What are the motifs of Much ado about nothing?
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Go here:\n\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/muchado/themes.html\n\nIt's where I get all my Shakespeare motifs!!
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I had to go back and reread the poem to remember it in particular from my high school Lit Class (5 years...  sheesh!).  Anyway, its main theme is basically as everyone has said- a warning that even mankind's greatest works shall eventually crumble to dust.\n\nWithin Temptation does a song on their Mother Earth CD entitled "Never-ending Story" that sums up the main point of Ozymandias nicely with the lyrics, "We'll all be forgotten  |  There's no endless fame".\n\nHowever, we can go into a bit more depth about the secondary themes of hope and rebirth.  In lines 10 through 14, Ozymandias reads as such:\n"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:\nLook on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'   \nNothing beside remains: round the decay   \nOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,   \nThe lone and level sands stretch far away."\n\nThese lines serve to anchor the somewhat depressing mood, but give infinite hope as well.  Even though King Ozymandias is telling us to despair, for all we do will eventually disappear, he is also telling us to look upon his works as they are in the here and now.\n\nThe boundless sea of sand that was once his great kingdom may seem like it has been destroyed, but in fact Ozymandias has *created* it as his buildings and monuments have crumbled.  Essentially, the poem is commenting that nothing mankind can build will last- but as those things are annihilated they create the soil, and in turn the plants and stone, that generations down the road will use to build their own monuments.  Even though we may die and rot in the present, we are immortal as part of the life cycle that is always recycling into the next incarnation of life.  Who knows, when we eventually croak, we might all come back as daisies!
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You could use The Merchant of Venice for a project on gender roles.  Many critics agree that the nature of Antonio and Bassanio's relationship is homoerotic, and perhaps one-sidedly so.  The women in the book play a unique role in the fact that they provide the final judgement of Shylock, but their opinions/logic are only considered because they dress as men.  Lorenzo also admires Jessica in an erotic way when she dresses as a boy.  There's also the anti-Semitic facet of the text, if you wanted to go that route, as well as the role of merchants, money-lending, greed.  There is a wide range of criticism on this piece, because a lot of the themes and elements are somewhat ambiguous.
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*conflict- many instances of conflicts in this play. Montagues vs. capulets, mercutio vs. tybalt, romeo vs. paris and many more!!!!!\n     *climax- the point of the story where everything is exciting, everything is glorious, great, or magnificent! everything goes downhill from there. i think theclimax is either in the balcony scene or the party.\n     *falling action- secret wedding and after.\n     *resolution- either romeo and juliet's death, romeo's banishment, when romeo buys the poison (?), or when Juliet makes plans with friar lawerence (?)\n     *i know this isn't muc, but it's a starting point!!!!! my class just finished the romeo and juliet unit, so this stuff is fresh in my mind. i'm REALLY sry that i can't figure out the resolution, but if you've read the play thru, you should be able to choose one of these answers!!!!! good luck with your project and grades!!!!!
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think about it, this is very simple...the themes that shakespeare wrote about: pride, lust, betrayl, revenge, etc...these are all themes that are still used today, not only in other writings, but in every hollywood movie that you see today...shakespeare's writings have influenced all genres of literature and drama as well, these are basic ideas that many writers have capitalized on...good luck!
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Heres a short synopsis of the play:\nA bizarre and witty account of marital breakdown\nKenneth is a man with a weakness for fatty foods and skinny women. His mid-life crisis forces him to favour the latter, so he trades in Hilary - his stoic wife of twenty years - for the younger, prettier, slimmer (and more culinary-challenged) Laura. However, he quickly regrets his rash decision and finds himself torn between the delights of Laura's bedroom and Hilary's kitchen. The three eventually meet for a 'let's all be grown-ups' meal round at Hilary's, where Kenneth discovers he can no longer have his cake and eat it, as the women regain control... This play sounds bizarre and is, but it also says a lot about human weakness, loyalty, and the consequences of selfishness. It's also extremely funny, with such classic lines as "go and have deep throat sex and leave me here in my sparkling kitchen!"\n\nand a review:\nOn entering the theatre we were confronted with a setting which in it's Spartan simplicity suggested we were about to witness a Grecian Tragedy, which I suppose in a way we were. \n\nKenneth and Hilary were married for nineteen years. Nineteen years in which Hilary in her spick and span kitchen has prepared, cooked and served gargantuan meals for Kenneth who, to put it mildly, has a healthy appetite. \n\nThen Kenneth meets Laura who seems to represent all the things he thinks he has been missing. They embark on an affair, which quickly descends into a vortex of lies and deceit. Laura is young, sexy and finds Kenneth sexy. There are however a couple of problems – Laura is a bit of a slut and she is a hopeless cook. So Kenneth starts slipping back to Hilary for a little culinary consolation. \n\nWe first meet the three participants at Hilary's house to which she has invited Kenneth and Laura (now three years married) for an anniversary dinner. A dinner which Hilary with murderous and vengeful thoughts has prepared and is in the process of cooking very carefully indeed. \n\n  \nRay Newton & Loretta Freeman  \nSo a play about appetites or more correctly a play about hungry people. From the ageing Teddy Boy glutton Kenneth's constant cry of "I'm STARVING!!" through Hilary's loving, almost lascivious preparation of food and hunger for revenge to Laura who is on a diet anyway and so presumably always hungry not least for (as she elegantly phrases it) nookie. \n\nThere is pain and hurt here and sympathy is not confined to "The Wronged Wife". \n\nAs someone once said, "Every villain has his point of view" so Kenneth and Laura reveal during the progress of the play their own particular needs. \n\nThe play, delivered in a series of flashbacks stemming from the anniversary dinner at the beginning to the climactic last scene when Hilary serves the first course. "Mmmmm, fish for starters, fabulous! Fabulous!!!" Grunts Kenneth and proceeds to wolf not only his own portion but Laura's as well and inevitably starts to choke. \n\nThe play then veers into very black farce as the two budding Borgias from suburbia coolly watch as Kenneth writhes his last over the table and then calmly over a drink or two discuss the disposing of the body. Of course, HH \n\nHilary the cook has the answer! "Turn on the oven, 400 degrees F." she suggests, "We'll have to eat him, flush him down the loo".
