See? This is more fun than sitting around complaining about your girlfriend! Now you're acting like the Romeo we know!
Shakespeare's language is, of course, what is termed "early modern English," and can be difficult for modern Americans. He himself felt that Chaucer was the best writer in England's history, and that it was a shame the language had changed so much that people had a hard time reading his work. Another example of how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
One of the ironies of Shelley's Frankenstein is that in spite of the atrocities the monster commits, readers tend to view him with more sympathy than they do Victor Frankenstein.
Diane Johnson, in her introduction to the Bantam Books edition of the novel, writes:
The moral ugliness of Victor's lies is expressed in the monster by his hideous countenance; what is inside Victor is exteriorized, and of course excites universal antipathy among the other characters in the novel, though it strangely invites the affection of readers, who are usually agreed that the monster is sympathetic however horrendous his deeds. (xvi)
In other words, Victor's immoral decisions concerning the creation of the monster are present in the monster's appearance, but readers tend to blame Victor, not the monster. Blame is further given to Victor in the novel by the nature-nurture theme. The monster becomes what he is because he is not nurtured by Victor. Left on his own, natural man can become a monster. Victor is responsible for nurturing his creation, and he fails that responsibility.
Finally, the monster is very much the alter-ego of Victor. The monster is Victor's wild, untrained side.
There is much evil to go around, and if anything, Victor is more to blame for events than the monster.
I won't attempt to actually go back and count the number of times the various characters meet in a family atmosphere in The Outsiders. Aside from the parentless Curtis family, there are not really many examples of family gatherings. Johnny mentions his family a few times, but there are actually no scenes where they are together except when his mother comes to see him in the hospital. Dally has no family living with him in Tulsa. None of the other greasers' families are mentioned much; Tim Shepard discusses his brother, Curly, but he is in a reformatory and not actually present in the novel. The Soc, Randy, talks about his father following Bob's death, but it is only in passing.
There are quite a few scenes in which the three Curtis brothers--Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry--are together. Despite the fact that their parents have been killed, this threesome constitutes the only real family in the novel. Of course, the greasers talk about how their gang is like a family, so Johnny, Steve and Two-Bit (and to some extent Dally) are extended members. Pony also reminisces about his parents on several occasions.
In the beginning of "A Small, Good Thing," the baker is a cantankerous and brusquely unpleasant fellow. After the accident, when Ann fails to go in Monday morning to pick up the birthday cake ordered for Scott's eighth birthday, the baker begins calling their house leaving curt and indecipherable messages about the cake they failed to pick up, while thinking of course of the time and cost needed to bake it and the loss of profit from having to sell it as a day-old, two-day-old, even three-day-old cake.
After Scott's painful death, Ann has a spark of relization and understands that the unpleasant baker has been calling to give her grief because of the uncollected--and unpaid for--cake. She and Howard go to the bakery in the dead of night, knowing the baker is there because he just phoned, and bang on his door. In response to the baker's rude, curtness, Ann bursts out in anger at the baker's behavior with the horrible truth that Scott is dead. This is what prompts the change in the baker.
He stops what he has been so busy about and invites Ann and Howard in and offers them chairs to sit on. He then brings them fresh, sweet cinnamon rolls to eat, saying that eating something at a time of shock and mourning is a good thing to do. He sits with Ann and Howard while they eat rolls and he tells them how lonely it feels for him to be without children and to work at a mechanical job to feed the children of other people at other people's celebrations. The baker changes because he has a chance to comfort others by exposing his own suffering, and together they watch the dawn of hope for each of them as the newly arising sun glows palely through the window.
Ichabod knows that his horse, Gunpowder, is no match for a demon horse:
"What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind?"
So he tries to show some courage by stammering out "Who are you?" He received no answer from the horseman, so after asking it again (and again receiving no reply), he started whistling a tune and prodding Gunpowder forward. The Horseman stayed right with him until finally Ichabod got Gunpowder running toward the bridge. It was Ichabod's hope that if he could just get across the bridge and reach the church he would be safe.
Well, no character has just a single characteristic, but if I had to name just one, in Hemingway's world, Wilson is masculine. He is a hunter, he's confident, he's calm, he's assertive, and all of those describe him (though technically "hunter" is not an adjective).
If you'd accepted other terms based on his emotional tone, he is cool, judgmental, and opportunistic. Finally, he is flexible/adaptable: he can change to meet the needs of the situation, which Macomber cannot.
Most of what is known about Shakespeare's views, philosophy and attitude toward life are inferred indirectly from the themes of his plays and poetry. Nothing is extant or mentioned in history in which Shakespeare gives any kind of an autobiographical account of himself. However, the themes that appear repeatedly in his works do provide some insight into the inner realm of Shakespeare's thoughts.
We know from history that Shakespeare admired Queen Elizabeth I very much and that the admiration was mutual, meaning Queen Elizabeth also admired his work, even attending his plays from time to time. Shakespeare extended this admiration to craft a new definition of women and their role in life.
This is most evident in Much Ado About Nothing in which he names the heroine "Hero" and proceeds to have her play the role that is usually reserved for the valiant hero: she figured out the solution to the problem; she orchestrated its enactment; she set the plot to undo the villain; and she proved the heroine (herself) to be innocent and trustworthy.
This theme of the power and heroism of women is retold in several other plays, such as As You Like It. The concept is notable because it goes against conventional wisdom that had women cast as untrustworthy because they were seen in religious terms as the ones who were beguiled (tricked) into causing the downfall of humanity in the Judeo-Christian creation story.
Other notable themes that reveal information about Shakespeare's personal view, attitude and philosophy are:
1. The nature of love, which he depicted as needing, first, a reason firmly rooted in valuable character traits and, second, a balance between order and inspiration, as seen in A Midsummer Night's Dream;
2. Protestantism, which he depicted as a higher moral pathway than Catholicism, as is seen in the Protestant/Luther allusions in Hamlet;
3. Virtue and madness, which he depicted in plays like Hamlet and King Lear and Macbeth showing that the quest for virtue may drive to madness as surely as the abandonment of virtue may drive to madness, indicating a balance here too is needed for success and sanity.
Another play that reveal his inner thoughts and beliefs is The Merchant of Venice in which he reverses Much Ado About Nothing and explores a hero as a cruel villain by showing Antonio as a heartless man to citizens guilty of nothing while being a loving friend to grasping, incompetent friends.
We might conclude from this that (1) Shakespeare was willing to embrace changes in society as brought about by Elizabeth I's reign and go a step further and see all women in the new light of Elizabeth; (2) he believed love must have reason to exist and be tempered, balanced, by both order and passion (3) he had high ideals of right and wrong and significant Protestant religious faith; (4) perceived virtue as a high attainment and as delicately balanced rightness and vanity.
