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. |
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... murder of their father , the king ? What are the rival claims of king , country , family and loyalty ? These and related issues I have asked a specialist historian , Michael Hawkins , to consider in the light of political thought and ...
... murder of their father , the king ? What are the rival claims of king , country , family and loyalty ? These and related issues I have asked a specialist historian , Michael Hawkins , to consider in the light of political thought and ...
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... murder and its consequences ; systems theory is the particular psychopatho- logical means he has used , being especially relevant to the dramatic presentation of man and wife involved together in a crime against a person with whom they ...
... murder and its consequences ; systems theory is the particular psychopatho- logical means he has used , being especially relevant to the dramatic presentation of man and wife involved together in a crime against a person with whom they ...
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... murder is stranger than any of the earlier images of death, and it both terrifies him and excites him. It is part of the 'swelling act Of the imperial theme', with the promise of the crown as reward, and at the same time it fills him ...
... murder is stranger than any of the earlier images of death, and it both terrifies him and excites him. It is part of the 'swelling act Of the imperial theme', with the promise of the crown as reward, and at the same time it fills him ...
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... murder, but rather the equivalent in its own kind of, say, breaking through the sound barrier for the first time. Macbeth fully recognises the 'deep damnation' of such a deed, and sees what it will give birth to, the 'naked babe' of ...
... murder, but rather the equivalent in its own kind of, say, breaking through the sound barrier for the first time. Macbeth fully recognises the 'deep damnation' of such a deed, and sees what it will give birth to, the 'naked babe' of ...
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... murder'd . ( Richard II , III.ii.156-60 ) In writing his early plays he had the impact of Marlowe to absorb , who ... murders Richard II , and achieves the throne , only to be punished by ill health , by constant rebellions , and by the ...
... murder'd . ( Richard II , III.ii.156-60 ) In writing his early plays he had the impact of Marlowe to absorb , who ... murders Richard II , and achieves the throne , only to be punished by ill health , by constant rebellions , and by the ...
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