As you like it

Summary
The play begins with Orlando complaining to Adam that his brother, Oliver, has
unjustly withheld his inheritance from him. Oliver enters, and Orlando expresses his
discontentment. Before telling Orlando to leave, Oliver hastily assures Orlando that he
will receive some of his will. With Orlando gone, Oliver receives Charles, the dukes
wrestler, who informs him that the new duke, Duke Frederick, has banished his older
brother, Duke Senior. He reports furthermore that Rosalind, the banished dukes
daughter, has remained in court with Celia, and that the old duke has retreated to the
Forest of Arden. The wrestler also tells Oliver that he is scheduled for a match with
Orlando the next day; he advises Oliver to stop Orlando from fighting in order to protect
his life. Oliver deceitfully tells Charles that he has already tried to dissuade Orlando and
that Orlando is, in any case, a villainous contriver, leaving Charles determined to win
the match the following day. Oliver remains alone and articulates, in a passionate
soliloquy, his irrational hatred for his brother.
Celia tries to console Rosalind about the banishment of her father, and to convince her
to think of her father, Duke Frederick, as Rosalinds own. They are interrupted
by Touchstone, the court fool.Monsieur Le Beau enters and informs Celia, Rosalind,
and Touchstone that there will soon be a wrestling match, between a young man and an
undefeated wrestler who has recently won matches against a set of three brothers.
Rosalind and Celia beg the young opponent, Orlando, to withdraw from the fight, but to
no avail. Orlando wins, to the astonishment of all spectators.
Celia and Rosalind are discussing Rosalinds newfound adoration for Orlando when
Duke Frederick interrupts and orders Rosalind to leave the court, at threat of death.
Upon Fredericks exit, Celia promises that she will leave with Rosalind; they plot to go,
with Touchstone and in disguise, Rosalind dressed as a man and Celia as a shepherdess,
to find Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden.
Meanwhile in the forest, Duke Senior is optimistically relishing in his natural
surroundings, and planning to hunt some venison. Back at the court, Duke Frederick
discovers that Celia has gone missing with Rosalind, and orders his lords to go retrieve
Oliver, who might know where Orlando (whos suspected to be with the girls) is. At
Orlandos own residence, Adam warns Orlando that Oliver is inside and intends to burn
down the house; he convinces Orlando to seek exile, and offers him his own money and
company.

On their way into the forest, Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone meet Silvius and Corin, a
young man and an old man engaged in a dispute about love. When Rosalind and Celia
discover that Corin has no food to give them, they decide, on a whim, to buy the
cottage, pasture, and flock that he mentions are for sale.
Jaques returns after a long absence to Duke Senior and describes a fool he met in the
forest. Orlando rudely interrupts their conversation and, requiring food and thinking that
he must act savagely in the savage forest, demands that they give it to him. He is met
with a warm invitation by Duke Senior to join their meal, and briefly departs to retrieve
Adam, who is weak and hungry, so that he, too, may join.
At the court, Duke Frederick orders Oliver to bring Orlando to court within the year. In
the forest, Orlando begins posting love poems to Rosalind on trees. Privately, Celia
reveals to Rosalind that she knows Orlando to be the infatuated poet. Soon after,
Orlando enters and Rosalind (in disguise as a man named Ganymede) mentions the tree
poems to him. When he admits to being their author, she offers to cure him of his love:
she will pretend to be Rosalind and act as a despicable version of her.
Touchstone and Audrey, Touchstones fiance, are conversing about Audreys nonpoetical nature when Sir Oliver Martext arrives to perform their wedding service. At
Jaquess suggestion, however, Touchstone decides to have a proper marriage in a
church, and so dismisses Martext.
Corin invites Rosalind and Celia to come witness an exchange between Silvius and his
lover, Phebe, in which Silvius pleads with Phebe not to scorn him and calls her cold.
When Rosalind, dressed asGanymede, intervenes and attacks Phebe with a slew of
insults, Phebe falls immediately in love with him.
Orlando comes late to meet Rosalind (as Ganymede), and she scolds him for his
tardiness. After Rosalind (as Ganymede) gives Orlando a lesson in love, he departs.
Soon after, Silvius arrives with a love letter that Phebe has written for Ganymede.
Oliver enters shortly after and gives Rosalind a bloody napkin, sent to her from
Orlando, who recently fought off a lioness in order to save Olivers life. Rosalind faints.
Oliver reveals to Orlando that he has fallen in love at first sight with Celia (who he
thinks is the shepherdess, as that is her disguise). Rosalind enters and tells Orlando that
she is skilled in the art of magic and can promise him that, if he truly loves Rosalind, he
will be married to her the next day. She articulates all of the unions that will happen the
next day: Orlando, Silvius, and herself will all be married; Orlando will marry Rosalind,

Ganymede will marry Phebe if he ever marries a woman, and if he doesn't then Phebe
will marry Silvius.
The next day, Touchstone recounts to Duke Senior a humorous report of a quarrel he has
just had with a courtier. Then Hymen, the god of marriage, enters singing, and escorts
Rosalind to Orlando and her father. Rosalind's disguise as Ganymede is revealed, and
she marries Orlando, while Phebe agrees to marry Silvius. Just then, Jaques de
Boys (Orlando and Oliver's third brother) enters to inform everyone that Duke
Frederick, while on his way to attack Duke Senior in the forest, came across a religious
man and was converted to a life of peace. Duke Frederick has also decided to return his
crown to his banished brother and restore all of his lands. Duke Senior welcomes Jaques
de Boys, and praises the fortune of the occasion; he suggests that they continue on in
their revelry and marriages. Jaques, meanwhile, announces that he will go join Duke
Frederick in his new monastic lifestyle.
The play finishes with an epilogue, spoken uncharacteristically by a woman, in which
Rosalind expresses her aim to conjure the audience.
Deception, Disguise, and Gender
As You Like It is structured around acts of deception that complicate the plays narrative
and allow for events to unfold that otherwise might not. The primary tricksters of the
play are Rosalind and Celia, who disguise themselves in order to go undetected into the
Forest of Arden. Rosalind dresses as a man and goes by the name Ganymede; Celia
pretends to be a shepherdess and calls herself Aliena. By constructing false
appearances and presenting themselves dishonestly, Rosalind and Celia incidentally
inspire their lovers to act more truly and honestly toward them. When Rosalind is
dressed as Ganymede, Orlando reveals to her how deeply he loves Rosalind, without
knowing that he is addressing her. Rosalinds disguise thus permits Orlando to speak
more openly and perhaps less intentionally than he might if he knew the true identity of
his conversation partner. Celias attire does not alter her seeming identity as radically as
Rosalinds, but it, too, changes her lovers initial conduct around her, by making her
seem to be not of courtly upbringing. Whereas Rosalinds disguise provokes honest
speech from her lover, Celias tests the honesty of her lovers love: the fact
thatOliver falls in love with her despite her shepherdesss exterior indicates how
genuine his love is.
When Rosalind and Celia act out roles, they alter not only the way they act, but also the
way that other people act toward them. These instances of disguise and deception, along

with serving as important plot points and providing great comic potential, thus represent
the playacting and deception performed by every character in the play and, moreover,
by every person in his or her life. They illustrate and exaggerate the extent to which
All the worlds a stage/ And every man and woman merely players.
Romantic Love
As You Like It mocks traditional dramatizations of love, inspiring folly, servitude, and
sorrow in its victims. Orlandos bad, omnipresent poetry; Silviuss slavish commitment
to Phebe, a plain and unloving shepherdess; and Rosalinds, Olivers, and Phebes
speechless and instantaneous infatuations (they all fall in love at first sight) are all
exaggerated instances of the dramatized representations of love that the play is
mocking. At the end of the play, Rosalind serves as a fair judge of love, assessing the
relationships of each character in the play and rationally determining who shall marry
whom. The final scene is a grand wedding, with vows said between four couples
(Rosalind and Orlando; Celia and Oliver; Touchstone and Aubrey; and Silvius and
Phebe). The play thus concludes by celebrating a more reasonable, sustainable form of
love, demonstrated in four instances of its most potent and permanent manifestation.
Country vs. City
All the characters, at some point in the play, leave the royal court for the Forest of
Arden. This mass exodus results from various characters being forced into exile (Duke
Senior, Orlando, Rosalind), and then various others voluntarily joining them
(the Lords, Adam, Celia). The forest thus serves as the theater of the play. A space in
which time and conduct are relaxed, it is a setting that allows for things to happen and
people to act in ways that they wouldnt within the bounds of mannered city life: royalty
and shepherds comingle (Rosalind and Celia interact with Silvius, Phebe,
and Corin;Touchstone marries Audrey), the former pose as the latter (Rosalind and
Celia dress themselves as people of the forest), and Cupids presence is potent (romance
is sparked, vows are said). To welcome the weddings at the end of the play, Duke Senior
declares, in this forest let us do those ends / That where were well begun and well
begot.
Love and Rivalry Between Relatives
The play is structured around two pairs of siblings and one pair of cousins
Orlando and Oliver,Duke Senior and Duke Frederick, Celia and Rosalind. Each pair
has a different dynamic, defined by varying degrees of familial love and desire for
power. Whereas the relationships between Oliver and Orlando and between the two

dukes are characterized by competition, envy, and power mongering, Celia and Rosalind
maintain a relationship characterized by love and inseparability.
By the end of the play, however, love and mutual understanding become defining
features of all of these close family ties, even for the spiteful male siblings: Orlando
looks past Olivers prior evil and saves his brother from a potentially fatal attack;
returning his brothers generosity, Oliver revokes his previous intent to kill Orlando and
treats him as a true brother. Oliver and Orlando are then further united by their
simultaneous marriage to the inseparable cousins, Rosalind and Celia. Even the
malignant relationship between the dukes is resolved, as Duke Frederick, en route to
fight his brother, encounters a religious man and is suddenly inspired to devote his life
to a monastic existence. To fulfill his purpose and undo his past evil, he restores power
to Duke Senior. In all of these relationships, conflict arises out of competition, jealousy,
and a desire for unchallenged power. In all, these forces are shown to be ultimately less
powerful than the force of love (for family, for God).
Fools and Foolishness
There is a distinction developed throughout As You Like It between those who are fools
and those who are foolish. Touchstone is the exemplary fool: he is witty and poetical,
and his comments, though cloaked in clownish language, are wise and apt. He is,
moreover, self-conscious about his own identity as a fool, and philosophizes on the very
characterization, commenting the more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise
men do foolishly, and The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself
to be a fool. In the former, he reflects on the fools lack of authority; in the latter, he
suggests that those who call themselves fools may well be wiser than those who call
themselves wise. In both, he reveals himself to be more wise than foolish. Jaques, on
the other hand, is an exemplar of foolishness. He is foolish enough to aspire to become a
fool (and, moreover, is unsuccessful) and he does not have Touchstones wisdom or
quickness of expression. While Touchstone is embraced by the court and admired by the
Duke, Jaques is out of place throughout the play, and ultimately retreats with Duke
Frederick into a monastic existence.
There is also a sense in which foolishness is universal, especially in matters of
romance: Orlandolooks foolish when he is wildly posting his poems,
and Rosalind and Oliver, too, when they fall instantaneously in love. Foolishness in
these cases is simply the manifestation of an irrational state of extreme emotion.

King lear
Summary
King Lear intends to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, so that he can
enjoy old age without the burdens of power. He has planned a ceremony in which each
daughter will state how much she loves him, before an audience of nobles including
Lear's long-trusted advisor, Kent, the Earl of Gloucester, and two suitors for his
youngest daughter's hand, Burgundy and France. During the ceremony, his elder
daughters, Goneril and Regan each profess to love Lear more than anything in the
world. However, his youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to play along; when her turn
comes, she says that she loves Lear "no more, no less" than she should as a daughter.
Enraged, Lear strips her of her dowry, and banishes Kent when the latter attempts to
intercede on Cordelia's behalf. France says he will marry Cordelia even without a
dowry. Lear then tells the gathered nobles that he will keep one hundred knights and
alternate months living with Goneril and her husband, Albany, and Regan and her
husband, Cornwall.
Back at Gloucester's palace, Edmund, Gloucester's illegitimate son, plans to displace
his legitimate brother, Edgar, as Gloucester's heir by turning Gloucester against Edgar.
Edmund tricks Gloucester into thinking that Edgar is conspiring to kill him. Meanwhile,
Goneril, with whom Lear has gone to live first, becomes angry with her father and his
knights for causing chaos in her household. She orders her steward Oswald to treat Lear
coldly. Meanwhile, the banished Kent returns to Lear in disguise, offers his services,
and is accepted as part of Lear's company. Goneril criticizes Lear for his knights'
rowdiness and demands that he dismiss half of them. Deeply insulted and angered, Lear
curses Goneril and prepares to leave to go and stay with Regan along with his Fool and
his other followers.
Back at Gloucester's castle, Edmund's conspiracy moves along. After Edmund tricks
Edgar into fleeing, Gloucester, convinced of Edgar's evil intentions, condemns him to
death, declaring Edmund his legitimate heir. Cornwall and Regan arrive at Gloucester's
castle and welcome Edmund into their service. Outside, Kent and Oswald arrive with
letters for Regan from Lear and Goneril. Kent insults Oswald and challenges him to
fight. Roused by the disturbance, Cornwall puts Kent into the stockseven though such
an action is disrespectful to Lear. Elsewhere in the countryside, Edgar disguises himself
as a mad beggar "Poor Tom" in order to escape the death sentence declared by his
father. Lear himself arrives at Gloucester's castle. Upset to find his man Kent (still in

disguise) in the stocks, he grows increasingly angry when Cornwall and Regan refuse to
see him. Shortly after Regan finally comes out, Goneril arrives. Lear quarrels bitterly
with both, as Regan joins Goneril in claiming that Lear does not need to maintain any
attendants of his own. When each says that he may stay with them only if he dismisses
all of his knights, Lear rushes, mad with rage, into a brewing storm. Cornwall, Regan,
and Goneril lock up Gloucester's castle to keep Lear out.
Searching for Lear, Kent, who has been released from the stocks, meets
a Gentleman who tells him that Lear and the Fool are alone in the storm. Kent tells the
Gentleman that French forces are on their way to England. He gives the Gentleman his
purse along with an identifying ring to bring to Cordelia, and asks the Gentleman to tell
her about the injustice that Lear has suffered. Meanwhile, Lear has gone mad and is
raging against the storm, while the Fool begs him to seek shelter. When Kent finds
them, he leads them toward a hovel. Back inside the castle, Gloucester confides in
Edmund that he has decided to try to help Lear; he also reports that he has received a
letter about the French invasion. After Gloucester leaves to find Lear, Edmund tells the
audience that he will betray his father to Cornwall.
Out on the heath, having reached the hovel, Lear, Kent, and the Fool find Edgar,
disguised as Poor Tom, inside. Gloucester finds them soon after, and leads them to the
shelter of a house. Inside Gloucester's castle, Edmund tells Cornwall about Gloucester's
decision to help Lear and hands over the incriminating letter from France. In return,
Cornwall makes Edmund Earl of Gloucester. Back in the house, hiding from the storm,
Lear hallucinates that Goneril and Regan are on trial before himself, Edgar, and the
Fool. Gloucester returns, tells Kent that Goneril, Regan, and their husbands are plotting
Lear's death, and asks Kent to rush Lear to Cordelia, who has landed with France at
Dover. Back inside the palace, Cornwall sends men to capture Gloucester and sends
Edmund and Goneril to tell Albany that the French have landed. When Cornwall's
forces bring in the captured Gloucester, Cornwall and Regan pull out Gloucester's eyes
as punishment for his treachery. However, Cornwall's Servant attempts to stop him;
they end up dueling. Although Regan stabs the servant in the back, Cornwall receives a
wound that will eventually kill him. Regan throws the now blinded Gloucester out of his
own castle. Two servants take pity on Gloucester, and decide to try to help him find
Poor Tom, who they know is Edgar in disguise.
Outside Gloucester's palace, Edgar, still disguised as Poor Tom, meets his blinded
father. Deeply moved, he agrees to show him the way to Dover. Meanwhile, Goneril and
Edmund have traveled back to her palace to fetch Albany. However, Oswald meets them
and reports that Albany has changed. Goneril quickly sends Edmund away. When

Albany emerges, he berates her for her brutality to her father. In response, she criticizes
him for becoming cowardly. A messenger arrives, interrupting their argument with news
of both the death of Cornwall from the wound his servant gave him as well as the
blinding of Gloucester.
In the French camp, Kent and a Gentleman discuss Cordelia's love of Lear, which has
brought her back to Britain at the head of an invading French army. Kent reports that
Lear himself is in Dover and, although he has spells of sanity, he is too ashamed to see
Cordelia. In the camp, Cordelia herself sends a search party after her father. Back at
Gloucester's palace, Regan questions Oswald about Goneril and Edmund. She states her
feeling that, now that she is a widow, she should marry Edmund and asks Oswald to
convince Goneril of the logic of this. As Oswald hurries off with a letter for Edmund
from Goneril, Regan adds that she will show favor to anyone who kills the blinded
Gloucester. Meanwhile, hoping to cure Gloucester of his despair, Edgar pretends to lead
him to the cliffs of Dover (they are actually on flat ground). When Gloucester jumps, to
commit suicide (in fact just fainting and falling), Edgar then hurries over to him while
pretending to be someone who saw Gloucester jump, and telling Gloucester that the fact
that he survived is a miracle. Lear shows up, raving mad; he jabbers at Gloucester about
lechery, the abuse of power, and other human faults. When some of Cordelia's search
party turn up, Lear runs off. Just the, Oswald happens upon Edgar and Gloucester. He
attempts to kill Gloucester but Edgar kills him. In Oswald's purse, Edgar finds letters
from Goneril to Edmund plotting Albany's death so that they can marry. In the French
camp, Lear is awakened by the doctor treating him and is reunited with Cordelia.
At her camp, at the start of the battle, Goneril argues with Albany;
she tells herself that she would rather lose the war against the French
than let Regan marry Edmund. Edgar, still disguised as a peasant,
brings Goneril's letter to Edmund, describing her plot against Albany,
to Albany then quickly leaves, with instructions that Albany must
summon him with three blows of a trumpet after the battle with the
French, if the British have won. While Edgar places Gloucester
beneath a tree to rest, the battle takes place off stage. In the battle,
Britain defeats France and Lear and Cordelia are captured by Edmund.
Edmund sends them to jail, then sends a Captain after them with
secret instructions to kill them both. Summoned by Albany's Herald,
Edgar arrives in disguise and fights and wounds Edmund, who, dying,
admits to all his treacheries. Edgar identifies himself and explains
that, right before coming, he revealed himself to Gloucester;
Gloucester died in that moment of a mix of grief and joy. Goneril has
poisoned Regan beforehand, in the hopes of securing Edmund for
herself; however, when he dies, she also stabs herself. Before he dies,

Edmund admits that he sent his Captain to hang Cordelia and kill
Lear. Albany sends soldiers running off to try to save them. However,
it is too late: Lear emerges from the prison with Cordelia's body in his
arms, mad with grief. He explains that he killed the Captain who hung
her but was too late to save her life. Lear dies of his sorrow on the
spot. Only Albany and Edgar remain to pick up the pieces, as Kent
concludes that he soon must follow his master (i.e., kill himself, too).

