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The Tempest by William Shakespeare - Analysis

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THEMES/INTERESTING THINGS Evoking Fate -           " Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging: make the rope of his destiny our cable" -           " By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; " Usurpation of rulers and the seizing of power: -           Usurpation of Prospero by Antonio and Alonso -           Plan to usurp Alonso by Antonio and Sebastian Revenge -           "By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; " Noble birth doesn’t necessitate gentility: -           " To think but nobly of my grandmother: Good wombs have borne bad sons" Education as more valuable than nobility -           "Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom. " -           " Me, poor man, my library Was dukedom large enou

The Tempest by William Shakespeare - Summary

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CHARACTERS The shipwrecked: Alonso - King of Naples, father of Ferdinand (conspired with Antonio) Ferdinand - Prince of Naples, falls in love with Miranda Sebastian - brother of Alonso, also conspired with Antonio against Prospero Antonio - brother of Prospero, Duke of Milan after usurping Prospero (conspired with Alonso) Gonzalo - leaves Miranda and Prospero supplies, enabling their survival Stephano - friend of Trinculo Trinculo - friend of Stephano, thought to be a spirit by Caliban ---- Claribel - Alonso's daughter, married to the Prince of Tunis Miranda - Prospero's daughter, falls in love with Ferdinand Prospero - former Duke of Milan Ariel - Prospero's familiar spirit, freed by Prospero after being trapped in a tree by Sycorax Sycorax - a witch who trapped Ariel in a tree, now dead Caliban - Prospero's servant, son of Sycorax. Proposes to kill Prospero and make Stephano king of the island SUMMARY Act I, Scene I- on a boa

The Birds by Aristophanes - Analysis

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THEMES/MOTIFS ·         Criticism of Athens ·           Parody of Athens, its system of government and its army ·           Homosexuality ·           Utopia ·           Explicit sexuality ·           Metafiction (getting a poet to celebrate the new city, mentioning homer) ·           References to Socrates Aristophanes

The Birds by Aristophanes - Summary

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The play opens with Euelpides and Pithataerus in a wild and desolate region, each with a bird in hand. They followed the advice of birds and regret it now that they are lost. The characters speak directly to the audience. They are average citizens escaping the duties and taxes of Athenian life. The men meet Trochilus, slave-bird to Epops, formerly king Teurus, now turned Hoopoe (a bird). They flatter him, telling him they are escaping Athens to be more like him, a free bird devoid of debt and cares, as well as intellectually and physically superior to men. They ask him to direct them to a city that is more pleasant than Athens, not an aristocratic place but a place where food is free and plentiful. Epops suggests several towns but they are not adequate to the men. And so, Pithetaerus comes up with the idea to found a city. The city will be built in the sky, which is the perfect location to control mankind as well as the gods, by controlling the trafficking of sacrificial smoke, thu