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 2
... play to the central tenets of Christian belief and worship . D.J. Palmer's contri- bution starts from an examination of recurrent visual effects , rather than crucial words and narrative development . The shape of the play is a ...
... play to the central tenets of Christian belief and worship . D.J. Palmer's contri- bution starts from an examination of recurrent visual effects , rather than crucial words and narrative development . The shape of the play is a ...
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... play's power in the theatre and its hold over his own imagination . In an interview he answers questions about his ... play . All quotations from Shakespeare's plays and all references to them are from Peter Alexander's edition , London ...
... play's power in the theatre and its hold over his own imagination . In an interview he answers questions about his ... play . All quotations from Shakespeare's plays and all references to them are from Peter Alexander's edition , London ...
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... play on the theme of the ambitious prince finally overthrown . Its roots lie deep in the medieval and Renaissance ... plays he had the impact of Marlowe to absorb , who had broken the moralising pattern of such stories as mirrors for ...
... play on the theme of the ambitious prince finally overthrown . Its roots lie deep in the medieval and Renaissance ... plays he had the impact of Marlowe to absorb , who had broken the moralising pattern of such stories as mirrors for ...
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... play ; for this enables Shakespeare to show a more profound spiritual change in Macbeth than in any of his earlier protagonists . Boling- broke and Claudius feel their guilt , but Macbeth is shown as creating his own hell . In this the play ...
... play ; for this enables Shakespeare to show a more profound spiritual change in Macbeth than in any of his earlier protagonists . Boling- broke and Claudius feel their guilt , but Macbeth is shown as creating his own hell . In this the play ...
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... play dis- playing the degeneration of a great criminal who has ' no morally valid reason for killing Duncan ' , has satisfied many , although it does not account for a sense that somehow , in spite of everything , Macbeth retains an ...
... play dis- playing the degeneration of a great criminal who has ' no morally valid reason for killing Duncan ' , has satisfied many , although it does not account for a sense that somehow , in spite of everything , Macbeth retains an ...
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