Themes
Fathers, Children, and Siblings
The personal drama of King Lear revolves around the destruction of family
relationships. Tragedy emerges from bonds broken between parents and childrenand,
at a secondary level, from the loss of ties among siblings. Lear, misreading Cordelia's
understated, but true, devotion to him renounces his "parental care" (1.1.127) of her.
This rejection is twofold. Lear withdraws his "father's heart" (1.1.142); he also strips
Cordelia of the financial and political support that formerly made her attractive to her
suitors. Driven by greed and ambition, Goneril and Regan fail to show any solidarity
with their sister in 1.1. And later, despite their strong professions of love for Lear, they
both betray him in order to consolidate their political authority. In addition, although the
two "tigers, not daughters" (4.2.49) initially ally with each other, their lustful desire for
Edmund ultimately drive Goneril to murder Regan, before committing suicide when
Edmund himself is killed, thus ensuring the complete annihilation of the Lear line.
Edmund's conspiracy to mislead Gloucester into disinheriting his legitimate son Edgar
provides a foil to the Lear family situation throughout the play. Edmundwho is
Gloucester's illegitimate or "natural" son from an affair outside marriage, rather than a
legitimate or "legal" onefurther highlights the question of where parent-child loyalty
stems from: biology or socially acknowledged status. And, indeed, the private or
familial sphere is inseparable from the public and political realm in King Lear.
Fatherhood, in the play, serves as a model and metaphor for kingly leadership, while the
narrative regarding the disintegration of families parallels the disintegration of the
British state.
Authority and Order
At the beginning of the play, Lear is an authority figure, embodying order in his own
person and commanding it from his family and followers. (This is how he is able to
compel his elder two daughters to participate in the dramatic ceremony dividing the

kingdom by professing their absolute love on cue, precisely when he demands it; this is
why Gloucester, Kent, and others respectfully watch the ceremony unfold, despite
thinking that Lear's plan to give up power is a bad idea.) Just as the father-child bonds
discussed above encompass both a private and a public dimension, authority and order
in this play exist at both the level of the family and the level of the nation.
Throughout the tragedy, Lear and other characters also repeatedly invoke the ideas of
natural and divine order. Lear appeals to the idea of divine justice when his children
treat him unjustly (e.g. after his final quarrel with Goneril and Regan: "O heavens,/ If
you do love old men [] Send down and take my part" [2.4.218-221]). Gloucester
similarly calls out to the gods after he has been betrayed and blinded in 3.7. Meanwhile,
nature in the play seems to mirror the political chaos of the play, particularly in the form
of the brutal storm that rages even as Lear himself, the former embodiment of order in
the kingdom, rages in his own madness.
Disintegration, Chaos, Nothingness
Although Lear begins as a figure of authority and order, when he gives up his power and
Goneril and Regan turn against him, he falls apart, going mad. Moreover, his personal
decline parallels a farther-reaching dissolution of order and justice in the British state.
Lear's error, based on blindness and misjudgment, doesn't just ruin him personally. It
leads to a political situation in which there is no order to guarantee justice, despite his
(and Gloucester's) repeated appeals to the gods.
Cordelia's first answer to Lear's command that she pronounce her love for him, the
answer that first enrages him against her, is (in 1.1) is "nothing." After that first
appearance, the word "nothing" recurs constantly throughout the play in the mouths of
multiple characters. The repetition of this word highlights the theme of nothingness, and
of the complete lack of meaning that results from nothingness after all, when
everything is destroyed, it is not possible to compare anything to anything else, and in
such a void, without any ability to compare, nothing can have any meaning. And,
ultimately, it is hard to argue that the ending of the play offers any justice at all: while
the "bad guys" of Edmund, Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall are all killed, so are the
heroes of Lear, Gloucester, and Cordelia. Nearly the entire social order, good and bad, is
annihilated and turned to nothing. As Lear himself cries out in the moments before he
dies, while holding the dead Cordelia in his arms, with his kingdom destroyed: "Never,
never, never, never, never" (5.3.372).
Old Age

Originally, Lear wishes to free himself of the burdens of ruling his kingdom because he
is aware of his old age and wishes to "crawl unburdened toward death" (1.1.42). As his
choice of the verb "crawl" suggests, Lear has a sense that old age forces the individual
to remember his or her animal aspectthat is, the fact that human beings, like animals,
are subjected to the forces of physical nature and have physical needs.
Age as Goneril and Regan unkindly observe at various points, brings a kind of
weakness with it. Regan mocks Lear: "O, sir, you are old [] You should be ruled and
led/ By some discretion that discerns your state/ Better than you yourself" [2.4.165-9].
Yet, together with the father-child bond, the play also suggests at various points that age
should command respect. The fact that Lear's daughters abuse him for being old makes
their cruelty seem all the worse and also indicates that all they care about is power,
without any thought for wisdom. Cornwall and Regan's brutality to Gloucester is
similarly heightened by our awareness of his agefor instance, when Regan plucks
Gloucester's white beard in 3.7.
Fooling and Madness
From early on in the play, the Fool is probably the character with the greatest insight
into what the consequences of Lear's misjudgments of his daughers will be. (The Fool's
only competition in this respect comes from Kent in 1.1; in 1.2 Gloucester seems only
to have a vague intuition that Lear's decision was a mistake.) Calling Lear himself a
Fool and admonishing him that he has reduced himself to "nothing" by dividing and
handing off his kingdom, the Fool recognizes that by giving up his authority Lear is
essentially ensuring his own destruction and the destruction of his kingdom.
Just as the Fool's apparently nonsensical comments contain some of the most sensible
advice that Lear receives on his behavior, Lear himself gains increasing insight into his
situation as he moves from sanity to madness. His ravingfor instance, in the storm or
on Dover Beachoften resembles the riddling, but incisive, barbs of the Fool. It is
possible to argue that in a world that itself does not seem to make sensea world of
death, of raging storms, of children who turn against their parentsit makes sense that
madness might be the most sane reaction.
Deliberately adopting the mad manner of a bedlam beggar, Edgar provides a
counterpoint to Lear's uncontrollable madness, particularly in the storm scene (3.2).
Blindness and Insight

The tragic errors that King Lear and Gloucester make in misjudging their children
constitute a form of figurative blindnessa lack of insight into the true characters of
those around them. Reminding the audience of this fact, the language of the play
resounds with references to eyes and seeing from the very beginning. Cornwall and
Regan make these images and metaphors of (failed) vision brutally literal when they
blind Gloucester in 3.7. For the remainder of the play, Gloucester serves as a kind of
walking reminder of the tragic errors of blindness that he and Lear have committed. Yet,
Gloucester's greater insight into the character of his two sons after he is blinded reflects
an irony: literal blindness ironically produces insight. Only when Gloucester is blind
can he see things for what they are.
Throughout the play, characters allude to, and call upon, the gods and the
heavens watching over them. As noted above, the gods and heavens suggest order and
eventual justice. However, as watchers of the action of the play, the gods also become a
kind of audience, and like the audience they both see the story of what is happening
more completely than the individual characters on stage and can't seem to do anything
to stop it.

Henry IV part I
Summary
In 1402 England, King Henry IV is forced to postpone his plans for crusades to the
Holy Land in order to tend to unrest in England: Hotspur, Glendower, Mortimer,
and Douglas have been fighting and the bloodthirsty warrior Hotspur refuses to turn
over his war prisoners to the king, an ominous sign of disloyalty. Meanwhile, Prince
Hal is drunkenly frolicking his youth away with Falstaff and Pointz, even though King
Henry wishes Hal could be the honorable soldier Hotspur is. In private, Hal reflects that
his frivolous corruption is just an act and he will soon emerge into his true, honorable
self, all the more impressive for being such a stark contrast. Hotspur argues at court
with King Henry over the prisoners and over ransoming the captured Mortimer (whom
the king insists is a good-for-nothing traitor). Hotspur emerges infuriated that his family
is being disserved by the very man it helped raise to the throne back in the days of King
Richard II. Behind Henrys back, Worcester lets Hotspur andNorthumberland in on a
rebel plot he has strategized against the king. Hotspur eagerly embraces the plot and has
no patience for Richard Scroops letters advising him to be cautious. He hurries to take
action and bickers with Lady Percy on his way out.
As the rebels craft their plot, Prince Hal unfolds a plot of his own as he and Pointz
disguise themselves so that, after Falstaff, Bardolph, Gadshill, and Peto rob travelers

