ShakespeareThis book helps the reader make sense of the most commonly studied writer in the world. It starts with a brief explanation of how Shakespeare's writings have come down to us as a series of scripts for actors in the early modern theatre industry of London. The main chapters of the book approach the texts through a series of questions: 'what's changed since Shakespeare's time?', 'to what uses has Shakespeare been put?', and 'what value is there in Shakespeare?' These questions go to the heart of why we study Shakespeare at all, which question the book encourages the readers to answer for themselves in relation to their own critical writing. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Dramatic Genres | 17 |
A Midsummer Nights Dream and Much Ado about Nothing | 19 |
Richard 2 and Henry 5 | 46 |
Hamlet and Othello | 81 |
Alls Well that Ends Well and The Winters Tale | 121 |
Critical Approaches | 157 |
Measure for Measure | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
action actors appears argued audience authority Banquo become begins Caliban called century characters Claudio comedy comes concerned consider course critics culture death door drama duke early earth Elizabethan England English Enter essentially exist fact father follow genre ghost give gold Hamlet hand happens Henry human ideas John kind king leaving Leontes lines live London look lord Macbeth Mariana marriage material matter means Measure mind nature once Othello performance perhaps person play political present Press principle printed problem production Prospero question readers reading relation Richard rule scene seems seen sense sexual Shakespeare social society speak speech stage story supposed taken Tale tell theatre things thou thought Timon tion tragedy turn University witches written young