The play begins with a ‘tempest’ which is a symbol of Prospero’s magic; even the title of the play stands for Prospero’s power which will determine the fate of the play. This important symbol ‘tempest’ that begins the play and which is stormed by Prospero in order to bring his enemies to his feet, appears as his deep-rooted desire to cause them as much suffering as he himself has endured. The tempest is a manifestation of the evil side of power. He starts it with the intention of inflicting the same injury on the others and avenge his long- lost kingdom. In addition to him having lost his kingdom, two important characters appear that will give a deeper insight into Prospero’s character: Arial and Caliban.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, persuasion and manipulation are themes throughout the play. Othello is the leader of the Venetian army who secretly marries the beautiful and sought-after Desdemona. His trusted advisor, Iago, secretly hates Othello and is very jealous of his life. Iago manipulates a man named Roderigo, who is in love with Desdemona and has hired Iago to help him get closer to her, in order to hurt Othello. Iago also manipulates Cassio, the lieutenant and second in command, and uses him as part of his plot to take down Othello.
Document 1 states, “For all men in general this observation may be made: they are ungrateful, fickle, and deceitful, eager to avoid dangers, and avid for gain, and while you are useful to them they are all with you, but when it [danger] approaches they turn on you”. This statement describes how corrupt and cruel men are, and how these terrible actions are also greatly reflected upon royalty. During the 15th century, royalty believed they were all that mattered which when mixed in with Machiavelli caused a lot of controversy with the people during the Enlightenment. An example of this would be King James I in Document 2 who describes all the good things about the monarchy and how it is the best thing in the world. He calls the monarchy the, “supremest thing on earth,” trying to convince people of how great this form of government
However, what Roderigo doesn’t know is that Iago is a two-faced hypocrite that only performs actions for his own benefit. Roderigo repeatedly relies on Iago for his assistance to persuade Desdemona to love him, however Iago betrays him. He pushes Roderigo off a cliff through an emotional turmoil. He lives to have “this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash / For his quick hunting, stand the putting on, / I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip.” (2.1.301-303) Basically, if Roderigo can perform what Iago wants, then power can be brought over Cassio and his wrath can be brought to justice. In the OED, ‘hunting’ is a term that can be defined as ‘to go eagerly in search of or seeking something.’ Roderigo is constantly in search for Desdemona’s love, asking around for approval from Brabantio, and advice from Iago.
In the Shakespeare story, “Othello” the villain of the story, Iago has a not so shocking transformation. He was a small time rapscallion, who simply at the the beginning wanted revenge for the wrongdoing done to him by being passed up for the promotion to lieutenant. But then it turned into more of nefarious plan, to “turn [Desdemona’s] virtue into pitch.” (Shakespeare.2.33.338) He manipulated everyone in this storyline he interacts with, especially the following characters; Roderigo, Othello & Emilia, with each character he goes from being harmless physically to being unpredictably evil. Roderigo, the man who unrequitedly has fallen in love in with Desdemona makes a deal with Iago in hopes of winning her heart. He doesn’t think logically, he thinks with his emotions and is an easy puppet for Iago.
Greedy as she is, she sold her soul to the devil. When it begins with fate and power to achieve ambition and love. Later Macbeth has the taste of power that eventually makes him greedy and uses violence to put his own desires over his country. Living something that is not his to take, but was given to him by murdering. It is clearly that power and glory is not worth it at the
Jack is bent on power from the beginning whereas, Macbeth is manipulated by three witches and his wife to take power. Power affects these two men in different ways, Jack starts to become his true self whereas Macbeth starts to hallucinate and go insane. This relates to the point of view of the authors: William Golding believes people are inherently evil whereas William Shakespeare believes people are inherently good. The question is, who is more evil Jack or Macbeth? Both Jack and Macbeth are ambitious and hungry for power.
This allows Iago to take advantage of Barbantio’s surprise and to come in between the newly weds with his disapproval. Iago is trying to ruin Othello 's marriage by sending Barbantio to Othello and expressing his dislike for his secret marriage, “Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her” (I. II. 82). Brabantio is in such shock that he believes Othello used magic to get Desdemona to marry him. Iago’s manipulation of Barbantio has ruined the relationship between a father and a daughter and any relationship that could happen between Othello and Barbantio.
Prospero is the fundamental piece in the play concerning governance because he used to be the Duke of Milan, but loses his title to his brother Antonio when he devotes too much of his time learning magic rather than ruling his people and seeing his obligations through: “The government I cast upon my brother, [a]nd to my state grew stranger, being transported [a]nd rapt in secret studies,” (p.10). This is also the cause of Prospero and his infant
In the text, Shylock is continually proved as a murderous villain with insufficient reasoning for his unruly behavior. Shylock is shown to be a villain because of the way he acts towards Antonio in Act 1, Scene 3 of the play. Shylock is making a contract for a loan with Bassanio so that he can woo Portia with “his” money, which is really Shylock’s. Bassanio tells him that the loan will be paid for with Antonio’s credit, and Shylock scoffs at the mention of Antonio’s name. Shylock insults Antonio and blames him for lost customers in his money-lending business stating, “I hate him for he is a Christian; / But more for that in low simplicity / He lends out money gratis and brings down the rate of usance here with us in Venice,” (Shakespeare 1.3.38-41).