carrying riches to the king, Hal and Pointz can then easily rob their cowardly friends of
the robbed loot. Later at the tavern, Prince Hal and Pointz egg Falstaff on in outrageous
lies about his bravery facing his robbers. When Hal reveals his ruse, he declares
Falstaffs cowardice exposed, but Falstaff insists he has been valiant as ever, he simply
knew he shouldnt wound a prince. Prince Hal receives a message from his father,
summoning him to court and recounting the mounting treason plot. Hal and Falstaff take
turns play-acting King Henry. When the sheriff arrives in search of Falstaffs stolen
loot, Hal covers for his friend.
In Wales, Hotspur, Mortimer, Glendower, and Worcester meet to pursue their plot and
Hotspur argues heatedly with Glendower about celestial signs and with everyone about
his prospective portion of the land they will win from the king. Lady
Mortimer serenades her beloved husband in Welsh, a language he feels miserable not
understanding. Hostpur bickers with Lady Percy. At London castle, Hal apologizes to
King Henry for his irresponsible behavior and promises to redeem himself to honor in
his fathers eyes. Back at the tavern, Falstaff insists to Hostess Quickly that hes been
pickpocketed, a claim she and Hal both call nonsense.
At Shrewsbury, Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas prepare for battle and receive the bad
news that Northumberland and Glendower wont be able to join them. As an army
captain (a position secured for him by Hal), Falstaff drafts cowardly men who pay him
to fill their spots with pathetic lowlifes, leaving Falstaff rich and his troops helpless.
Hotspur and the rest of the rebels sneer at King Henrys efforts to negotiate peace. Back
at York, Richard Scroop tries to drum up more allies for the rebels by writing to friends.
On the morning of the battle, King Henry attempts once more to negotiate peace but
Worcester self-servingly misrepresents the kings peace offering to the rebels as a battle
cry (he fears a peace treaty will make him pay for Hotspurs sins against the throne).
The Battle of Shrewsbury commences and Douglas first slays the loyal Sir Walter
Blunt, who is pretending to be King Henry to protect the king.Prince John surprises
everyone by being an immensely brave soldier. Douglas fights King Henry himself,
whose life is narrowly rescued by Prince Hals intervention. Hal then fights and kills
Hotspur. Falstaff fakes his own death to escape being killed by Douglas, then claims to
have killed Hotspur himself. King Henrys side wins the battle. The king executes
Worcester and Vernon while Hal spares Douglas life. The play ends with King Henry
laying out his strategy for peace in England.

Part II
Summary

Rumor delivers the induction to the play, explaining that King Henry IVs side has
won the Battle of Shrewsbury and Prince Hal has slain the rebel Hotspur but that
rumors spread false news of the rebels victory. Indeed, the play opens
on Northumberland at Warkworth Castle receiving this rumor from Lord Bardolph.
When Morton arrives and sets the story straight, Northumberland vows revenge against
the king. Meanwhile in London, the Chief Justice scolds Falstaff for ignoring several
court summons and tells him hes lucky he became a soldier at Shrewsbury as hed
otherwise be in jail.
Meanwhile in York, the rebels the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, Hastings, and Lord
Bardolph plot their rebellion. Back in London, Mistress Quickly prepares to sue
Falstaff for bankrupting her but Falstaff is, as usual, able to win back her favor (and
more money). Elsewhere in London, Prince Hal jokes around with Poins and, hearing
that Falstaff will dine that night with Doll Tearsheet, plans to spy on him. Later, the two
sneak into the raucous, drunken tavern dinner Falstaff is enjoying with Doll Tearsheet
and Mistress Quickly, catching Falstaff in the act of slandering them. The party breaks
up when news arrives that the army is looking for Falstaff (who is technically a captain)
and war is near. Lady Northumberland and Lady Percy, meanwhile, have convinced
Northumberland to ditch the rebels and escape to Scotland. That night, King Henry IV
paces Westminster Castle sleeplessly, soliloquizing about kingly responsibility, dwelling
in reminiscences about his troubled reign, and predicting a grim future for his war-torn
kingdom.
Falstaff arrives at Justice Shallows estate in Gloucestershire to draft soldiers for the
army and meets the sorry recruits Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble and Bullcalf, the
best of which Falstaff secretly take bribes from, drafting only the worst.
In Gaultree Forest, the rebels are poised for battle when Westmoreland approaches to
express surprise that a man of God like the Archbishop would resort to violence. He
conveys Prince John of Lancasters wish for peace. The Archbishop insists he wants
peace too, and lays out their extended grievances against Henry IV, all of which trace
back to Henry IVs wrongful wresting of the throne from King Richard. Westmoreland
delivers the grievances to Lancaster, who warmly offers to redress them all if both sides
disband their armies. The rebel leaders happily release their troops and are shocked
when Westmoreland and Lancaster then arrest them. Lancasters side sets out to capture
the disbanding rebels and convey victory to the king. En route, he runs into dawdling
Falstaff who boasts about his valiance.

When King Henry IV hears about the rebels defeat, his already sick condition worsens.
Prince Hal sits beside his bed as he sleeps and, thinking that his father has died, takes
the crown and leaves. Waking, the king is furious and accuses his son of being a greedy
murderer, but the prince redeems himself by pronouncing his love and promising he has
no lust for power. The king gives final advicelaunch foreign wars to distract subjects
from cooking up rebellionsthen dies.
Falstaff hears of the king's death while dining out at Justice Shallows, but races back to
London, merrily proclaiming that all his friends shall have their pick of office in his
pal King Henry Vs royal court. The princes Lancaster, Clarence, and Gloucester and
the Chief Justice, though, face the new king with less enthusiasm, worried that King
Henry V will abuse his power and rule England in the same reckless style he has always
indulged. They are shocked and impressed, then, when King Henry V proclaims he has
put his wild ways behind him. King Henry V applauds the Chief Justices strictness
towards him in the past and encourages him to stay uncompromisingly upright.
Elsewhere in London, Doll Tearsheet and Mistress Quickly are arrested for murder.
Soon after, Falstaff and his friends wait excitedly among the crowds to watch the new
kings procession. When King Henry V approaches, Falstaff hollers endearments, but
King Henry V claims not to know Falstaff, calling him a bad dream. He announces he is
not the boy he was, and has Falstaff and all his companions arrested and banished.
Lancaster ends the play praising his brothers actions. The king has ensured his old
friends will be provided for, even if banished, until they can mend their ways. An
epilogue explains Falstaffs story will resume in the subsequent play.

Romeo and Juliet

Summary
In Verona, Italy, during the Renaissance, two noble families, the Montagues and
Capulets, are locked in a bitter feud. After a series of public brawls between both the
nobles and the servants of the two families, Prince Escalus, the ruler of Verona,
declares that anyone in either family involved in any future fighting will be put to death.
Every year the Capulets throw a masquerade ball. The Montagues, of course, are not
invited. Capuletand Lady Capulet, hope that this year their daughter Juliet will fall in
love with Paris at the ball, since at thirteen she is almost of marriageable age and Paris
would be a good match. But two Montagues, sixteen-year-old Romeo and his
cousin Benvolio, along with their friend Mercutio, a kinsmen of Prince Escalus, crash
the party. Romeo attends the party only because he wants to see Rosaline, a young

woman he has been unsuccessfully pursuing for quite some time. That lack of success
has made him noticeably lovelorn of late. But at first sight of Juliet, Romeo falls in love.
Juliet is equally smitten. They speak, and kiss. As the party ends Romeo and Juliet
separately discover that they belong to rival families, and are both distraught. Yet
Romeo is already so in love that instead of leaving the Capulet's residence with his
friends, he jumps a wall and hides beneath her balcony. Suddenly she emerges, and tells
the night sky about her forbidden love for Romeo. Romeo jumps out from his hiding
place. They exchange vows of love. The next day, with the help of Friar Laurence and
Juliet's Nurse, Romeo and Juliet are secretly married.
That same day, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter Tybalt, who is Juliet's cousin. Tybalt
is furious that the Montagues crashed the Capulet party (he spotted them). He has
challenged Romeo to a dual. While Mercutio mocks Tybalt, Romeo himself shows up.
Tybalt challenged him to fight. Romeo, who is now secretly Tybalt's kinsmen by
marriage, refuses. Before Romeo can explain his reasons, Mercutio disgustedly steps in.
Romeo tries to separate them, but Tybalt stabs and kills Mercutio under Romeo's arm.
Mercutio dies cursing both Montagues and Capulets. In a rage, Romeo kills Tybalt.
Because Romeo at first tried to stop the fighting, instead of ordering him executed the
Prince banishes him from Verona. Juliet is devastated when she learns that Romeo killed
her cousin, but she decides that her loyalty must be with her husband. That night Romeo
comes to her room and the lovers are able to spend one glorious night together before
Romeo, at dawn, must flee Verona to Mantua.
The death of Tybalt affects Lord Capulet deeply. He decides to marry Juliet to Paris
immediately. Juliet refuses. Capulet threatens to disown her. Lady Capulet sides with
her husband, and even the Nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris and forget Romeo. Juliet
rushes to Friar Laurence, who comes up with a plan: he gives her a potion that will
make it seem like she's died but will really only put her to sleep. She will be laid to rest
in the Capulet tomb, and there will wake up. Meanwhile, the Friar promises to get news
to Romeo so that he'll secretly return from Mantua and be there when she wakes up. She
follows the Friar's advice. The next morning the Capulet household wakes to discover
Juliet has died. Instead of a wedding, they have a funeral. Juliet's body is put in the
tomb.
But the Friar's letter to Romeo goes astray. Romeo hears only that Juliet has died. In
despair, Romeo buys poison and, after fighting and killing a grieving Paris, sneaks into
Juliet's tomb. In the tomb, Romeo gazes on what he thinks is the dead body of his
beloved, drinks the poison, and dies. Seconds later, Juliet wakes. She sees Romeo's

body. Friar Laurence rushes into the cell too late. He tells Juliet what happened, but
hears people approaching. He begs Juliet to come with him, but she refuses. He flees. In
order to be with Romeo, Juliet kills herself with his dagger.
The Montagues and Capulets are grief-stricken when they learn the truth. They agree to
end their feud

