an attempt at reconciliation, Cassio sends some musicians to play beneath
Othello’s window. Othello, however, sends his clown to tell the musicians to
go away. Hoping to arrange a meeting with Desdemona, Cassio asks the
clown, a peasant who serves Othello, to send Emilia to him. After the clown
departs, Iago passes by and tells Cassio that he will get Othello out of the way
so that Cassio can speak privately with Desdemona. Othello, Iago, and a
gentleman go to examine some of the town’s fortifications.
Desdemona is quite sympathetic to Cassio’s request and promises that she
will do everything she can to make Othello forgive his former lieutenant. As
Cassio is about to leave, Othello and Iago return. Feeling uneasy, Cassio
leaves without talking to Othello. Othello inquires whether it was Cassio who
just parted from his wife, and Iago, beginning to kindle Othello’s fire of
jealousy, replies, “No, sure, I cannot think it, / That he would steal away so
guilty-like, / Seeing your coming” (III.iii.37–39).
Othello becomes upset and moody, and Iago furthers his goal of removing
both Cassio and Othello by suggesting that Cassio and Desdemona are
involved in an affair. Desdemona’s entreaties to Othello to reinstate Cassio as
lieutenant add to Othello’s almost immediate conviction that his wife is
unfaithful. After Othello’s conversation with Iago, Desdemona comes to call
Othello to supper and finds him feeling unwell. She offers him her
handkerchief to wrap around his head, but he finds it to be “[t]oo little” and lets
it drop to the floor (III.iii.291). Desdemona and Othello go to dinner, and Emilia
picks up the handkerchief, mentioning to the audience that Iago has always
wanted her to steal it for him.
Iago is ecstatic when Emilia gives him the handkerchief, which he plants in
Cassio’s room as “evidence” of his affair with Desdemona. When Othello
demands “ocular proof” (III.iii.365) that his wife is unfaithful, Iago says that he
has seen Cassio “wipe his beard” (III.iii.444) with Desdemona’s
handkerchief—the first gift Othello ever gave her. Othello vows to take
vengeance on his wife and on Cassio, and Iago vows that he will help him.
When Othello sees Desdemona later that evening, he demands the
handkerchief of her, but she tells him that she does not have it with her and
attempts to change the subject by continuing her suit on Cassio’s behalf. This
drives Othello into a further rage, and he storms out. Later, Cassio comes
onstage, wondering about the handkerchief he has just found in his chamber.
He is greeted by Bianca, a prostitute, whom he asks to take the handkerchief
and copy its embroidery for him.
Through Iago’s machinations, Othello becomes so consumed by jealousy that
he falls into a trance and has a fit of epilepsy. As he writhes on the ground,
Cassio comes by, and Iago tells him to come back in a few minutes to talk.
Once Othello recovers, Iago tells him of the meeting he has planned with
Cassio. He instructs Othello to hide nearby and watch as Iago extracts from
Cassio the story of his affair with Desdemona. While Othello stands out of
earshot, Iago pumps Cassio for information about Bianca, causing Cassio to
laugh and confirm Othello’s suspicions. Bianca herself then enters with
Desdemona’s handkerchief, reprimanding Cassio for making her copy out the
embroidery of a love token given to him by another woman. When
Desdemona enters with Lodovico and Lodovico subsequently gives Othello a
letter from Venice calling him home and instating Cassio as his replacement,
Othello goes over the edge, striking Desdemona and then storming out.
That night, Othello accuses Desdemona of being a whore. He ignores her
protestations, seconded by Emilia, that she is innocent. Iago assures
Desdemona that Othello is simply upset about matters of state. Later that
night, however, Othello ominously tells Desdemona to wait for him in bed and
to send Emilia away. Meanwhile, Iago assures the still-complaining Roderigo
that everything is going as planned: in order to prevent Desdemona and
Othello from leaving, Roderigo must kill Cassio. Then he will have a clear
avenue to his love.
Iago instructs Roderigo to ambush Cassio, but Roderigo misses his mark and
Cassio wounds him instead. Iago wounds Cassio and runs away. When
Othello hears Cassio’s cry, he assumes that Iago has killed Cassio as he said
he would. Lodovico and Graziano enter to see what the commotion is about.
Iago enters shortly thereafter and flies into a pretend rage as he “discovers”
Cassio’s assailant Roderigo, whom he murders. Cassio is taken to have his
wound dressed.
Meanwhile, Othello stands over his sleeping wife in their bedchamber,
preparing to kill her. Desdemona wakes and attempts to plead with Othello.
She asserts her innocence, but Othello smothers her. Emilia enters with the
news that Roderigo is dead. Othello asks if Cassio is dead too and is mortified
when Emilia says he is not. After crying out that she has been murdered,
Desdemona changes her story before she dies, claiming that she has
committed suicide. Emilia asks Othello what happened, and Othello tells her
that he has killed Desdemona for her infidelity, which Iago brought to his
attention.
Montano, Graziano, and Iago come into the room. Iago attempts to silence
Emilia, who realizes what Iago has done. At first, Othello insists that Iago has
told the truth, citing the handkerchief as evidence. Once Emilia tells him how
she found the handkerchief and gave it to Iago, Othello is crushed and begins
to weep. He tries to kill Iago but is disarmed. Iago kills Emilia and flees, but he
is caught by Lodovico and Montano, who return holding Iago captive. They
also bring Cassio, who is now in a chair because of his wound. Othello
wounds Iago and is disarmed. Lodovico tells Othello that he must come with
them back to Venice to be tried. Othello makes a speech about how he would
like to be remembered, then kills himself with a sword he had hidden on his
person. The play closes with a speech by Lodovico. He gives Othello’s house
and goods to Graziano and orders that Iago be executed.

