OTHELLO (The Tragedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice) by William Shakespeare [sparknotes.com)

FULL TITLE  ·  The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

AUTHOR  · William Shakespeare

TYPE OF WORK · Play

GENRE · Tragedy

LANGUAGE · English

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Between 1601 and 1604, England

DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION ·  1622

PUBLISHER · Thomas Walkley

Characters:

Othello -  The play’s protagonist and hero. A Christian Moor and general of the armies of Venice, Othello is an eloquent and physically powerful figure, respected by all those around him. In spite of his elevated status, he is nevertheless easy prey to insecurities because of his age, his life as a soldier, and his race. He possesses a “free and open nature,” which his ensign Iago uses to twist his love for his wife, Desdemona, into a powerful and destructive jealousy (I.iii.381).

Desdemona -  The daughter of the Venetian senator Brabanzio. Desdemona and Othello are secretly married before the play begins. While in many ways stereotypically pure and meek, Desdemona is also determined and self-possessed. She is equally capable of defending her marriage, jesting bawdily with Iago, and responding with dignity to Othello’s incomprehensible jealousy.

Iago  -  Othello’s ensign (a job also known as an ancient or standard-bearer), and the villain of the play. Iago is twenty-eight years old. While his ostensible reason for desiring Othello’s demise is that he has been passed over for promotion to lieutenant, Iago’s motivations are never very clearly expressed and seem to originate in an obsessive, almost aesthetic delight in manipulation and destruction.

Michael Cassio -  Othello’s lieutenant. Cassio is a young and inexperienced soldier, whose high position is much resented by Iago. Truly devoted to Othello, Cassio is extremely ashamed after being implicated in a drunken brawl on Cyprus and losing his place as lieutenant. Iago uses Cassio’s youth, good looks, and friendship with Desdemona to play on Othello’s insecurities about Desdemona’s fidelity.

Emilia  -  Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s attendant. A cynical, worldly woman, she is deeply attached to her mistress and distrustful of her husband.

Roderigo  -  A jealous suitor of Desdemona. Young, rich, and foolish, Roderigo is convinced that if he gives Iago all of his money, Iago will help him win Desdemona’s hand. Repeatedly frustrated as Othello marries Desdemona and then takes her to Cyprus, Roderigo is ultimately desperate enough to agree to help Iago kill Cassio after Iago points out that Cassio is another potential rival for Desdemona.

Bianca  -  A courtesan, or prostitute, in Cyprus. Bianca’s favorite customer is Cassio, who teases her with promises of marriage.

Brabanzio  -  Desdemona’s father, a somewhat blustering and self-important Venetian senator. As a friend of Othello, Brabanzio feels betrayed when the general marries his daughter in secret.

Duke of Venice -  The official authority in Venice, the duke has great respect for Othello as a public and military servant. His primary role within the play is to reconcile Othello and Brabanzio in Act I, scene iii, and then to send Othello to Cyprus.

Montano  -  The governor of Cyprus before Othello. We see him first in Act II, as he recounts the status of the war and awaits the Venetian ships.

Lodovico  -  One of Brabanzio’s kinsmen, Lodovico acts as a messenger from Venice to Cyprus. He arrives in Cyprus in Act IV with letters announcing that Othello has been replaced by Cassio as governor.

Graziano  -  Brabanzio’s kinsman who accompanies Lodovico to Cyprus. Amidst the chaos of the final scene, Graziano mentions that Desdemona’s father has died.

Clown  -  Othello’s servant. Although the clown appears only in two short scenes, his appearances reflect and distort the action and words of the main plots: his puns on the word “lie” in Act III, scene iv, for example, anticipate Othello’s confusion of two meanings of that word in Act IV, scene i.

this is the link to the video of the summary of the play:

Video SparkNotes: Shakespeare's Othello summary

this video and information is not mine

this is just a study guide

HAMLET (The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark) by William Shakespeare [sparknotes.com]

FULL TITLE  ·  The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

AUTHOR  · William Shakespeare

TYPE OF WORK  · Play

GENRE  · Tragedy, revenge tragedy

LANGUAGE  · English

TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN  · London, England, early seventeenth century (probably 1600–1602)

DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION  · 1603, in a pirated quarto edition titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet; 1604 in a superior quarto edition

Characters:

Hamlet -  The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.

Claudius -  The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling—his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere.

Gertrude -  The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth.

Polonius -  The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia.

Horatio -  Hamlet’s close friend, who studied with the prince at the university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and helpful to Hamlet throughout the play. After Hamlet’s death, Horatio remains alive to tell Hamlet’s story.

Ophelia -  Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes. Dependent on men to tell her how to behave, she gives in to Polonius’s schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered.

Laertes -  Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras -  The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king (also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his father’s honor, making him another foil for Prince Hamlet.

The Ghost -  The specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain whether the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern -  Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior.

Osric -  The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes.

Voltimand and Cornelius -  Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from attacking.

Marcellus and Bernardo -  The officers who first see the ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore and who summon Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first encounters the ghost.

Francisco -  A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo -  Polonius’s servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check up on and spy on Laertes.

this is the link to the summary of the play:

Video Sparknotes: Shakespeare's Hamlet Summary

By the way, the mousetrap play's title is 

"The Murder of Gonzago".

The video and the information is not mine.

This is just a study guide.

My Reflection to the Movie: The Emperor's Club

       “Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance”. These are the words said by Mr. Hundert in his western civilization class about Shutruk-Nahunte. I see that the forgotten king Shutruk-Nahunte is somebody Mr. Hundert doesn’t want to be and he’s afraid that Sedgewick Bell would be like him. The moment Sedgewick Bell decided to be like his father, he was so devastated. Mr. Hundert saw what kind of a person his father is. His father is a man who doesn’t care about anyone around him. He’s a senator but not a senator of good will. He is not a senator of commitment. He is not a leader that a country needs and be honored and remembered through the ages. A leader with great contribution might be remembered.  But only a leader of righteousness will be venerated. As humans, it's our nature to commit mistakes. It is an annoying but inevitable fact that we have to accept. In the film, we saw the eagerness of Mr. Hundert to pull Sedgewick out from the misery of darkness, a place where you think you’re alright because you don’t see things but never realized the trap that will drag you down. It’s a place where refuge is there but seems so far away. I admire the integrity Mr. Hundert has. I believe that if I were him, I would’ve done the same thing, help the same person, disappoint the same aspirant, suffer the same consequence and cry for the same reason. It may not be right but I have no regrets for I have already done my part as a teacher. We are all educators. If the teachers teach why, what, where, when or how a thing happened; the students teach them how to appreciate life. And as for Martin Blythe, I admire his heart: the forgiving and loving heart, the heart that is ready to accept and embrace failure. Mr. Hundert may have failed him but he didn’t. He deserves to be adored, remembered and loved. He deserves to be Julius Caesar. 

Pop Culture and How It Affect Modern Society

1  What is a pop culture?

·   Cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/popular+culture)

·         Values that come from advertising, the entertainment industry, the media, and icons of style and are targeted to the ordinary people in society. These values are distinguished from those espoused by more traditional political, educational, or religious institutions. ( Encarta Dictionary)

   How can pop culture affect modern society?

·         Pop culture changes the way we interact with people. People see culture as one of the manifestations in the changes occurring in our society. As the pop culture changes, we change. Pop culture affects almost all aspect of human’s totality. We tend to “go with the flow”. Pop culture changes how we think, we feel about something and even our every action. Pop culture also changes how we look. There are already tutorials how to look like your favorite celebrity with the touch of make-up.