Themes
Love
Love in Romeo and Juliet is not some pretty, idealized emotion. Yes, the
love Romeo and Juliet share isbeautiful and passionate. It is pure, exhilarating, and
transformative, and they are willing to give everything to it. But it is also chaotic and
destructive, bringing death to friends, family, and to themselves. Over and over in the
play, Romeo and Juliet's love is mentioned in connection with death and violence, and
finds it's greatest expression in their suicide.
The theme of love in Romeo and Juliet also extends beyond the love that Romeo and
Juliet feel for each other. All the characters in the play constantly talk about
love. Mercutio thinks love is little more than an excuse to pursue sexual pleasure and
that it makes a man weak and dumb. Lady Capulet thinks love is based on material
things: Paris is handsome and wealthy; therefore Lady Capulet believes Juliet will love
him. Lord Capulet sees love as obedience and duty. Friar Laurenceknows that love
may be passionate, but argues that it's also a responsibility. Paris seems to think that
love is at his command, since he tells Juliet that she loves him. In short, love is
everywhere in Romeo and Juliet, and everyone sees it differently.
Fate
From the opening prologue when the Chorus summarizes Romeo and Juliet and says
that the "star-crossed lovers" will die, Romeo and Juliet are trapped by fate. No matter
what the lovers do, what plans they make, or how much they love each other, their
struggles against fate only help fulfill it. But defeating or escaping fate is not the point.
No one escapes fate. It is Romeo and Juliet's determination to struggle against fate in
order to be together, whether in life or death, that shows the fiery passion of their love,
and which makes that love eternal.

Fate is not just a force felt by the characters in Romeo and Juliet. The audience also
senses it through Shakespeare's use of foreshadowing. Time and again, both Romeo and
Juliet unknowingly reference their imminent deaths, as when Juliet says after first
meeting Romeo: "If he be married / My grave is like to be my wedding bed." She means
that if Romeo is already married she'll be miserable. But the audience knows that Juliet's
grave actually will be her wedding bed. In Romeo and Juliet, fate is a force that neither
the characters nor the audience can escape, and so every word and gesture gains in
power, becomes fateful.
Individuals vs. Society
Because of their forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet are forced into conflict with the
social world around them: family, friends, political authority, and even religion. The
lovers try to avoid this conflict by hiding, by escaping from it. They prefer the privacy
of nighttime to the public world of day. They volunteer to give up their names, their
social identities, in order to be together. They begin to keep secrets and speak in puns so
that they can publicly say one thing while meaning another. On the morning after their
marriage, they even go so far as to pretend that day is night so they won't have to part.
But no one can stop day from dawning, and in the end Romeo and Juliet can't escape the
responsibilities of the public world. Romeo tries to stop being a Montague and avoid
fighting Tybalt, but fails. Juliet tries to stop being a Capulet and to stand up to her
father when he tries to marry her off to Paris, but is abandoned by her mother and
the Nurse. Romeo is banished from Verona byPrince Escalus, who embodies political
law. Finally, to preserve their love, Romeo and Juliet are forced to the ultimate act of
independence and privacy: suicide.
Language and Word Play
Romeo and Juliet constantly play with language. They pun, rhyme, and speak in double
entendres. All these word games may seem like mere fun, and they are fun. The
characters that pun and play with language have fun doing it. But word play in Romeo
and Juliet has a deeper purpose: rebellion. Romeo and Juliet play with language to
escape the world. They claim they are not a Montague and a Capulet; they use words to
try to transform day, for a moment, into night; they hide their love even while secretly
admitting it. Other characters play with language too. In particular, Mercutio and
the Nursemake constant sexual puns implying that while everyone is running around
talking about high ideals like honor and love, sex and other base desires are at the root
of human existence.

So language in Romeo and Juliet serves two opposing purposes. It allows some
characters to escape the world into intense love, while it allows other characters to
reveal that the world of love, honor, and high ideals are just masks people use to cover
their animal instincts.
Servants
For a play about the two noble teenagers struggling to preserve their forbidden
love, Romeo and Julietsure has a lot of scenes focused on servants and non-nobles.
Shakespeare did this by design. The recurring presence of servants in the play,
from Peter, the Capulet servant who can't read, to theapothecary who's so poor he's
willing to sell poison, Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet goes to great efforts to show
that the poor and downtrodden have lives of their own, and that to
them Romeo andJuliet's love and death mean absolutely nothing. After all, why would
the death of two noble teenagers mean anything to servants just trying to make it

through the day and scrounge up something to eat for dinner?

The tempest
Summary
A raging storm at sea threatens a ship bearing Alonso, King of Naples, and his court on
their voyage home from the wedding of Alonso's daughter in Tunisia. Frustrated and
afraid, the courtiers and the ship's crew exchange insults as the ship goes down.
From a nearby island, Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, and his
daughter Miranda watch the ship. Miranda worries about the ship's passengers,
suspects that her father has created the storm using his magical powers, and begs him to
calm the waters. Prospero then reveals to Miranda the details of their past, telling how,
12 years ago, his brother Antonio betrayed and overthrew him. With the help of Alonso,
Antonio arranged for Prospero and Miranda to be kidnapped and set adrift at sea. Now,
Prospero says, circumstances allow him to take revenge on his enemies, and for this
reason he has conjured the storm.
Prospero charms Miranda, and she falls asleep. He then summons his spiritservant Ariel, who created the storm. Ariel says that he has made sure everyone made it
to the island alive, but scattered separately, then mentions that Prospero promised to free
him from servitude early in return for good service. Prospero angrily reminds the spirit
that he saved him from the prison in which the witch Sycorax put him. (Sycorax was
the previous ruler of the island.) Ariel apologizes and follows Prospero's ordershe
makes himself invisible and goes to spy on the shipwrecked courtiers. Prospero then

awakens Miranda and summons his servant Caliban, the son of Sycorax. Caliban curses
Prospero, and denies that he owes Prospero anything for educating him. To prove his
point, he recounts how Prospero stripped him of his rulership of the island.
Meanwhile, Ariel, still invisible, leads Ferdinand, Alonso's son, to Prospero. Ferdinand
and Miranda fall immediately in love, but Prospero puts a spell on Ferdinand and takes
him into custody. Elsewhere, Alonso, Gonzalo (an advisor to Alonso), Antonio,
and Sebastian (Alonso's brother) awaken to find themselves safely on shore. Alonso
mourns, thinking that Ferdinand has drowned in the storm. Ariel enters and plays
solemn music that puts Gonzalo and Alonso to sleep. While they sleep, Antonio
persuades Sebastian to try to murder Alonso and become king of Naples. Ariel wakes
the sleeping men just in time to prevent the deed.
On still another part of the island, Caliban encounters Alonso's butler Stephano and
jester Trinculo. He mistakes them for gods because they give him wine and get him
drunk. With Ariel listening in, Caliban persuades them to help him murder Prospero
with the promise that he will serve them as lords of the island.
While Ferdinand does hard labor for Prospero, he encounters Miranda. They express
their affection for each other. With Prospero secretly looking on, they agree to marry.
A bit later, Antonio and Sebastian resume their plot against Alonso, but Ariel again
disrupts it. Appearing as a harpy, he accuses them and Alonso of overthrowing Prospero
and says that only sincere repentance can save them now. Alonso immediately repents.
Antonio and Sebastian pledge to fight back, but Prospero soon enchants and traps them
all.
Back at Prospero's cave, Prospero gives his blessing to Miranda and Ferdinand's
marriage. He summons spirits to perform an elaborate masque (dramatic performance)
for the couple. Suddenly, Prospero remembers Caliban's plot to murder him. He
abruptly ends the masque and, with Ariel's help, tricks and then chases off the three
would-be murderers.
In the play's final scene, Prospero, with Ariel's counsel, decides that rather than taking
revenge he will instead give up his magic and forgive his enemies. He presents himself
to them in the robes he wore as Duke of Milan. The courtiers are astounded. Alonso
apologizes and relinquishes control of Milan, though Antonio remains silent. Alonso
and Ferdinand are reunited, and Alonso gives his blessing to the marriage of Miranda
and Ferdinand. Prospero summons Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban and exposes them
to general scorn. Caliban curses himself for mistaking them for gods. Prospero then

charges Ariel to ensure a safe voyage back to Italy for all, and then grants Ariel his
freedom. The play ends with Prospero's epilogue, in which he asks the audience to
applaud and set him free.