JULIUS CAESAR
by: William Shakespeare

Brutus
Brutus emerges as the most complex character in Julius Caesar and is also the
play’s tragic hero. In his soliloquies, the audience gains insight into the
complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears also
as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader, and a
loving friend. The conflicting value systems that battle with each other in the
play as a whole are enacted on a microcosmic level in Brutus’s mind. Even
after Brutus has committed the assassination with the other members of the
conspiracy, questions remain as to whether, in light of his friendship with
Caesar, the murder was a noble, decidedly selfless act or proof of a truly evil
callousness, a gross indifference to the ties of friendship and a failure to be
moved by the power of a truly great man.
Brutus’s rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his most deadly flaw. In
the world of the play, where self-serving ambition seems to dominate all other
motivations, Brutus lives up to Antony’s elegiac description of him as “the
noblest of Romans.” However, his commitment to principle repeatedly leads
him to make miscalculations: wanting to curtail violence, he ignores Cassius’s
suggestion that the conspirators kill Antony as well as Caesar. In another
moment of naïve idealism, he again ignores Cassius’s advice and allows
Antony to speak a funeral oration over Caesar’s body. As a result, Brutus
forfeits the authority of having the last word on the murder and thus allows
Antony to incite the plebeians to riot against him and the other conspirators.
Brutus later endangers his good relationship with Cassius by self-righteously
condemning what he sees as dishonorable fund-raising tactics on Cassius’s
part. In all of these episodes, Brutus acts out of a desire to limit the self-
serving aspects of his actions; ironically, however, in each incident he dooms
the very cause that he seeks to promote, thus serving no one at all.

Julius Caesar
The conspirators charge Caesar with ambition, and his behavior substantiates
this judgment: he does vie for absolute power over Rome, reveling in the
homage he receives from others and in his conception of himself as a figure
who will live on forever in men’s minds. However, his faith in his own
permanence—in the sense of both his loyalty to principles and his fixture as a
public institution—eventually proves his undoing. At first, he stubbornly
refuses to heed the nightmares of his wife, Calpurnia, and the supernatural
omens pervading the atmosphere. Though he is eventually persuaded not to
go to the Senate, Caesar ultimately lets his ambition get the better of him, as
the prospect of being crowned king proves too glorious to resist.
Caesar’s conflation of his public image with his private self helps bring about
his death, since he mistakenly believes that the immortal status granted to his
public self somehow protects his mortal body. Still, in many ways, Caesar’s
faith that he is eternal proves valid by the end of the play: by Act V, scene iii,
Brutus is attributing his and Cassius’s misfortunes to Caesar’s power reaching
from beyond the grave. Caesar’s aura seems to affect the general outcome of
events in a mystic manner, while also inspiring Octavius and Antony and
strengthening their determination. As Octavius ultimately assumes the title
Caesar, Caesar’s permanence is indeed established in some respect.

