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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Page 10
... seen as effectively a morality , with an action that can be summarised thus : 3 Its hero is worked upon by forces of evil , yields to temptation in spite of all that his conscience can do to stop him , goes deeper into evil - doing as ...
... seen as effectively a morality , with an action that can be summarised thus : 3 Its hero is worked upon by forces of evil , yields to temptation in spite of all that his conscience can do to stop him , goes deeper into evil - doing as ...
Page 15
... seen ; and the distancing of the deed from herself under a pall of smoke is accentuated by the transference of vision from herself to the knife , which is not to ' see ' what it does . Metaphorically the knife becomes a free agent ...
... seen ; and the distancing of the deed from herself under a pall of smoke is accentuated by the transference of vision from herself to the knife , which is not to ' see ' what it does . Metaphorically the knife becomes a free agent ...
Page 21
... seen by everyone on stage and the audience . The first , an armed head , both suggests Macduff ( ' Beware the thane of Fife ' ) , and anticipates the bringing on of the head of the dead Macbeth at the end of the play . The second , a ...
... seen by everyone on stage and the audience . The first , an armed head , both suggests Macduff ( ' Beware the thane of Fife ' ) , and anticipates the bringing on of the head of the dead Macbeth at the end of the play . The second , a ...
Page 22
... seen as analogous to Richard Ill's murder of the princes in the Tower , as marking the last degradation of the criminal , but in Macbeth's case the effect is more complex , for it is also in some sense a breakthrough for him , a ...
... seen as analogous to Richard Ill's murder of the princes in the Tower , as marking the last degradation of the criminal , but in Macbeth's case the effect is more complex , for it is also in some sense a breakthrough for him , a ...
Page 30
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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