Themes.
Loss and Restoration
Prospero's attempt to recover his lost dukedom of Milan drives the plot of the Tempest.
But Prospero isn't the only character in the play to experience loss. Ariel lost his
freedom to Sycorax and now serves Prospero. Caliban, who considers himself the
rightful ruler of the island, was overthrown and enslaved by Prospero. By creating the
tempest that shipwrecks Alonso and his courtiers on the island, Prospero strips them of
their position and power, and also causes Alonso to believe that he has lost his son to the
sea.
Through their reactions to these losses, the play's characters reveal their true natures.
Reduced to desperation and despair, Alonso recognizes his error in helping to overthrow
Prospero and gives up his claim to Milan, returning Prospero to power and restoring
order between Milan and Naples. Though he desperately wants to be free, Ariel loyally
serves his master Prospero. Prospero, meanwhile, gives up his magic rather than seeking
revenge and frees Ariel before returning to Milan. In contrast to
Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian never show remorse for overthrowing Prospero and
prove to be ambitious killers in their plot to murder and overthrow
Alonso. Stephano and Trinculo, in their buffoonish way, likewise seek power through
violence. And Caliban, as opposed to Ariel, hates Prospero, and gives himself as a slave
to Stephano in an effort to betray and kill Prospero. As Gonzaloobserves in the last
scene of the play, the characters "found ... ourselves, when no man was his own"
(5.1.206-213).
Power
From the opening scene of The Tempest during the storm, when the ruling courtiers on
the ship must take orders from their subjects, the sailors and the boatswain, The
Tempest examines a variety of questions about power: Who has it and when? Who's
entitled to it? What does the responsible exercise of power look like? How should
power be transferred? The play is full of examples of power taken by force, and in each
case these actions lead to political instability and further attempts to gain power through
violence. Antonio and Alonso's overthrow of Prospero leads to Antonio and Sebastian's

plot to overthrow Alonso, just as Prospero's overthrow and enslavement

of Caliban leads Caliban to seek revenge.
Ultimately, it is only when Prospero breaks the cycle of violence by refusing to take
revenge on Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, or Caliban that the political tensions in the play
are calmed and reconciled. After Prospero's merciful refusal to seek revenge, Alonso
and Prospero quickly come to an understanding and unite their once warring cities
through the marriage of their children. The Tempest suggests that compromise and
compassion are more effective political tools than violence, imprisonment, or even
magic.
Magic, Illusion, and Prospero as Playwright
The Tempest is full of Prospero's magic and illusions. The play begins with Prospero's
magic (the tempest), and ends with Prospero's magic (his command that Ariel send the
ship safely back to Italy). In between, the audience watches as Prospero uses visual and
aural illusions to manipulate his enemies and expose their true selves. At nearly every
point in the play, Prospero's magic gives him total controlhe always seems to know
what will happen next, or even to control what will happen next. At one point, Prospero
even goes so far as to suggest that all of life is actually an illusion that vanishes with
death: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a
sleep" (4.1.156-158).
Many critics see Prospero's magical powers as a metaphor for a playwright's literary
techniques. Just as Prospero uses magic to create illusions, control situations, and
resolve conflicts, the playwright does the same using words. Throughout the play,
Prospero often lurks in the shadows behind a scene, like a director monitoring the action
as it unfolds. Prospero refers to his magic as "art." In Act 4 scene 1, Prospero literally
steps into the role of playwright when he puts on a masque for Miranda andFerdinand.
In fact, many critics take an additional step, and argue that Prospero should actually be
seen as a stand-in for Shakespeare himself. The Tempest was one of the last plays
Shakespeare wrote before he retired from the theatre, and many critics interpret the
play's epilogue, in which Prospero asks the audience for applause that will set him free,
as Shakespeare's farewell to theatre.
Colonization
During the time when The Tempest was written and first performed, both Shakespeare
and his audiences would have been very interested in the efforts of English and other
European settlers to colonize distant lands around the globe. The Tempest explores the

complex and problematic relationship between the European colonizer and the native
colonized peoples through the relationship between Prospero and Caliban. Prospero
views Caliban as a lesser being than himself. As such, Prospero believes that Caliban
should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and lifting him out of "savagery." It
simply does not occur to Prospero that he has stolen rulership of the island from
Caliban, because Prospero can't imagine Caliban as being fit to rule anything. In
contrast, Caliban soon realizes that Prospero views him as a second-class citizen fit only
to serve and that by giving up his rulership of the island in return for his education, he
has allowed himself to be robbed. As a result, Caliban turns bitter and violent, which
only reinforces Prospero's view of him as a "savage." Shakespeare uses Prospero and
Caliban's relationship to show how the misunderstandings between the colonizer and the
colonized lead to hatred and conflict, with each side thinking that the other is at fault.
In addition to the relationship between the colonizer and colonized, The Tempest also
explores the fears and opportunities that colonization creates. Exposure to new and
different peoples leads to racism and intolerance, as seen
when Sebastian criticizes Alonso for allowing his daughter to marry an African.
Exploration and colonization led directly to slavery and the conquering of native
peoples. For instance, Stephano and Trinculo both consider capturing Caliban to sell as
a curiosity back at home, while Stephano eventually begins to see himself as a potential
king of the island. At the same time, the expanded territories established by colonization
created new places in which to experiment with alternative societies. Shakespeare
conveys this idea in Gonzalo's musings about the perfect civilization he would establish
if he could acquire a territory of his own.

Hamlet
Summary
A ghost resembling the recently deceased King of Denmark stalks the ramparts of
Elsinore, the royal castle. Terrified guardsmen convince a skeptical nobleman, Horatio,
to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the
dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not
only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius
seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian PrinceFortinbras. But
Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which
claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the
ghost's command to seek revenge.

Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins
to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord
Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness
for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old
friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As
Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet
develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that
resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction.
Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which
Hamlet flies into a rage against women and marriage. Claudius concludes Hamlet
neither loves Ophelia nor is mad. Seeing Hamlet as a threat, he decides to send him
away. At the play that night, Claudius runs from the room during the scene of the
murder, proving his guilt. Hamlet gets his chance for revenge when, on the way to see
Gertrude, he comes upon Claudius, alone and praying. But Hamlet holds offif
Claudius is praying as he dies then his soul might go to heaven. In Gertrude's room,
Hamlet berates his mother for marrying Claudius so aggressively that she thinks he
might kill her. Polonius, who is spying on the meeting from behind a tapestry, calls for
help. Hamlet thinks Polonius is Claudius, and kills him.
Claiming that he wants to protect Hamlet from punishment for killing Polonius,
Claudius sends Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But Claudius
sends with the three men a letter asking the King of England to execute Hamlet.
Meanwhile, Polonius' son, Laertes, returns to Denmark from France to get revenge for
his father's death. Claudius convinces Laertes the death is Hamlet's fault. When a pirate
attack allows Hamlet to escape back to Denmark, Claudius comes up with a new plot in
which a supposedly friendly duel between Hamlet and Laertes will actually be a trap,
because Laertes's blade will be poisoned. As a backup, Claudius will also poison some
wine that he'll give to Hamlet if he wins.
Meanwhile, grief drives Ophelia insane, and she drowns in what seems to be a suicide.
Hamlet arrives just as the funeral is taking place. He claims to love Ophelia and scuffles
with Laertes. Back at the castle, Hamlet tells Horatio he switched the letter sent to
England: now Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be executed. He also says he is ready
to die, and agrees to participate in the fencing match.
During the match, Gertrude drinks to Hamlet's success from the
poisoned glass of wine before Claudius can stop her. Laertes then
wounds Hamlet with the poisoned blade, but in the scuffle they
exchange swords and Hamlet wounds Laertes. Gertrude falls, saying

the wine was poisoned, and dies. Laertes reveals Claudius's treachery.
Hamlet kills Claudius, and exchanges forgiveness with Laertes.
Laertes dies. As Hamlet dies, he hears the drums of Fortinbras's army
marching through Denmark after a battle with the Polish, and says
Fortinbras should be the next King of Denmark. Fortinbras enters with
the Ambassadors from England, who announce that Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are dead. Horatio tells Hamlet's story as Hamlet's body
is taken offstage with the honors due a soldier.

Themes

Action and Inaction

Hamlet fits in a literary tradition called the revenge play, in which a man must take
revenge against those who have in some way wronged him. Yet Hamlet turns the
revenge play on its head in an ingenious way: Hamlet, the man seeking revenge, can't
actually bring himself to take revenge. For reason after reason, some clear to the
audience, some not, he delays. Hamlet's delay has been a subject of debate from the day
the play was first performed, and he is often held up as an example of the classic
"indecisive" person, who thinks to much and acts too little. But Hamlet is more
complicated and interesting than such simplistic analysis would indicate. Because while
it's true that Hamlet fails to act while many other people do act, it's not as if the actions
of the other characters in the play work out. Claudius's plots
backfire, Gertrude marries her husband's murderer and dies for it, Laertesis
manipulated and killed by his own treachery, and on, and on, and on. In the
end, Hamlet does not provide a conclusion about the merits of action versus inaction.
Instead, the play makes the deeply cynical suggestion that there is only one result
of both action and inactiondeath.
Appearance vs. Reality
In Act 1, scene 2 of Hamlet, Gertrude asks why Hamlet is still in mourning two
months after his father died: "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Hamlet responds:
"Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not 'seems.'" (1.2.75-76). The difference between
"seems" (appearance) and "is" (reality) is crucial in Hamlet. Every character is
constantly trying to figure out what the other characters think, as opposed to what those

