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
Results 1-5 of 37
Page 1
... suggested a number of the questions that I posed to the contributors to this volume . At the head of the book are three studies of Macbeth's themes and structure . Various ideas are followed through the 1 Introduction.
... suggested a number of the questions that I posed to the contributors to this volume . At the head of the book are three studies of Macbeth's themes and structure . Various ideas are followed through the 1 Introduction.
Page 3
... questions about his two productions and what the text suggests to him . The book concludes with an Afterword in which I draw upon the eleven contributions to this volume in assessing our present knowledge of this great play . All ...
... questions about his two productions and what the text suggests to him . The book concludes with an Afterword in which I draw upon the eleven contributions to this volume in assessing our present knowledge of this great play . All ...
Page
... question to the Weird Sisters, 'Are ye fantastical, or that indeed/Which outwardly ye show?,' (I.iii.53–4). The boundary between the fantastical, the imaginary or illusory, and actuality is indeterminate, as Macbeth proceeds to create a ...
... question to the Weird Sisters, 'Are ye fantastical, or that indeed/Which outwardly ye show?,' (I.iii.53–4). The boundary between the fantastical, the imaginary or illusory, and actuality is indeterminate, as Macbeth proceeds to create a ...
Page
... become' a man to do? In one sense this suggests actions that grace a man, as in the penitent death of Cawdor, Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. (I.iv.7–8) At the same time Macbeth's words raise a question about.
... become' a man to do? In one sense this suggests actions that grace a man, as in the penitent death of Cawdor, Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. (I.iv.7–8) At the same time Macbeth's words raise a question about.
Page 11
... question the text raises is how far Macbeth understands his own words . Moralistic accounts of Macbeth as falling into temptation , committing a terrible crime and ending in despair , pass too readily by the question that haunts the ...
... question the text raises is how far Macbeth understands his own words . Moralistic accounts of Macbeth as falling into temptation , committing a terrible crime and ending in despair , pass too readily by the question that haunts 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 |
Other editions - View all
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