Antony
Antony proves strong in all of the ways that Brutus proves weak. His
impulsive, improvisatory nature serves him perfectly, first to persuade the
conspirators that he is on their side, thus gaining their leniency, and then to
persuade the plebeians of the conspirators’ injustice, thus gaining the masses’
political support. Not too scrupulous to stoop to deceit and duplicity, as Brutus
claims to be, Antony proves himself a consummate politician, using gestures
and skilled rhetoric to his advantage. He responds to subtle cues among both
his nemeses and his allies to know exactly how he must conduct himself at
each particular moment in order to gain the most advantage. In both his
eulogy for Caesar and the play as a whole, Antony is adept at tailoring his
words and actions to his audiences’ desires. Unlike Brutus, who prides himself
on acting solely with respect to virtue and blinding himself to his personal
concerns, Antony never separates his private affairs from his public actions.

Cassius - A talented general and longtime acquaintance of Caesar. Cassius

dislikes the fact that Caesar has become godlike in the eyes of the Romans.
He slyly leads Brutus to believe that Caesar has become too powerful and
must die, finally converting Brutus to his cause by sending him forged letters
claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar. Impulsive and
unscrupulous, Cassius harbors no illusions about the way the political world
works. A shrewd opportunist, he proves successful but lacks integrity.
Octavius - Caesar’s adopted son and appointed successor. Octavius, who
had been traveling abroad, returns after Caesar’s death; he then joins with
Antony and sets off to fight Cassius and Brutus. Antony tries to control
Octavius’s movements, but Octavius follows his adopted father’s example and
emerges as the authoritative figure, paving the way for his eventual seizure of
the reins of Roman government.

Casca - A public figure opposed to Caesar’s rise to power. Casca relates to

Cassius and Brutus how Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and
how each time Caesar declined it. He believes, however, that Caesar is the
consummate actor, lulling the populace into believing that he has no personal
ambition.

Calpurnia - Caesar’s wife. Calpurnia invests great authority in omens and

portents. She warns Caesar against going to the Senate on the Ides of March,
since she has had terrible nightmares and heard reports of many bad omens.
Nevertheless, Caesar’s ambition ultimately causes him to disregard her
advice.

Portia - Brutus’s wife; the daughter of a noble Roman who took sides against
Caesar. Portia, accustomed to being Brutus’s confidante, is upset to find him
so reluctant to speak his mind when she finds him troubled. Brutus later hears
that Portia has killed herself out of grief that Antony and Octavius have
become so powerful.

Flavius - A tribune (an official elected by the people to protect their rights).
Flavius condemns the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar, when
once they cheered for Caesar’s enemy Pompey. Flavius is punished along
with Murellus for removing the decorations from Caesar’s statues during
Caesar’s triumphal parade.

Cicero - A Roman senator renowned for his oratorical skill. Cicero speaks at
Caesar’s triumphal parade. He later dies at the order of Antony, Octavius, and
Lepidus.

Lepidus - The third member of Antony and Octavius’s coalition. Though

Antony has a low opinion of Lepidus, Octavius trusts his loyalty.

Murellus - Like Flavius, a tribune who condemns the plebeians for their
fickleness in cheering Caesar, when once they cheered for Caesar’s enemy
Pompey. Murellus and Flavius are punished for removing the decorations
from Caesar’s statues during Caesar’s triumphal parade.

Decius - A member of the conspiracy. Decius convinces Caesar that

Calpurnia misinterpreted her dire nightmares and that, in fact, no danger
awaits him at the Senate. Decius leads Caesar right into the hands of the
conspirators.

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Fate versus Free Will

Julius Caesar raises many questions about the force of fate in life versus the
capacity for free will. Cassius refuses to accept Caesar’s rising power and
deems a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of passivity or
cowardice. He says to Brutus: “Men at sometime were masters of their fates. /
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are
underlings” (I.ii.140–142). Cassius urges a return to a more noble, self-
possessed attitude toward life, blaming his and Brutus’s submissive stance
not on a predestined plan but on their failure to assert themselves.
Ultimately, the play seems to support a philosophy in which fate and freedom
maintain a delicate coexistence. Thus Caesar declares: “It seems to me most
strange that men should fear, / Seeing that death, a necessary end, / Will
come when it will come” (II.ii.35–37). In other words, Caesar recognizes that
certain events lie beyond human control; to crouch in fear of them is to enter a
paralysis equal to, if not worse than, death. It is to surrender any capacity for
freedom and agency that one might actually possess. Indeed, perhaps to face
death head-on, to die bravely and honorably, is Caesar’s best course: in the
end, Brutus interprets his and Cassius’s defeat as the work of Caesar’s
ghost—not just his apparition, but also the force of the people’s devotion to
him, the strong legacy of a man who refused any fear of fate and, in his
disregard of fate, seems to have transcended it.