characters are pretending to think. The characters try to figure each other out by using
deception of their own, such as spying and plotting.
But Hamlet takes it a step further. He not only investigates other people, he also peers
into his own soul and asks philosophical and religious questions about life and death.
Hamlet's obsession with what's real has three main effects: 1) he becomes so caught up
in the search for reality that he ceases to be able to act; 2) in order to prove what's real
and what isn't Hamlet himself must hide his "reality" behind an "appearance" of
madness; 3) the more closely Hamlet looks, the less real and coherenteverything seems
to be. Many analyses of Hamlet focus only on the first effect, Hamlet's indecisiveness.
But the second two effects are just as important. The second shows that the relationship
between appearance and reality is indistinct. The third suggests that the world is
founded on fundamental inconsistencies that most people overlook, and that it is
this failure to recognize inconsistencies that allows them to act. Hamlet's fatal flaw isn't
that he's wrong to see uncertainty in everything, but that he's right.
Women
There are two important issues regarding women in Hamlet: how Hamlet sees women
and women's social position. Hamlet's view of women is decidedly dark. In fact, the few
times that Hamlet's pretend madness seems to veer into actual madness occur when he
gets furious at women.Gertrude's marriage to Claudius has convinced Hamlet that
women are untrustworthy, that their beauty is a cover for deceit and sexual desire. For
Hamlet, women are living embodiments of appearance's corrupt effort to eclipse reality.
As for women's social position, its defining characteristic is powerlessness. Gertrude's
quick marriage to Claudius, though immoral, is also her only way to maintain her
status. Ophelia has even fewer options. While Hamlet waits to seek revenge for his
father's death, Ophelia, as a woman, can'tactall she can do is wait for Laertes to
return and take his revenge. Ophelia's predicament is symbolic of women's position in
general in Hamlet: they are completely dependent on men.
Religion, Honor, and Revenge
Every society is defined by its codes of conductits rules about how to act and behave.
There are many scenes in Hamlet when one person tells another how to
act: Claudius lectures Hamlet on the proper show of
grief; Polonius advises Laertes on practical rules for getting by at university in France;
Hamlet constantly lectures himself on what he should be doing. In Hamlet, the codes of

conduct are largely defined by religion and an aristocratic code that demands honor and
revenge if honor has been soiled.
But as Hamlet actually begins to pursue revenge against Claudius, he discovers that the
codes of conduct themselves don't fit together. Religion actually opposes revenge,
which would mean that taking revenge could endanger Hamlet's own soul. In other
words, Hamlet discovers that the codes of conduct on which society is founded are
contradictory. In such a world, Hamlet suggests, the reasons for revenge become muddy,
and the idea of justice confused.
Poison, Corruption, Death
In medieval times people believed that the health of a nation was connected to the
legitimacy of its king. In Hamlet, Denmark is often described as poisoned, diseased, or
corrupt under Claudius's leadership. As visible in the nervous soldiers on the ramparts
in the first scene and the commoners outside the castle who Claudius fears might rise up
in rebellion, even those who don't know that Claudius murdered Old Hamlet sense the
corruption of Denmark and are disturbed. It is as if the poison Claudius poured into Old
Hamlet's ear has spread through Denmark itself.
Hamlet also speaks in terms of rot and corruption, describing the world as an
"unweeded garden" and constantly referring to decomposing bodies. But Hamlet does
not limit himself to Denmark; he talks about all of life in these disgusting images. In
fact, Hamlet only seems comfortable with things that are dead: he reveres his father,
claims to love Ophelia once she's dead, and handles Yorick's skull with tender care.
No, what disgusts him is life: his mother's sexuality, women wearing makeup to hide
their age, worms feeding on a corpse, people lying to get their way. By the end of the
play, Hamlet argues that death is the one true reality, and he seems to view all of life as
"appearance" doing everything it canfrom seeking power, to lying, to committing
murder, to engaging in passionate and illegitimate sexto hide from that reality.

Doctor Faustus
Summary
Doctor Faustus is a scholar living in Wittenberg, Germany. Feeling that he has reached
the ends of all traditional studies, he decides to pursue magic, and has his
servant Wagner bring him Valdes andCornelius, two men who can teach him how to
perform magic incantations. Two angels (a Good Angel and an Evil Angel) appear. The
Good Angel tries to convince Faustus not to pursue unholy magic, but the Evil Angel

encourages him to delve into sorcery. Valdes and Cornelius give Faustus spell-books
and Faustus is excited to begin casting spells and summoning spirits.
Two scholars, who know of Faustus for his reputation as a scholar, wonder what he is
up to and, running into Wagner, ask him. Wagner tells them that Faustus is with Valdes
and Cornelius, and the two scholars lament Faustus' interest in magic.
Faustus begins conjuring, and summons up a devil named Mephastophilis. Faustus
orders Mephastophilis to do his bidding, but Mephastophilis informs him that he can do
nothing that is not commanded by Lucifer. Faustus asks him questions about hell and
its devils, and then tells Mephastophilis to bring an offer to Lucifer: he will give his soul
to Lucifer, on the condition that he gets 24 years of unlimited power and knowledge,
with Mephastophilis as his willing servant. Mephastophilis goes to Lucifer, and Faustus
thinks that he has made a good deal.
Meanwhile, Wagner finds a clown and persuades him to be his servant, promising to
teach him some magic in return. In his study, Faustus begins to hesitate about the deal
he has proposed with Lucifer. As he debates repenting and turning back to God, the
two angels appear again and try to persuade Faustus in their respective directions.
Faustus renews his resolve to give his soul to Lucifer.
Mephastophilis returns and Faustus questions him about hell, before agreeing officially
to his deal with Lucifer. Mephastophilis demands that Faustus certify the agreement
with a deed of gift written in Faustus' own blood. As Faustus attempts to sign the
agreement, his blood congeals, as if refusing to sign. Mephastophilis fetches some hot
coals to melt the congealed blood, and Faustus signs the agreement. Faustus
immediately regrets the deal, but is distracted from his worries when Mephastophilis
summons up a group of devils bringing various riches to him. Faustus then asks
Mephastophilis more questions about hell. He asks Mephastophilis for a wife, but
Mephastophilis cannot do anything related to marriage (a holy ceremony), so he
summons a devil-woman instead.
Mephastophilis gives Faustus books containing all the knowledge of astronomy and the
stars, as well as of all plants and trees. Faustus again begins to regret giving up his soul
and considers repenting. At this, the angels re-appear and again make their cases to
Faustus. Faustus again decides not to repent. Mephastophilis teaches him about the
movement of the planets and the composition of the universe. Faustus asks who made
the world, but Mephastophilis refuses to answer, as he does not want to say the name of
God. This makes Faustus want to repent again and turn to God. The angels appear
again, and Faustus says that he wishes to repent. At this, Lucifer appears with other

devils, telling Faustus not to speak of God and Christ. Faustus apologizes and assures
Lucifer that he will reject God. Lucifer entertains Faustus by summoning up
personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins, which parade past Faustus for his enjoyment.
Lucifer gives Faustus another book to learn from, before leaving.
A stable-hand named Robin steals one of Faustus' spell-books and tells his friend, the
inn-keeperRafe, that they should try to cast some magic spells. Wagner informs the
audience that Mephastophilis has taken Faustus on a grand tour of the world in a chariot
drawn by dragons, in order to learn all the secrets of astronomy. The pair is now headed
for Rome.
Once in Rome, Faustus wants to see all the city's monuments, but Mephastophilis tells
him to stay in the pope's private chambers and play a joke on him. Mephastophilis
makes Faustus and himself invisible, and they conduct mischief as the pope and his
cardinals attempt to have a banquet. A group of friars attempt to sing a dirge to drive
away malevolent spirits.
Back in Germany, a vintner (wine merchant) confronts Robin and Rafe about a goblet
they have stolen. The pair uses Faustus' spell-book to summon Mephastophilis in order
to scare the vintner away. Mephastophilis comes, but is frustrated that he has been
summoned by two lowly slaves (VIII, 39) for such a banal task. Meanwhile, after
some more traveling, Faustus returns to Germany. His fame as a conjurer has spread far
and wide. The German emperor Charles V has invited Faustus to his court, having
heard about his magic skills.
At the emperor's court, Faustus indulges the emperor by calling up the spirit
of Alexander the Great, essentially Charles' hero. Charles V is exceedingly impressed,
but a knight of his is uncomfortable with the devilish magic and is skeptical of Faustus.
Faustus repays the knight's rudeness by making horns appear on his head.
After Faustus' visit to the emperor, a horse-courser (horse-trader) finds him and asks to
buy his horse. Faustus agrees but tells him not to ride the horse into water. Thinking that
Faustus is trying to trick him, the horse-courser rides the horse into a pond. In the
middle of the pond, the horse vanishes, plunging the horse-courser into the water.
Angry, he attempts to confront Faustus, who is sleeping. He yanks on Faustus' leg to
wake him up, but the leg comes right off Faustus' body. He runs off, scared, while
Faustus' leg is instantly replaced by magic. Wagner informs Faustus that his company is
requested at the court of a nobleman, the Duke of Vanholt.

