Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Münster (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Is there a difference between a tragic villain and a comic one? On the basis of the two Shaespearean villains Iago of the tragedy Othello and Don John, the villain of the comedy Much Ado about Nothing this term paper aims at scrutinizing the concept of the Elizabethan villain.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Münster (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Is there a difference between a tragic villain and a comic one? On the basis of the two Shaespearean villains Iago of the tragedy Othello and Don John, the villain of the comedy Much Ado about Nothing this term paper aims at scrutinizing the concept of the Elizabethan villain.

“Nicole Galland is exceptionally well versed in the fine nuances of storytelling.” —St. Petersburg Times “Galland has an exceptional gift.” —Neal Stephenson The critically acclaimed author of The Fool's Tale, Nicole Galland now approaches William Shakespeare's classic drama of jealousy, betrayal, and murder from the opposite side. I, Iago is an ingenious, brilliantly crafted novel that allows one of literature's greatest villains--the deceitful schemer Iago, from the Bard's immortal tragedy, Othello--to take center stage in order to reveal his "true" motivations. This is Iago as you've never known him, his past and influences breathtakingly illuminated, in a fictional reexamination that explores the eternal question: is true evil the result of nature versus nurture...or something even more complicated?

A modern serial killer - hunting an ancient secret. A woman is left to die as the rebuilt Globe theatre burns. Another woman is drowned like Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A professor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington's Capitol building. A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modelling his murders on Shakespeare's plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped? A gripping, shocking page turner, The Shakespeare Secret masterfully combines modern murder and startling true revelations from the life of Shakespeare. It has been acclaimed as one of the most compulsively readable thrillers of recent years.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: Literaturseminar: William Shakespeare: "Much ado about nothing", 16 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Deception and the exploitation of the characters' credulousness are leitmotifs within Shakespeare's play "Much ado about nothing". central theme in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. However, the people being deceived are not as unintelligent as one might think at first perception. Most of them have a high social rank and this usually implies that people have access to higher education. This is proved by the character's high command of rhetoric stylistic devices, their expression and the way they phrase their thoughts and feelings. Even Don Pedro, who generally seems to be above everything, can be easily deceived by his bastard brother Don John. The recipient notices this in scene 3.2 when Don John makes them believe that Margret is Hero who has premarital sexual intercourse and thus is infidelous towards Claudio. There are three important forms of deception within the play of which I will inform you in section 2.. Furthermore I will state Don John's character traits, define the villain's function, name his intrigues and how they perfectly work. In the last section I try to explain the reason why it is apparently easy to deceive the fundamentally intelligent characters. On the whole, Shakespeare shows the characters' dealing between appearance and reality and deception and self-deception. Nearly every character of the play is involved in a deception and has to learn to distinguish appearance from reality. Paradoxically, even the most intelligent characters are not excluded. Schabert characterises the appearance and reality theme as follows: