Preview

How Does Shakespeare Present Edwin P. Whipple's Character

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
179 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Shakespeare Present Edwin P. Whipple's Character
In all, this last section develops Heathcliff’s characterization from a misunderstood soul to a selfish and repulsive villain who Edwin P. Whipple’s accurate description portrays with a high degree of effectiveness and relevance to the novel's plot development. I agree with Edwin P. Whipple because Heathcliff’s character undergoes a drastic personality change, prompted by the death of his beloved Catherine. Following this he delves deeper into the worst of his personality and takes revenge not only on the people who wronged him but the people who he believed wronged Catherine. This leads to his ‘brute-demon’ personality, and disintegrates our wavering sympathy for his circumstances. Currently, in class, we’re reading Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Had the story been told chronologically, the linear progression of events would not have had the same air of mystery- had it been clear early on that Catherine was able to truthfully say ‘I am Heathcliff’, Heathcliff’s obsession with her would not have puzzled or interested the reader in the same way. By presenting the aftermath of Heathcliff’s obsession for revenge, and progressively providing the reader a frame to use through which to view the incarnation of Heathcliff we are first shown.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Heathcliff dominates the novel. Ruthless and tyrannical, he represents a new kind of man, free of all restraints and dedicated…

    • 3193 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ is another of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. It primarily focuses on the unromantic spiteful relationship between the two main characters, Beatrice and Benedick. Beatrice, the niece of Leonato is a quick-witted, independent woman, who proclaims hers disdain of love and marriage. Despite her hate for love, from the events of the play she soon exposes a very vulnerable side of her and is a gentle and sweet person. During the play, the audience learns how she is tricked into falling in Benedick, and how her feeling towards love changes, making the play very appealing.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Shakespeare presents Friar Lawrence in many ways, such as, a holy man, a fatherly figure but also as a coward. Friar Lawrence is a key instrument of fate within the play; he has good intentions but ends up helping fate to create tragedy.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In many of the plays by William Shakespeare, the central character goes through internal and external changes that ultimately shake their foundations to the core. Numerous theories have been put forth to explain the sequence of tragedies Shakespeare wrote during this period by linking it to some experience of melancholy, anger, despair, and the antagonist 's ultimate fall from grace in their lust for power. But such theories overlook the fact that it is in this very same period and in the same tragic works that portray the heights to which human nature can rise and fall in its purest and noblest, if not happiest terms. Surely the creation of so much light alongside the darkness and the perfection of the artistic medium through which Shakespeare gives them expression argues against the idea that the greedy side of human nature is his chief concern. His efforts to portray human life in its rarest form and not only the dark depths, but also the treasure rooms of our being. He tries to pierce beneath the superficial motives and forces of surface behavior, social, and cultural expressions and to the deeper levels of individual character and human nature. Shakespeare then places these aspects of human existence in their true relation to the wider field of universal life. In relation to the tragic hero, there are many similarities between the tragic heroes in Macbeth and King Lear. However, the differences between the two outline the re-occurring themes in both plays. In Shakespeare 's plays the central characters ' own weaknesses and lust for power lead to corruption. The unchecked power in Shakespeare 's Macbeth and King Lear ultimately leads to corruption, tragedy, and the hero 's fall from grace.…

    • 1448 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    In volume 1 chapter 3, Mr Lockwood is sleeping in the room in which Cathy lived as a child. He is awoken by a scratching on the window and awakes the household by screaming loudly. Heathcliff enters the room to investigate first, rather than a servant, which suggests that he hoped to see an apparition of Cathy. His desperation to see Cathy is described later on in the chapter as he “wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears”. The violence of these actions-such as “wrenched”, “bursting” and passion”- all highlight that his need to see Cathy is uncontrollable, and is the force that keeps him going. It also suggests that Heathcliff has been repressing his emotions, and the hope of seeing Cathy has unlocked them. It also infers the amount of control Cathy still has over Heathcliff, even twenty years after her death. Furthermore, this display of emotion is a contrast to the coldness Heathcliff displays when Lockwood and Heathcliff are first introduced. Lockwood mentions at the beginning of the novel that he had “no desire to aggravate his impatience” which suggests to the reader that is it clear upon meeting Heathcliff that he is a very controlling person and is easily wound up. This makes Heathcliff’s later behaviour…

