Focus on MacbethJohn Russell Brown First published in 1982. Macbeth exercises a strange influence over readers and theatre audiences: the words of the text offer no easy clue to meaning or significance and in dramatic structure the play is very different from other Shakespearean tragedies. Many kinds of study are needed in order to understand the tragedy of Macbeth and this book provides a wide range of studies that respect the individuality of the text and examine it from different viewpoints. Contents include: Themes and Structure; Characterization and Narrative, Visual Effects, Performance in the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; Historical and Political Background; Role of Witchcraft; Game Theory. Contributors include: John Russell Brown, Derek Russell Davis, Gareth Lloyd Evans, R A Foakes, Michael Goldman, Robin Grove, Peter Hall, Michael Hawkins, Brian Morris, D J Palmer, Marvin Rosenberg and Peter Stallybrass. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... actors and silent readers . Many kinds of study are needed if we are to understand The Tragedy of Macbeth as well as possible , and so the present book has been commissioned . As editor I have not attempted to develop a single ...
... actors and silent readers . Many kinds of study are needed if we are to understand The Tragedy of Macbeth as well as possible , and so the present book has been commissioned . As editor I have not attempted to develop a single ...
Page 2
... actors and actresses triumphed in the two central roles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , and Gareth ... actor needs to create if he is to sus- tain the role of Macbeth , making his words truly at one with his performance ...
... actors and actresses triumphed in the two central roles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , and Gareth ... actor needs to create if he is to sus- tain the role of Macbeth , making his words truly at one with his performance ...
Page 9
... actor G.F.Cooke's playing of Richard III as a ' very wicked man ' who kills for pleasure : 1 The truth is , the Characters of Shakespeare are so much the objects of meditation rather than of interest or curiosity as to their actions ...
... actor G.F.Cooke's playing of Richard III as a ' very wicked man ' who kills for pleasure : 1 The truth is , the Characters of Shakespeare are so much the objects of meditation rather than of interest or curiosity as to their actions ...
Page 15
... acting on its own ; her words evade the deed , as if she cannot bear to see the weapon , or the wound it makes , or the actual shape of the man to be murdered . Macbeth , by contrast , sees the weapon and the deed clearly enough ...
... acting on its own ; her words evade the deed , as if she cannot bear to see the weapon , or the wound it makes , or the actual shape of the man to be murdered . Macbeth , by contrast , sees the weapon and the deed clearly enough ...
Page 20
... actors , from John Philip Kemble in 1786 and Edwin Booth in 1828 down to Ian McKellen in 1976 , have treated the ghost ... actor played the ghost , and Macbeth and the audience actually witnessed here another image of death . The ghost ...
... actors , from John Philip Kemble in 1786 and Edwin Booth in 1828 down to Ian McKellen in 1976 , have treated the ghost ... actor played the ghost , and Macbeth and the audience actually witnessed here another image of death . The ghost ...
Contents
7 | |
The kingdom the power and the glory | 30 |
visual effects in Macbeth | 54 |
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the eighteenth | 73 |
194680 at StratforduponAvon | 87 |
Multiplying villainies of nature | 113 |
History politics and Macbeth | 155 |
Macbeth and witchcraft | 189 |
Hurt minds | 210 |
Directing Macbeth | 231 |
Afterword | 249 |
Index | 255 |
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Common terms and phrases
action actor ambiguity ambition appearance attempt audience Banquo becomes begins beliefs blood bring called Cawdor character comes course critics crown dagger death deed doubt drama Duncan effect Elizabethan England English evil experience expression face fact fear feel final further ghost given gives going hand head Holinshed horror human husband ideas imagination important interest issue James killing kind king Lady Macbeth later less lines living look Macduff Malcolm means mind moral movement murder nature never opening particular performance perhaps play political present production question reality relation role royal scene seems seen sense Shake Shakespeare significant society soliloquy speak speech stage success suggestion Thane theatre thing thou thought tragedy turn visual wife witchcraft witches woman women