Comparing the Murder of the King in Hamlet, Richard II, Henry VIII, Mac

Murder of the King in Hamlet, Richard II, Henry VIII, Macbeth and Julius Caesar Kings be everywhere in Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Richard the Second, from Henry the Eighth to Macbeth mankindy of the plays contain a primeval element of a king or autocratic head of commonwealth such as Julius Caesar, for example. They focus much specifically on the disposition of that persons power, especially on the question of removing it what it means on both a political and psychological level, how it can be achieved, and what will happen afterwards. This is non surprising, considering the times Shakespeare was living in with the question of who ruled and where their authority came from being ever more increasingly asked in Elizabethan and Jacobean times the observations he distinguishs are especially pertinent.Kings and kingship alike lend themselves well to gambol the king is a symbol of the order (or disorder) of the day and a man who possesses (almost) absolute authority and the status that accompanies that, whilst in contrast he is also a human being with the ordinary weaknesses of that condition. Shakespeare is also said to wee loved the drama of killing according to legend he would make a speech when he killed a calf in his fathers mass murder (Richard Wilson A Brute Part.) The dramatic image of sacrifice is particularly prevalent in Julius Caesar Brutus says Let us be sacrificers but not butchers, Caius.We all resist up against the spirit of CaesarAnd in the spirit of men there is no bloodO then that we could come by Caesars spirit,And not break apart Caesar. But, alasCaesar must bleed for it. ( II.i.166-171 )Many images of sacrifice are salute throughout the play, such as the servant returning... ... doubt it and if it does go someaffair else evenly fine will take its place. It will be the same thing in a different dress. You cant invent anything finer than kingship, the idea of the king. This may be true for many more than just the dramatist , Kings, Queens, and other more modern demagogues remain widespread throughout the world today and we are still far from the fairer, truly democratic world order the revolutionaries of the seventeenth century and many more since then have strived for.Works Cited.Craig,E.G./ ON THE ART OF THEATRE HarvesterDollimore,J./ RADICAL TRAGEDY Harvester.Freer,C./ POETICS OF JACOBEAN period of play Hopkins University Press.Kirsch,J./ ROYAL SELF Putnams.Knight,G.W./ IMPERIAL THEME Methuen.Knight,G.W./ SOVEREIGN FLOWER Methuen.Mack,M./ killing THE KING Yale Univ. Press.Wilson,R./A BRUTE PART (Lecture handout)