Critical Essay on William Shakespeare's Literary Works

Introduction

Oppositional energies between thematic issues of a writer's work are very common. William Shakespeare is known for his great works in many of his plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra among others. Of the dominating themes in many of his plays are loyalty and betrayal. He brings out clearly the close human relations between loyalty and betrayal which conflicts with each other. As an author, it is assumed that there is backgrounds push for his choice of thematic issues in his plays even though little is known about his personal life experiences. His plays also have other leading themes like the issues on women, fate, power, love, strategic heroism among others and the conflicts in his works can be politically understood. Some of his plays include the famous Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Measures for Measures, King Lear, The Tempest, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet among many others.

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In one of his plays, Othello Act one, the theme of disloyal is depicted through the character of Lago who betrays Othello by exposing his secret marriage to Desdemona through Brantio . Brantio had remained loyal to Othello until he married his daughter. On the other hand, at least Othello had one loyal friend, the Duke who promotes his rank to General of Cyprus. By marrying Othello, Desdemona shows betrayal to her father and also elopes with her fiance through the deceit. Roderigo is betrayed by Lago as well as the latter openly confess that he is not what they think he is and was using him for money. The above are only samples of the many cases of disloyalty in the play.

William Shakespeare addresses issues on life and death, honesty and dishonesty, as well as betrayal and loyalty in the play Hamlet. The character that brings out the theme of betrayal and loyalty are Hamlet Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. As depicted by these characters, the consequences of betrayal and loyalty among friends are fatal. The issue of reliability is only seen when Hamlet is determined to make his father's killers pay for the act. His father had been killed by his uncle Claudius who even worse married hamlets mother. Hamlet refers to the death of his father as bloody and sinful. (3.4 34-35) And also tell his mother that he would kill Claudius the same way he killed Polonius. Horatio is loyal even at the point Hamlets death and promises to make his story live (5.2 397-398). It is through this loyalty that Hamlets achieve his goal of avenging his Father's death. Betrayal is seen through the character of Claudius. Being an uncle to Hamlet, he has been disloyal to his brother, Hamlet's father by eyeing his wife hamlet mother, Gertrude. The jealousy in him makes him kill his brother and marries his brother's wife.

In Shakespeare's complex play Julius Caesar, he addressed the theme of tragic heroism, fate, misinterpretations of sign and patriotism. However, the dominating idea in this play is betrayal and revenge, manipulation of friendship that is acted by Julius and his accomplice Brutus. In the effort to bring out the issue of friendship and betrayal, Shakespeare notes that many people use harmony for their selfish advantages (Spring, 26). Caesar is a great friend, but Brutus uses this closeness for his good. Brutus put his interest ahead of the relationship between him and Julius Caesar. The critical aspect of friendship was to win brust from your accomplice. To bill any doubt of his intentions, Brutus stayed close to Caesar all along and even assisted him to get employed. Caesar trusted him as a form of kindness from a friend not knowing his intention. Without any clue of his fate, Caesar fell for the trap but was later stabbed in the back by Brutus himself (3.1.77). The blood haunts Brutus in his hand, and Caesar's ghost follows him to death.

In the play Macbeth, the voice of betrayal is seen when Macbeth among his wife lady Macbeth collude and kill Duncan. Such killing is termed as a regicide and disorients the welfare of the people. It is a form of domestic terrorism that breaks the kingdom. He has loyal witches and murderer's as his advisors, and the innocent blood of Duncan in his hand haunt him leading to more killings. He kills another king Thane Banguo, attempt to kill Banquo's son, kill women like Lady Macduff and her son. Loyalty is seen in the character of Banquo and Macduff as Thane Banguo is loyal in Act one and two of the play despite the Macbeth betrayal acts. As for Macduff, his loyalty is felt in Acts three all the way to four. He remains loyal to Scotland as well as to the extent that he leaves his family unguarded to participate in preparation for war against Macbeth in England. Even after the murder of his wife and son he does not back off from the battle.