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Othello by William Shakespeare\n\nhttp://www.elook.org/literature/shakespeare/othello/\n\nI have found 12 summaries for you to look at, click the link below. I have included a short extract to give you a taste of what the reviews have to offer and they’re FREE..!!!\n\nhttp://www.freebooknotes.com/book.php3?id=319\n\nhttp://www.antistudy.com/search.php?title=Othello\n\nhttp://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xOthello.html#Othello\n\nhttp://www.clicknotes.com/\n\nAn analysis of the play by Shakespeare\n\nhttp://www.theatrehistory.com/british/othello001.html\n\nTHE ROMANTIC IAGO\n\nhttp://www.theatrehistory.com/british/iago001.html\n\nAntagonist \n\nIago, Othello�s ensign, is the antagonist of the play. He exploits Othello�s weakness, bringing out his fatal flaw of jealousy and making him believe that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. During the course of the play, Iago kills Roderigo and Emilia, his wife; and he stabs Cassio, wounding his leg. His evil scheming leads to the deaths of Desdemona and Othello. \n\nhttp://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmOthello04.asp\n\nGood luck.\n\nKevin, Liverpool, England.
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There are many quotes I really love, but here are some which hold a lot of meaning:\n"Life's but a walking shadow,a poor player, \n That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,\n And then is heard no more;it is a tale\n Told by an idiot,full of sound and fury,\n Signifying"  (Macbeth,Shakespeare)-this shows that in this world,we are all only actors with a part to play\n\n"'Beauty is Truth,truth beauty'-that is all\n Ye know on earth and all ye need to know" \n(Ode on a Grecian Urn,John Keats)\n"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"\n(Endymion-A Poetic Romance,John Keats)-the only thing we really appreciate on earth is beauty and its power to move us.The above 2 quotes give the real essence of eternal beauty\n  \n"Youth owns,with pleasure owns,the Passions' sway,\n But sage Experience only comes with years"\n(Quae Nocent Docent,Coleridge)-this only portrays the impulsiveness of youth vs the wisdom of elders.\n\n"To me,the meanest flower that blows can give\n Thought that do often lie too deep for tears"(Wordsworth)-\none can read the message of eternity in the simplest flower-Nature is the greatest teacher.\n\n"The quality of mercy is not strained,\nIt droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven\nUpon the place beneath"(The Merchant of Venice,Shakespeare)\n\n"Where youth grows pale,and spectrethin,and dies; \n    Where but to think is to be full of sorrow\n       And leadeneyed despairs,\n    Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,\n Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow"(Ode to a Nightingale,Keats)-the harsh reality of life
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For a title, I would pick a quote from Othello, and put it in quotes.\n\nFor example:\n"By your Gracious Patience", Othello. Act i., Sc. 3\nor,\n"Every Puny Whipster", Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.\nor,\n"Fall to Reprobation", Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.\n\nThe last one I like best...\n\nHope this helps!
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If you are willing to pay a fee you will find it at pinkmonkey, enotes, spark notes, bookrags, and lots of other sites.  HOwever, I couldn't find much for free, just the following:\n\nThe story is divided into several episodes involving Dexter's enthrallment with Judy Jones. He's a self-made man; she's a beautiful, but spoiled, little rich girl who loves dangling men on a string and playing with their hearts. Dexter decides if he can't have Judy, he doesn't want anyone. Many years later, he learns that Judy is an unhappy housewife, stuck at home with her children while married to a bully who is unfaithful to her. What's more, Dexter learns that she has lost her good looks. He cries at the end of the story because he realizes that he's lost the illusion he had of Judy, his youth, and his dream.\n\nFitzgerald's characters are usually superficial, spoiled, popular, and rich. They are often reckless, and time is definitely their enemy. "Winter" can be a reference to the aging process, but it can also be meant as a reference to Dexter's frozen emotions. He has lost the ability to feel because his dream of Judy has been taken from him. \n\nThe reader sympathizes with Dexter throughout the story, wishing him success in business and in love. Dexter seems to be living the American dream. He's an entrepreneur who has gone from rags to riches; the reader roots for him. However, Judy, born rich, takes her wealth as well as her beauty for granted. She toys with men and leaves a string of broken hearts in her wake. She eventually gets what she deserves. The tragedy of the story is Dexter's because he has learned that the woman he always wanted but could never have wasn't worth having in the first place.