Public Self versus Private Self

Much of the play’s tragedy stems from the characters’ neglect of private
feelings and loyalties in favor of what they believe to be the public good.
Similarly, characters confuse their private selves with their public selves,
hardening and dehumanizing themselves or transforming themselves into
ruthless political machines. Brutus rebuffs his wife, Portia, when she pleads
with him to confide in her; believing himself to be acting on the people’s will,
he forges ahead with the murder of Caesar, despite their close friendship.
Brutus puts aside his personal loyalties and shuns thoughts of Caesar the
man, his friend; instead, he acts on what he believes to be the public’s wishes
and kills Caesar the leader, the imminent dictator. Cassius can be seen as a
man who has gone to the extreme in cultivating his public persona. Caesar,
describing his distrust of Cassius, tells Antony that the problem with Cassius
is his lack of a private life—his seeming refusal to acknowledge his own
sensibilities or to nurture his own spirit. Such a man, Caesar fears, will let
nothing interfere with his ambition. Indeed, Cassius lacks all sense of personal
honor and shows himself to be a ruthless schemer.
Ultimately, neglecting private sentiments to follow public concerns brings
Caesar to his death. Although Caesar does briefly agree to stay home from
the Senate in order to please Calpurnia, who has dreamed of his murder, he
gives way to ambition when Decius tells him that the senators plan to offer
him the crown. -Caesar’s public self again takes precedence. Tragically, he no
longer sees the difference between his omnipotent, immortal public image and
his vulnerable human body. Just preceding his death, Caesar refuses
Artemidorus’s pleas to speak with him, saying that he gives last priority to his
most personal concerns. He thus endangers himself by believing that the
strength of his public self will protect his private self.

Misinterpretations and Misreadings

Much of the play deals with the characters’ failures to interpret correctly the
omens that they encounter. As Cicero says, “Men may construe things after
their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves” (I.iii.34–35).
Thus, the night preceding Caesar’s appearance at the Senate is full of
portents, but no one reads them accurately: Cassius takes them to signify the
danger that Caesar’s impending coronation would bring to the state, when, if
anything, they warn of the destruction that Cassius himself threatens. There
are calculated misreadings as well: Cassius manipulates Brutus into joining
the conspiracy by means of forged letters, knowing that Brutus’s trusting
nature will cause him to accept the letters as authentic pleas from the Roman
people.
The circumstances of Cassius’s death represent another instance of
misinterpretation. Pindarus’s erroneous conclusion that Titinius has been
captured by the enemy, when in fact Titinius has reunited with friendly forces,
is the piece of misinformation that prompts Cassius to seek death. Thus, in
the world of politics portrayed in Julius Caesar, the inability to read people and
events leads to downfall; conversely, the ability to do so is the key to survival.
With so much ambition and rivalry, the ability to gauge the public’s opinion as
well as the resentment or loyalty of one’s fellow politicians can guide one to
success. Antony proves masterful at recognizing his situation, and his
accurate reading of the crowd’s emotions during his funeral oration for Caesar
allows him to win the masses over to his side.

Key Facts
Full Title · The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Author · William Shakespeare
Type Of Work · Play
Genre · Tragedy
Language · English
Time And Place Written · 1599, in London
Date Of First Publication · Published in the First Folio of 1623, probably
from the theater company’s official promptbook rather than from
Shakespeare’s manuscript
Publisher · Edward Blount and William Jaggard headed the group of five
men who undertook the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Narrator · None
Climax · The climax of the play comes when Antony, by juxtaposing Caesar’s
accomplishments, his generous will, and his corpse’s brutal wounds with the
repeated statement that “Brutus is an honorable man,” persuades the people
of Rome that Brutus and his co-conspirators aren’t honorable at all.
Protagonists · Brutus and Cassius
Antagonists · Antony and Octavius
Setting (Time) · 44 b.c.
Setting (Place) · Ancient Rome, toward the end of the Roman republic
Point Of View · The play sustains no single point of view; however, the
audience acquires the most insight into Brutus’s mind over the course of the
action
Falling Action · Titinius’s realization that Cassius has died wrongly assuming
defeat; Titinius’s suicide; Brutus’s discovery of the two corpses; the final
struggle between Brutus’s men and the troops of Antony and Octavius;
Brutus’s self-impalement on his sword upon recognizing that his side is
doomed; the discovery of Brutus’s body by Antony and Octavius
Tense · Present
Foreshadowing · The play is full of omens, including lightning and thunder,
the walking dead, and lions stalking through the city (I.iii). Additionally, the
Soothsayer warns Caesar to beware the Ides of March (I.ii); Calpurnia dreams
that she sees Caesar’s statue running with blood (II.ii); and Caesar’s priests
sacrifice animals to the gods only to find that the animals lack hearts (II.ii)—all
foreshadow Caesar’s impending murder and the resulting chaos in Rome.
Caesar’s ghost visits Brutus prior to the battle (IV.ii), and birds of prey circle
over the battlefield in sight of Cassius (V.i); both incidents foreshadow
Caesar’s revenge and the victory of Antony and Octavius.
Tone · Serious, proud, virtuous, enraged, vengeful, idealistic, anguished
Themes · Fate versus free will; public self versus private self;
misinterpretation and misreading of signs and events; commitment to ideals
versus adaptability and compromise; the relationship between rhetoric and
power; allegiance and rivalry among men
Motifs · Omens and portents, letters
Symbols · The women in the play, Portia and Calpurnia, symbolize the
neglected private lives of their respective husbands, Brutus and Caesar. The
men dismiss their wives as hindrances to their public duty, ignoring their
responsibilities to their own mortal bodies and their private obligations as
friends, husbands, and feeling men.