    • 2950 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Shakespeare’s text, Hamlet’s insistence that Gertrude has rushed to “incestuous sheets” conveys a far less sympathetic view of her character, and essentially putting her at fault for marrying Claudius and betraying the late King Hamlet. Instead, the directors use the nuances of a setting in order to shift the blame to Prince Hamlet and create a far less biased view of his emotions and motivations. As a result, Hamlet’s preoccupation with finding an entity to blame can be observed by the reader as a consequence of his being overwhelmed by various emotions, such as anger and possibly…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heathcliff is a prime example of a character with a “diseased mind” that causes him suffering. He spends the majority of his life contemplating and acting out revenge towards Hindley and the Lintons because he believes it was their fault Catherine thought it would “degrade” her to marry Heathcliff, even though she loved him; this is one example of his unstable mind set. In chapter 9 Nelly foreshadows the suffering of Heathcliff by saying “if you [Catherine] are his choice, he’ll be the most unfortunate creature,” this is because Nelly understands that society wouldn’t accept the pair to marry, therefore Heathcliff will be unfortunately heartbroken. Heathcliff believes that Catherine is a part of him: “I cannot live without my soul,” he says which highlights that he is suffering without her. It is from this heartbreak and suffering that his “diseased mind” commenced. Heathcliff’s “diseased mind” heightens when he asks for Catherine to “haunt” him when she is dead; haunting is an element of the Gothic genre but the madness of Heathcliff is enhanced when he requests that Catherine drives him “mad.” The word “mad” is ambiguous in this quotation because it could be viewed that Heathcliff wants to be haunted until he is angry with Catherine so he can destroy his love for her. An alternative view is that Heathcliff wants to be haunted until he is insane and suffering since he is desperate to see Catherine, this becomes true because after Catherine’s death Heathcliff’s mind is haunted by his love for her. Jerold E. Hogle explains this is accurate because characters in Gothic novels are “haunted psychologically” and this is accurately shown through the…

    • 646 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The violent love of Heathcliff and Catherine reflects how extremes of emotion can heavily affect both of these character’s behaviours. This is because Catherine faces a battle against her body or nature in going with Heathcliff particularly when ‘Skulker has bitten her’ suggesting that at their union, only violence will ever come from it and the natural order is in disarray. The symbolism of the dog ‘Skulker’ is also important because the ‘Skull’ symbolises the hard durable part of the body, and that much like the skull, they will have to endure a hard struggle in order for their love to survive. Conversely, it could also suggest that Catherine is going against her brain in loving Heathcliff, and in doing so goes against social norms, which for her is normality. Moreover, Heathcliff’s name can be deconstructed into ‘Heath’ and ‘cliff’ both symbolising nature and the ‘cliff’ in particular represent a barrier to the destructive power of…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    'The theme of childhood, voiced by the elder Cathy on her deathbed, is continued in the main action of the second half of the book [.. .] in one way or another childhood is in fact the central theme of Emily Bronte's writing'.' This time in Catherine's life, which is unquestionably associated with Heathcliff's appearance in her house and the strong feelings the boy then arouses in her, is, indeed, described at length by the narrator Nelly, as it will determine the following events in the novel. Catherine's dreams of happiness are associated with childhood all through her life, and even on her death-bed she still looks like a child in Nelly's eyes: 'She drew a sigh, and stretched herself, like a child reviving, and sinking again to sleep and five minutes after I felt one little pulse at her heart, and nothing more!''.Finally it is the ghost of a child that visits Lockwood, the newcomer and second narrator in the novel. Until she dies at the age of nineteen, Catherine clings in a passionate way to her childhood memories. The most revealing passage is the scene which takes place after Heathcliff has returned from a long absence and has just quarrelled with Catherine's husband, Edgar Linton. This scene, in which she raves, is significant as it echoes the childhood scenes in which she suffered from being separated from Heathcliff. Her memories have actually never stopped cropping up in an insistent way and she now…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, documents one character's continual development. From a hesitant youth to a ruthless revenge-seeker, there are three major turning points that propose the start of Hamlet's wicked evolution. In dealing with his father's passing, Hamlet's grief burdens him to be overwrought with emotion and causes him to contemplate the irrational, even murder. The Players' scene, Prayer scene and Closet scene all present possible key turning points for this change. Although Hamlet's sanity remains questionable throughout the play, these three scenes suggest possible points in which Hamlet becomes particularly vicious. Beginning with the vision of his father's ghost relaying the notion of his own murder by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, Hamlet's mind becomes increasingly flooded with impulsions.…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Haunting: Analysis