At the Duke's court, Faustus entertains the Duke and Duchess with his magic. The
Duchess asks for him to make grapes appear (it is the middle of winter and grapes are
unavailable). Faustus does so, to the delight of the Duchess.
Wagner tells the audience that he is worried Faustus will die soon, as he has given his
property to Wagner. In any case, Faustus continues to impress people with his magic. A
group of scholars asks him to call up the spirit of Helen of Greece, the most beautiful
woman in the world, which he does. Anold man appears and urges Faustus to repent.
Faustus is troubled and says that he wants to repent. Mephastophilis calls him a traitor
and threatens to tear his flesh in piecemeal (XII, 59) for his disobedience. Faustus
apologizes and resolves not to repent. He asks Mephastophilis to send demons after the
old man, for making Faustus doubt himself. Faustus asks Mephastophilis to make Helen
his lover, so that her beauty can distract him from his impending doom.
As Faustus' death draws nearer, he begins to despair and the group of scholars with him
asks what is wrong. He finally tells them about the deal he has made with Lucifer and
they are horrified. They go to pray for his soul. Alone on stage, Faustus realizes that he
has only an hour left to live. He begs time to stand still and goes back and forth as to
whether he will repent. He calls out to God, saying that one drop of
Christ's blood would save him, but he is unable to commit to repenting. He tries to
bargain with God, asking for salvation in return for a thousand or a hundred-thousand
years in hell. The clock strikes midnight: Faustus' time is up. He cries out, making a last
promise to burn his books, as devils surround him and drag him away.
The chorus delivers an epilogue to conclude the play, confirming that Faustus has fallen
to hell, and telling the audience to learn from Faustus' example not to try to learn
unlawful things (Epilogue, 6) beyond the limits of appropriate human knowledge

Themes
Temptation, Sin, and Redemption
Deeply immersed in Christianity, Marlowe's play explores the alluring temptation of sin,
its consequences, and the possibility of redemption for a sinner like Doctor Faustus.
Faustus's journey can be seen in relation to the possible trajectory from temptation to sin
to redemption: Faustus' ambition is tempted by the prospect of limitless knowledge and
power, he sins in order to achieve it, and then he rejects possible redemption. He is so

caught up in his desire for power that he neglects the consequences of his deal
with Lucifer. Giving into his temptations, he rejects God in favor of Lucifer
and Mephastophilis, a sin if there ever was one.
In portraying Faustus' sinful behavior, Marlowe reveals the negative effects of sin on
Faustus himself. Despite his originally lofty ambitions, Faustus ends up using his magic
for practical jokes, parlor tricks, and the summoning of a beautiful woman (Helen of
Troy). As the play's scholars lament, Faustus was once an esteemed scholar but after his
deal with the devil he seems a mere shade of his former self.
While Faustus hurts himself and others through sin, he still has the possibility of
redemption throughout the play. As the Good Angel tells him, it is never too late to
repent and thereby gain God's mercy. But Faustus is persuaded by the Evil Angel not to
repent, primarily by convincing Faustus that he's so damned already that he would never
actually be able to return to God. These two angels can be seen as representing the
opposing pulls of redemption and the temptation to sin even more. Faustus listens to the
Evil Angel for the most of the play, but seems to repent in the final scene. Or does he?
The question of whether Faustus really repents at the end of the tragedy is debatable and
has important implications for whether the play suggests that at some moment it really
is too late for a sinner like Faustus to repent and be redeemed. In any case, whether
because he repented too late or didn't repent truly, Faustus rejects the possibility of
redemption and is ultimately damned for his sins.
The Bargain
Faustus' bargain with Lucifer is the most famous part of Doctor Faustus. The so-called
Faustian bargain has become a standard way of referring to some kind of deal with
the devil, a motif that recurs throughout Western literary and cultural traditions (from a
version of the Faust story by the German poet Goethe to the blues musician Robert
Johnson, who legend says sold his soul to Satan for his skill on the guitar). But the
importance of the bargain extends beyond this famous plot device. The idea of some
kind of economic exchange or deal pervades the tragedy. Just as Lucifer cheats Faustus
in their deal, Faustus cheats the horse-courser who buys a horse from him
and Wagner gets a clown to agree to be his servant in return for learning some magic.
These deals might be taken to suggest that bargains are often simply occasions for one
individual to exploit another.
However, there is another system of bargaining in the play, related to Christianity. The
very word redemption literally means a buying back. In Christian thinking, Jesus
redeems mankind by buying back their sins at the expense of his own death. If

Faustus' bargain with Lucifer is sealed with blood, God's agreement with mankind is,
toowith the very blood of Jesus, shed on the cross. Moreover, Faustus can strike a
deal with God at any point in the play, gaining eternal salvation by simply repenting his
sins. Lucifer may hold Faustus to his original agreement, threatening him when he
thinks about repenting, but God is willing to take mercy even on sinners who don't
uphold their end of the divine bargain. Faustus, however, refuses to make this ultimate
deal. At the end of the play, he is desperate but still attempts to haggle with God,
begging for salvation in return for a thousand or a hundred-thousand years in hell.
Thus, one could see the play as ultimately about good and bad deals. And through this
profusion of deals and exchanges, Marlowe is able to raise questions of value: what is
worth more, power in this world or salvation in the next? How much is a soul worth?
Can it even be put in terms of money and profit? As a tragic hero, Faustus is done in by
his excessive ambition and pride, but he is also doomed by his tendency to under-value
the things he bargains with and over-value the things he bargains for.
The Renaissance Individual
Marlowe lived and wrote during the English Renaissance, and his play has much to say
about the transition from a more medieval society to the Renaissance. Greatly
simplified, this means a shift in a variety of ways from reliance on some kind of
authority figure to reliance on one's own individual self. Humanist scholars of the
Renaissance refocused their studies on the individual human subject, while the
Protestant reformation affirmed the individual's prerogative to interpret scripture instead
of relying on the pope and the hierarchical Catholic church. A flourishing of education
and other social changes made it more and more possible for people to rise up through
society through their own hard work and ambition.
Faustus embodies many of these changes: he is a self-made man, from humble origins,
who has risen through education. He is ambitious and constantly desires to learn and
know more about the world through various forms of scholarly inquiry. But Faustus also
demonstrates some possible dangers in the Renaissance stress on one's own individual
self. His self-reliance shades into selfishness and excessive pride. After making his deal
with Lucifer, Faustus is too proud to admit that he was wrong and repent. He rejects the
authority (and the help) of God and tries to handle things himself. While some
resistance to authority and celebration of the individual may be a good thing (the play
has no problems poking fun at the pope and the Catholic church, for example), Marlowe
demonstrates the pitfalls of excessive individualism. Not only does Faustus serve as an
example of excessive individualism. So does Lucifer himself, who originally rebelled
against the authority of God. The tension between the Renaissance notion of the power

and importance of the individual and the Christian stress on obeying God fills and
animates Doctor Faustus. Although Faustus suffers for erring too far in the direction of
the individual, Marlowe's tragedy leaves the question of how to balance these opposing
values unresolved (some may, after all, sympathize with the fiercely ambitious Faustus),
forcing readers to come to their own answers.
Fate vs. Free Will
In addition to the Renaissance more generally, the Protestant reformation and questions
surrounding the changing nature of European Christianity in Marlowe's time have a
profound influence on Doctor Faustus. One such question that the play tackles is the
issue of predestination. According to Calvinism (a branch of protestant Christianity
started by John Calvin), people are predestined to be either saved in heaven or damned
in hell. In other words, they are born fated to go to one or the other and there's nothing
they can do to change that.
One overarching question in Marlowe's play is whether Faustus' fall from grace is his
own fault or whether he is fated to be damned. (The question can be extended also
to Lucifer and his renegade angels-turned-devils: were they fated to fall from heaven to
hell?) Faustus seems to choose his own path, voluntarily agreeing to his deal with
Lucifer. And he appears to have the choice to repent at any moment in the play. But,
according to a Calvinist interpretation, such free will is an illusion, as these choices
are already predetermined by God. Even the two versions of the play can't seem to agree
on an answer. In a crucial line, the A-text has the Good Angel tell Faustus it is Never
too late, if Faustus will repent, (V, 253). The B-text reads, Never too late, if Faustus
can repent. In one version, the only question is whether Faustus will or will not
repent. In the other, it is questionable whether Faustus even has the option (can or
can't he repent?). Regardless, that the play engages in this kind of questioning at all
suggests that there may be limits to and constraints upon free will.
Education, Knowledge, and Power
Faustus is identified as a character by his status as a doctor (that is, someone with a
doctoral degree), and the backdrop of much of the play is the university environment in
which Doctor Faustus lives. It is thus no surprise that issues of formal education are of
great importance to the play, in which even magic spells are learned from a kind of textbook. Systems of education obviously exist to help people learn, but Marlowe also
explores the associations of formal education with power and social hierarchy.
Education helps people position themselves in higher social classes. It is through
education that Faustus rises from his humble origins and that the play's scholars

differentiate themselves from lowly clowns like Robin and Rafe. And
when Wagner promises to teach a clown magic, he uses his superior knowledge as a
way to gain power over the clown, getting him to agree to be his servant.
But not everything can be learned in school and from books. In his opening soliloquy,
Faustus rejects traditional areas of study and, although his magic does rely on a spellbook, what he seeks fromMephastophilis is knowledge that he can't attain in traditional
ways. For the ambitious Faustus, even beyond the implications of educations affect on
social hierarchy, knowledge means power. He desires limitless knowledge largely
because of the massive riches and power that come with it. And indeed whatever power
Faustus possesses with his magic is due entirely to his knowledge of certain magic
incantations. This close connection between knowledge and power can be contrasted
with the idea of knowledge for its own sake, which ideally characterizes learning in
universities.
Ultimately, Marlowe's play suggests that there are limits to proper knowledge and
education. The desire to learn is not inherently bad, but Faustus goes too far and seeks
to know too much. He himself seems to recognize this, as his last line in the play
contains a promise to burn his books (XIII, 113) and thus repudiate his ambition for
learning. The chorus that delivers the final lines of the play sums up the moral of
Faustus' story: Regard his hellish fall, / Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise /
Only to wonder at [i.e. be amazed at but don't seek to understand] unlawful things,
(Epilogue, 4-6). But even if this moral is clear-cut, where to draw the line between
appropriate subjects of study and unlawful things that we shouldn't seek to know is
unclear. Knowledge is power, but how much is too much?