Plot Overview
Two tribunes, Flavius and Murellus, find scores of Roman citizens wandering
the streets, neglecting their work in order to watch Julius Caesar’s triumphal
parade: Caesar has defeated the sons of the deceased Roman general
Pompey, his archrival, in battle. The tribunes scold the citizens for abandoning
their duties and remove decorations from Caesar’s statues. Caesar enters
with his entourage, including the military and political figures Brutus, Cassius,
and Antony. A Soothsayer calls out to Caesar to “beware the Ides of March,”
but Caesar ignores him and proceeds with his victory celebration (I.ii.19,
I.ii.25).
Cassius and Brutus, both longtime intimates of Caesar and each other,
converse. Cassius tells Brutus that he has seemed distant lately; Brutus
replies that he has been at war with himself. Cassius states that he wishes
Brutus could see himself as others see him, for then Brutus would realize how
honored and respected he is. Brutus says that he fears that the people want
Caesar to become king, which would overturn the republic. Cassius concurs
that Caesar is treated like a god though he is merely a man, no better than
Brutus or Cassius. Cassius recalls incidents of Caesar’s physical weakness
and marvels that this fallible man has become so powerful. He blames his and
Brutus’s lack of will for allowing Caesar’s rise to power: surely the rise of such
a man cannot be the work of fate. Brutus considers Cassius’s words as
Caesar returns. Upon seeing Cassius, Caesar tells Antony that he deeply
distrusts Cassius.
Caesar departs, and another politician, Casca, tells Brutus and Cassius that,
during the celebration, Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and
the people cheered, but Caesar refused it each time. He reports that Caesar
then fell to the ground and had some kind of seizure before the crowd; his
demonstration of weakness, however, did not alter the plebeians’ devotion to
him. Brutus goes home to consider Cassius’s words regarding Caesar’s poor
qualifications to rule, while Cassius hatches a plot to draw Brutus into a
conspiracy against Caesar.
That night, Rome is plagued with violent weather and a variety of bad omens
and portents. Brutus finds letters in his house apparently written by Roman
citizens worried that Caesar has become too powerful. The letters have in fact
been forged and planted by Cassius, who knows that if Brutus believes it is
the people’s will, he will support a plot to remove Caesar from power. A
committed supporter of the republic, Brutus fears the possibility of a dictator-
led empire, worrying that the populace would lose its voice. Cassius arrives at
Brutus’s home with his conspirators, and Brutus, who has already been won
over by the letters, takes control of the meeting. The men agree to lure
Caesar from his house and kill him. Cassius wants to kill Antony too, for
Antony will surely try to hinder their plans, but Brutus disagrees, believing that
too many deaths will render their plot too bloody and dishonor them. Having
agreed to spare Antony, the conspirators depart. Portia, Brutus’s wife,
observes that Brutus appears preoccupied. She pleads with him to confide in
her, but he rebuffs her.
Caesar prepares to go to the Senate. His wife, Calpurnia, begs him not to go,
describing recent nightmares she has had in which a statue of Caesar
streamed with blood and smiling men bathed their hands in the blood. Caesar
refuses to yield to fear and insists on going about his daily business. Finally,
Calpurnia convinces him to stay home—if not out of caution, then as a favor to
her. But Decius, one of the conspirators, then arrives and convinces Caesar
that Calpurnia has misinterpreted her dreams and the recent omens. Caesar
departs for the Senate in the company of the conspirators.
As Caesar proceeds through the streets toward the Senate, the Soothsayer
again tries but fails to get his attention. The citizen Artemidorus hands him a
letter warning him about the conspirators, but Caesar refuses to read it,
saying that his closest personal concerns are his last priority. At the Senate,
the conspirators speak to Caesar, bowing at his feet and encircling him. One
by one, they stab him to death. When Caesar sees his dear friend Brutus
among his murderers, he gives up his struggle and dies.
