Shakespeares King Lear and Arthur Millers Death of a...

A German Proverb once stated that, â€Å"Every man is the architect of his own fortune.† In expressing his opinion that people have more control over their fate than their fate does over them, this proverb was mistaken. Contrary to what the Proverb espoused, the cruelty of the world and the harsh reality of blind fortune have much more to do with what happens to a person than what actions they take, and good actions cannot guarantee good fortune. The inaccuracy of this quote can be proven in looking at both the tragedies of King Lear, by William Shakespeare, and Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller. If the proverbs quote was assumed to be true, those who do good and are loving beings would prosper in good fortune, but this is unfortunately almost never the case. Often it is irrelevant what a person does in determining what luck they have, and many times good people have horrible things done unto them. In King Lear, a king makes the mistake of giving his two evil daughters his kingdom, while he banishes his most loving daughter. Another noble makes a similar mistake in trusting his son who is greedy and selfish. These mens mistakes cause a struggle for power over the kingdom, ending in great tragedy when King Lears loyal and loving daughter, Cordelia, is hanged. Cordelias character exemplifies perfectly how a good person can still have awful things happen to them. After not confessing her love directly to her father, although she clearly cares deeply for him, CordeliaShow MoreRelatedKing Lear Bottoming Out Essay900 Words   |  4 Pagesturning point for the better. Unfortunately, there are also many people who just give up the fight against the dark place referred to as â€Å"bottom.† Bottoming out is exemplified in William Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear and in Arthur Miller’s equally tragic Death of a Salesman. In order to interpret the process of Lear and Willy’s incidences with â€Å"bottoming out† it is important to analyze their lives before and after they hit the dark place in their heart and mind, and the circumstances they were bothRead MoreThe Sonnet Form: William Shakespeare6305 Words   |  26 PagesShakespeare’s Sonnets William Shakespeare The Sonnet Form A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, traditionally written in iambic pentameter—that is, in lines ten syllables long, with accents falling on every second syllable, as in: â€Å"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?† The sonnet form first became popular during the Italian Renaissance, when the poet Petrarch published a sequence of love sonnets addressed to an idealized woman named Laura. Taking firm hold among Italian poets, the sonnet