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the middle of The Haunting, the reader got to read who the antagonist is in Charlotte’s diary and Charlotte describes Mr. Slade’s a cruel, villainy, nasty, thief, coward, and a rotten man (27-28). Readers get the sense what Charlotte had when she first saw Mr. Slade. The…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cathy provides evidence for the theory that death is seen to be a welcome release from the tortures of living. Her first ‘torture’ can be seen to be the fact that she is second to Heathcliff in her own fathers eyes, and this is highlighted to her in her father’s telling her that he ‘cannot love’ her. Another problem Cathy must face is that of her class and gender. As a woman of the 1700s, she would be expected to marry into a wealthy family … The biggest ‘torture’ in Cathy’s life is that of romance. She…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juxtaposition In Hamlet

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages

    William Shakespeare, regarded as one of the greatest English playwrights of all time, crafted Hamlet, a masterpiece that unravels a corrupt royal family. As the play opens with the death of the Denmark king, the audience is thrown into a world of power and betrayal. Prince Hamlet’s discovery of his father’s murder sets the stage for a creative and engaging story delving into the intricacies of revenge. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the motif of revenge to convey the complexities of human nature rooted in internal conflicts, demonstrating the dangers of revenge. Hamlet’s journey for revenge leads him down an emotionally and internally difficult path swamped in moral dilemmas as he faces the consequences of revenge and the inevitability…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Written in the 19th century, the concepts explored within “Wuthering Heights” would be terrifying towards its audience. The 19th century was an age whereby there was a huge expansion of the British Empire; therefore there was a lot of new cultural difference introduced into Britain at this time. Therefore the concept of the “other” would have been one which was unfamiliar, and unaccepted to a 19th century audience. Our protagonist and “gothic hero” Heathcliff is a character which would have scared a society and this is symbolised by his degrading treatment by all those who are considered as “normal”. The “unreclaimed creature” is immediately dehumanised through his descriptions as “it”, and is immediately victimised by all the other characters within the stories. Catherine “spits” at him and Hindley often strikes him. But I think it is Heathcliff’s “dark” skin tone arguably scares his companions into acting in such a way. Like other dark figures such as Othello in Shakespeares “Othello” Heathcliff posses the capability to love a “thousand” times better than Edgar Linton, thus suggesting that he posses the capability to love a thousand times better than us, the audience. He is what Freud described as a monumental figure- he is larger than life. His capability to love like a God causes us to immediately denounce him into an “imp of Satan”, a “devil daddy” and practically shove him into the category of the sub- human. This is simply because we as humans want to see ourselves as the best and like God; Catherine for example assumes herself as entering “heaven”. However she even acknowledges the supernatural capabillity of Heathcliff describing his love as the “eternal rocks beneath” even though there is no “visible delight”. This only leads to the angels “flinging” her out of Heaven because of their anger and onto the Heights- the dwelling of Heathcliff. Her infatuation with this “black villain” only proves that h e is greater than the normal and the ordinary i.e. the…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays