Shakespeare for Students:critical interpretations of As you like it, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The merchant of Venice, A midsummer night's dream, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. by
The mountain of Shakespearean criticism is often more intimidating to students than Shakespeare's plays themselves. This volume attempts to address this problem with a single, accessible volume of criticism to the playwright's eight most popularly studied plays in secondary schools and undergraduate curriculums - Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice.
Shakespearean Tragedy by
Approaching the tragedies as drama, wondering about their characters as he might have wondered about people in novels or in life, Bradley is one of the most liberating in the line of distinguished Shakespeare critics.
Shakespeare's Tragic Skepticism by
Readers of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies have long noted the absence of readily explainable motivations for some of Shakespeare's greatest characters: why does Hamlet delay his revenge for so long? Why does King Lear choose to renounce his power? Why is Othello so vulnerable to Iago's malice? But while many critics have chosen to overlook these omissions or explain them away, Millicent Bell demonstrates that they are essential elements of Shakespeare's philosophy of doubt. Examining the major tragedies, Millicent Bell reveals the persistent strain of philosophical scepticism. Like his contemporary, Montaigne, Shakespeare repeatedly calls attention to the essential unknowability of our world.
Shakespeare's Early Tragedies by
Introduction,Mark Rose. I. EARLY SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY. Shakespeare's Earliest Tragedies: Titus Andronicusand Romeo and Juliet, G.K. Hunter. II. TITUS ANDRONICUS. The Metamorphosis of Violence in Titus Andronicus,Eugene Waith. The Aesthetics of Mutilation in Titus Andronicus,Albert H. Tricomi. The Device of Wonder: Titus AndronicusandRevenge Tragedies,Lawrence N. Danson. Shakespeare and the Soil of Rape,Catharine R. Stimpson. “Scars Can Witness” : Trials by Ordeal and Lavinia's Body in Titus Andronicus,Karen Cunningham. Titus Andronicus:Abortive Domestic Tragedy,C.L. Barber and Richard P. Wheeler. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. Romeo and Juliet:Comedy into Tragedy, Susan Snyder. Romeo and Juliet:A Formal Dwelling, James L. Calderwood. Romeo and Juliet:and the Problematics of Love, Rosalie L. Colie. Romeo and Juliet:The Meaning of a Theatrical Experience, Michael Goldman. Language and Sexual Difference in Romeo and Juliet, Edward Snow. Coming of Age in Verona, Coppelia Kahn. IV. JULIUS CAESAR. The Modernity of Julius Caesar, Maynard Mack. How Not to Murder Caesar, Sigurd Burckhardt. Dream and Interpretation: Julius Caesar, Marjorie B. Garber. Conjuring Caesar: Ceremony, History, and Authority in 1599, Mark Rose. “In the Spirit of Men There is no Blood” : Blood as Trope of Gender in Julius Caesar, Gail Kern Paster. Antony in Behalf of the Play, Kenneth Burke. Chronology of Important Dates. Notes on Contributors. Bibliography.
Shakespeare's Stagecraft by
For many years, critics and students of Shakespeare have tended to stress that his plays are poetic structures embodying 'themes', and these structures have been analysed in great detail. Professor Styan advocates another approach. The plays were written for acting, in a theatre of a particular type. If we ask what effects this kind of theatre encouraged and how Shakespeare exploited them, the plays are seen as a sequence of stage-effects, planned with great art so as to enrich, reinforce and modify each other. Professor Styan begins with the known facts about the Elizabethan theatre, stressing the effect of the size of the apron stage, and the degree in which the spectators situated all around are involved in the action. It was a theatre of movement and grouping, and above all speech. Shakespeare's verse is full of suggestions about how it is to be delivered; it is, in Professor Styan's word, 'gestic'. Professor Styan shows in very many examples, quoting the text and examining its dramatic implications, what the words suggest about movement over the stage, about the relationship between groups of players on the stage, and about the delivery and dramatic effect of the words themselves. Thus we build up a new sense of the whole play. This is a convenient and comprehensive introduction to the study of Shakespeare's dramatic craftsmanship, which also reopens that direction of enquiry which Granville-Barker first explored.
Caesar by
Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of the great Roman emperor's life, Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor's accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult, captive of pirates, seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals, and rebel condemned by his own country. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar's character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some two thousand years later. In the introduction to his biography of the great Roman emperor, Adrian Goldsworthy writes, "Caesar was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator . . . as well as husband, father, lover and adulterer." In this landmark biography, Goldsworthy examines Caesar as military leader, all of these roles and places his subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C.
Julius Caesar by
A good biography of the roman leader - Julius caesar
JULIUS CAESAR (Scroll Down for Resources)
"Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Caesar's assassination is just the halfway point of Julius Caesar. The first part of the play leads to his death; the second portrays the consequences. As the action begins, Rome prepares for Caesar's triumphal entrance. Brutus, Caesar's friend and ally, fears that Caesar will become king, destroying the republic. Cassius and others convince Brutus to join a conspiracy to kill Caesar.
On the day of the assassination, Caesar plans to stay home at the urging of his wife, Calphurnia. A conspirator, Decius Brutus, persuades him to go to the Senate with the other conspirators and his friend, Mark Antony. At the Senate, the conspirators stab Caesar to death. Antony uses a funeral oration to turn the citizens of Rome against them. Brutus and Cassius escape as Antony joins forces with Octavius Caesar.
Encamped with their armies, Brutus and Cassius quarrel, then agree to march on Antony and Octavius. In the battle that follows, Cassius, misled by erroneous reports of loss, persuades a slave to kill him; Brutus's army is defeated. Brutus commits suicide, praised by Antony as "the noblest Roman of them all."
Photo: Julius Caesar with Marlon Brando, 1953, MGM.
USE THESE ARTICLE DATABASES TO SEARCH FOR SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ON SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare Quarterly (Scholarly Journal)
Shakespeare Studies (Scholarly Journal)