In the play Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare brings out the dominating theme of love which requires immense loyalty, but partners are torn apart by betrayal. At this time there is a political disorder which characters like Fulria, Pompey, Lopidus, Octavius, Antony and Cleopatra struggle for political power. The primary officials like the advisors, soldiers, attendants as well as ordinary citizens are at a crossroads on who to support. Antony's political status is jeopardized by his soldiers who considered him as defeated. Disloyal or betrayal set in the martial set up when Marc Antony leaves his wife for Cleopatra but does not stay faithful either. He intended to be with Cleopatra, but he marries Octavia instead. His worries push his choice for Octavia over Cleopatra that Cleopatra is disloyal to him not only romantically but also politically. Enorbarbus remain loyal to Octavia but just until he finds no confidence in him and supports Octavius. The dilemma of loyalty then descends on Antony himself on whether to wage a civil war against Octavius as this would equally be disloyalty to his own country.

Of the plays written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet have hit the headlines even in the present day and has often been used to emphasize true love. Many institutions have used this book in their Literature courses. In the play, loyalty is seen among families and friends while betrayal is made against precious couples, Romeo and Juliet. The couple is that of two teens, and they have great support and loyalty from their respective families and friends who are always at the Centre stage to offer pieces of advice, wisdom and solve conflicts among the teens. The nurse remains loyal to Juliet and advocates her marriage to Romeo despite fears that her parents would not agree with her. Disloyal occur when Juliet disagrees with her father by marrying Romeo claiming that she can never be proud of what she hates. Her father Mr. Capulet, in turn, hails insults calling her all sorts of names like a disobedient wretch and young baggage. His father sees her as property by referring her as His. Mr. Capulet wanted Juliet to marry the County Paris whom he feels is the perfect match for unlike Romeo who is the heir and son of Montague and Lady Montague. The worse part of disloyal here is seen when her very own mother Mrs. Capulet sides with her father instead of comforting her, and this renders her helpless. It is then that with the support of the nurse, she goes ahead and marries her lover Romeo. The love he has for her fiancee is her source of energy which inspires her to stay loyal even though Romeo is shown laxity in fighting for their destiny.

King Lear is a play by Shakespeare that is about the reality of a family set up. It brings out the facts that within the family, those that appear as disloyal are the most disloyal members while those that look as legal, they are the Judas Iscariots of the family. King Lear is blinded by his older daughters who would do anything to get the Kingdoms. They pretend in his face but have their interest at hand and do not care about the impact of such greed to their father or the kingdom as a whole. Loyalty is seen in one of her daughters Gordelia who is honest about her love for the father, not because of the power and wealth but because they share a compact bond. There is also the loyalty of Elgar to his father Gloucester whom despite his poor state beliefs that his father plotted his death initiated by Edmund. Kent is not overwhelmed by the punishment given to him by King Lear but offers to help him see the color of his enemies even though he is just a poor bagger at this time.

Lastly, Shakespeare's play The Tempest is an accurate depiction of loyalty and how relevant it is in families. Through the character of Prospero, he is only loyal to a family of people consumed with greed. At some point, Prospero gives up his Duke Dom to his brother Antonio when he leaves for School but is perplexed by the self-interest of his brother to keep the kingdom for himself. At the time of his return, he does not fight for the high seat but leaves it to his brother and embraces forgiveness. He knows the only way back to Duke Dom is by marring off Miranda, the daughter to Ferdinand.

Conclusion

From the Shakespeare stories above we note that family affiliation does not guarantee the loyalty of the members. The above is just a sample from many of Shakespeare's plays that not only address loyalty and betrayal but also other themes like power, fate, love, supernatural ability, and family relations. It is not clear whether Shakespeare's works of Literature are inspired by life experiences since his family life and skills have been kept from the limelight. It is an assumption that we make as it is always the case for most writers.