With "Much Ado About Nothing", Shakespeare advanced his art, rendering the romantic comedy with greater elegance of composition and expression. The vividly depicted Beatrice and Benedick make it a play of character rather than situation, as the threats to romance are eventually banished and obstacles are overcome. The characters experience a psychological shift, rather than a change in their circumstances, in order to arrive at the love and mutual respect awaiting them at the play's conclusion. The critical essays in this study guide will help those studying Shakespeare's work.
Shakespeare imbued "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with extraordinary complexity. This ethereal fantasy involves four different levels of representation, which intermingle but never wholly fuse. This invaluable new literary reference presents a selection of the best contemporary criticism of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, introduced by an essay from esteemed scholar Harold Bloom and featuring a bibliography, index, and chronology of the Bard's life. Volumes in this series are intended for in-depth study of literary classics through eight to 12 full-length essays ...
A lively and accessible introduction to Shakespeare's tragedies, this book begins with a discussion of tragedy before Shakespeare and considers each of Shakespeare's tragedies chronologically. It includes helpful text boxes and detailed chapters on Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear, among other plays.
This lively and innovative introduction to Shakespeare promotes active engagement with the plays, rather than recycling factual information. Covering a range of texts, it is divided into seven subject-based chapters: Character; Performance; Texts; Language; Structure; Sources and History, and it does not assume any prior knowledge. Instead, it develops ways of thinking and provides the reader with resources for independent research through the ‘Where next?’ sections at the end of each chapter.
