Studying Shakespeare: A Guide to the Plays

This beginner’s guide to Shakespeare reminds us that the main reason people still watch and read Shakespeare’s plays is because they identify with the characters and situations depicted in them.

 

Drawing on all of Shakespeare’s plays, Laurie Maguire shows how they illustrate some of life’s most familiar stories – love and obsession, parents and children, sex and politics, suffering and revenge.

 

The book groups the stories into five broad categories, moving from those concerned with personal identity to those dealing with romance and marriage, family life, politics, and public life. This thematic arrangement makes the plays accessible to the widest possible audience, and helps readers grasp the connection between the issues addressed by the plays and those of our own time.