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The story opens with a description of North Richmond Street, a"blind," "cold ... .. silent" street where the houses "gazed at one an-other with brown imperturbable faces." It is a street of fixed, decaying conformity and false piety. The boy's house contains the samesense of a dead present and a lost past. The former tenant, a priest,died in the back room of the house, and his legacy-several old yel-lowed books, which the boy enjoys leafing through because they areold, and a bicycle pump rusting in the back yard-become symbolsof the intellectual and religious vitality of the past. The boy, in themidst of such decay and spiritual paralysis, experiences the confusedidealism and dreams of first love and his awakening becomes incom-patible with and in ironic contrast to the staid world about him.\n\nEvery morning before school the boy lies on the floor in thefront parlor peeking out through a crack in the blind of the door,watching and waiting for the girl next door to emerge from her houseand walk to school. He is shy and still boyish. He follows her, walkssilently past, not daring to speak, overcome with a confused sense ofsensual desire and religious adoration. In his mind she is both a saintto be worshipped and a woman to be desired. His eyes are "often fullof tears," and one evening he goes to the back room where the priesthad died. Clasping the palms of his hands together, he murmurs, "0love! 0 love!" in a prayer not to God, but to the concept of love andperhaps even to the girl, his love. Walking with his aunt to shop onSaturday evenings he imagines that the girl's image accompanies him,and that he protects her in "places the most hostile to romance." Inthe mixed symbolism of the Christian and the Romantic or Orientalmyths Joyce reveals the epiphany in the story: "These noises con-verged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore mychalice safely through a throng of foes." He is unable to talk to thegirl. Drifting away from his schoolmates' boyish games, the boy hasfantasies in his isolation, in the ecstasy and pain of first love.\n\nFinally the girl speaks to the boy. She asks him if he is going toAraby. He replies that if he does he will bring her a gift, and fromthat moment, his thoughts upon the mixed imagery of the saintly lightupon her hair and the potential sensuality of "the white border of apetticoat," the boy cannot sleep or study. The word Araby "cast anEastern enchantment" over him, and then on the night he is to go tothe bazaar his uncle neglects to return home. Neither the aunt noruncle understands the boy's need and anguish, and thus his isolationis deepened. We begin to see that the story is not so much a story oflove as it is a rendition of the world in which the boy lives.\n\nThe second part of the story depicts the boy's inevitable disap-pointment and realization. In such an atmosphere of "blindness"-the aunt and uncle unaware of the boy's anguish, the girl not con-scious of the boy's love, and the boy himself blind to the true natureof his love-the words "hostile to romance" take on ironic overtones.These overtones deepen when the boy arrives too late at the bazaar.It is closing and the hall is "in darkness." He recognizes "a silencelike that which prevades a church after a service" but the bazaar isdirty and disappointing. Two men are "counting money on a salver"and he listens "to the fall of the coins." A young lady, bored withhim and interested in two men who are flirting with her, cheapensand destroys the boy's sense of an "Eastern enchantment." His love,like his quest for a gift to draw the girl to him in an unfriendly world,ends with his realizing that his love existed only in his mind. Thus\n\nthe theme of the story-the discrepancy between the real and theideal-is made final in the bazaar, a
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The motif of Casablanca is one of redemption. (central idea or dominant theme)  OR:\n\n"As Time Goes By" is a strong musical motif within Casablanca. (a recurrent thematic element)
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Oh, wow. Try reading it!  If you don't have time, do Cliff's Notes (but those summaries are sooo boring compared to the real stories). You can also watch the movie version derived from the Broadway play adaptation. \n\nhttp://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Steinbeck/mice.html\n\nhttp://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Belmont_HS/mice/\n\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/\n\nhttp://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/miceandmen/\n\nMovie rental: http://www.blockbuster.com/search/PerformKeyWordSearchAction.action
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Text of the play:\nhttp://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/beggar.html\n\nWikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beggar's_Opera\n\nSummary and discussion:\nhttp://www.contemplator.com/history/johngay.html
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check this cliff note site it might help you.\nhttp://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/cuckoosnest/\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cuckoo/
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Well, I don't know if it's a motif, exactly, but you've got the theme right away of the Witches, who have their own agenda in the whole picture, and pop up now and then; the motif of "prophecies". Although Macbeth wants to believe they're all true, he scoffs at the idea that he would be defeated by one who was not born of woman. Lady Macbeth is actually more vicious and ambitious than he. By trying to avoid the various warnings re: Banquo et al, they bring about their own doom.\n\nI think Act 2, brings out more that Macbeth's "underlings" actually posess more leadership than he.\n\nHope that helps a little bit.
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Go to Sparknotes.com! They have chapter summaries along with character analysis, themes and other information.