The murderers bathe their hands and swords in Caesar’s blood, thus bringing
Calpurnia’s premonition to fruition. Antony, having been led away on a false
pretext, returns and pledges allegiance to Brutus but weeps over Caesar’s
body. He shakes hands with the conspirators, thus marking them all as guilty
while appearing to make a gesture of conciliation. When Antony asks why
they killed Caesar, Brutus replies that he will explain their purpose in a funeral
oration. Antony asks to be allowed to speak over the body as well; Brutus
grants his permission, though Cassius remains suspicious of Antony. The
conspirators depart, and Antony, alone now, swears that Caesar’s death shall
be avenged.
Brutus and Cassius go to the Forum to speak to the public. Cassius exits to
address another part of the crowd. Brutus declares to the masses that though
he loved Caesar, he loves Rome more, and Caesar’s ambition posed a
danger to Roman liberty. The speech placates the crowd. Antony appears
with Caesar’s body, and Brutus departs after turning the pulpit over to Antony.
Repeatedly referring to Brutus as “an honorable man,” Antony’s speech
becomes increasingly sarcastic; questioning the claims that Brutus made in
his speech that Caesar acted only out of ambition, Antony points out that
Caesar brought much wealth and glory to Rome, and three times turned down
offers of the crown. Antony then produces Caesar’s will but announces that he
will not read it for it would upset the people inordinately. The crowd
nevertheless begs him to read the will, so he descends from the pulpit to
stand next to Caesar’s body. He describes Caesar’s horrible death and shows
Caesar’s wounded body to the crowd. He then reads Caesar’s will, which
bequeaths a sum of money to every citizen and orders that his private
gardens be made public. The crowd becomes enraged that this generous man
lies dead; calling Brutus and Cassius traitors, the masses set off to drive them
from the city.
Meanwhile, Caesar’s adopted son and appointed successor, Octavius, arrives
in Rome and forms a three-person coalition with Antony and Lepidus. They
prepare to fight Cassius and Brutus, who have been driven into exile and are
raising armies outside the city. At the conspirators’ camp, Brutus and Cassius
have a heated argument regarding matters of money and honor, but they
ultimately reconcile. Brutus reveals that he is sick with grief, for in his absence
Portia has killed herself. The two continue to prepare for battle with Antony
and Octavius. That night, the Ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus, announcing
that Brutus will meet him again on the battlefield.
Octavius and Antony march their army toward Brutus and Cassius. Antony
tells Octavius where to attack, but Octavius says that he will make his own
orders; he is already asserting his authority as the heir of Caesar and the next
ruler of Rome. The opposing generals meet on the battlefield and exchange
insults before beginning combat.
Cassius witnesses his own men fleeing and hears that Brutus’s men are not
performing effectively. Cassius sends one of his men, Pindarus, to see how
matters are progressing. From afar, Pindarus sees one of their leaders,
Cassius’s best friend, Titinius, being surrounded by cheering troops and
concludes that he has been captured. Cassius despairs and orders Pindarus
to kill him with his own sword. He dies proclaiming that Caesar is avenged.
Titinius himself then arrives—the men encircling him were actually his
comrades, cheering a victory he had earned. Titinius sees Cassius’s corpse
and, mourning the death of his friend, kills himself.
Brutus learns of the deaths of Cassius and Titinius with a heavy heart, and
prepares to take on the Romans again. When his army loses, doom appears
imminent. Brutus asks one of his men to hold his sword while he impales
himself on it. Finally, Caesar can rest satisfied, he says as he dies. Octavius
and Antony arrive. Antony speaks over Brutus’s body, calling him the noblest
Roman of all. While the other conspirators acted out of envy and ambition, he
observes, Brutus genuinely believed that he acted for the benefit of Rome.
Octavius orders that Brutus be buried in the most honorable way. The men
then depart to celebrate their victory.