Author: Kenneth Muir
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521239592
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
These articles, reprinted from various volumes of Shakespeare Survey, concern three plays which have gradually become appreciated by critics and in the theatre. Since the early years of this century they have been seen as an interrelated group, with a peculiarly twentieth-century appeal. Measure for Measure, concerned as it is with adolescents' first encounters with sex, love and death, has a special appeal for young people; Troilus and Cressida, set in the Trojan War, has been found deeply relevant to our own war-troubled times; and All's Well That Ends Well, sharing these preoccupations, is a necessary companion piece. John Barton, who has directed all three plays, is interviewed in one of the articles, which together illustrate the often heated controversy about the plays. Reviews and photographs of post-war productions at Stratford are also included. The book as a whole is designed as a stimulating introduction to these plays and to conflicting interpretations of them.
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Sta
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Comedy and Tragedy--Collected here in one binding are All's Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure and The History of Troilus and Cressida. Collectively they are known as Shakespeare's Problem Plays. While the first two are usually placed with the comedies and the later with the tragedies none of them fit neatly into either classification. Their structure subject matter and resolutions create problems for those who want simple classifications. The term was coined by critic F. S. Boas who believed that these plays each explored a moral dilemma and social problem through their main characters giving the term a layered meaning. O it is excellentTo have a giant's strength;But it is tyrannousTo use it like a giant.
Author: Ernest Schanzer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136564896
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
The opening chapter traces the history of the term 'problem plays' as applied to Shakespeare and defines it more clearly and precisely than has been done in the past. Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, Antony and Cleopatra are then discussed in separate chapters, not only as problem plays but from various points of view: such matters as themes, structural pattern, character-problems, the play's relation to its sources as well as to other plays in the canon, are all touched upon.
Author: Eustace M. W. Tillyard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780140175776
Category : Tragicomedy
Languages : en
Pages : 153
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Book Description
Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure - these are all described by the author as Shakespeare's problem plays. In each of them, the author argues, Shakespeare is deeply interested in speculative thought and in the observance of human nature for their own sake; and each is concerned with men on the edge of manhood and of the harsh experiences which forced them to grow up.
Author: Vivian Thomas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100035010X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 205
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Book Description
What is it that makes Shakespeare’s problem plays problematic? Many critics have sought for the underlying vision or message of these puzzling and disturbing dramas. Originally published in 1987, the key to Viv Thomas’s new synthesis of the plays is the idea of fracture and dissolution in the universe. From the collapse of ‘degree’ in Troilus and Cressida to the corruption at the heart of innocence in Measure for Measure, to the puzzling status of virtue and valour in All’s Well, the most obvious feature of these plays in their capacity to prompt new questions. In a detailed discussion of each play in turn, the author traces the dominant themes that both distinguish and unite them, and provides numerous insights into the sources, background, texture and morality of the plays.
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521854482
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 84
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Book Description
Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early this century, admiration for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favorite with the critics and has attracted widely different styles of performance. At one extreme the play is seen as a religious allegory, at the other it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege. Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises that shock the audience even to the end. The introduction describes the play's critical reception and stage history and how these have varied according to prevailing social, moral and religious issues, which were highly sensitive when Measure for Measure was written, and have remained so to the present day.
Author: A. G. Harmon
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791484920
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
In Eternal Bonds, True Contracts, A. G. Harmon closely analyzes Shakespeare's concentrated use of the law and its instruments in what have often been referred to as the problem plays: Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, and All's Well That Ends Well. Contracts, bonds, sureties, wills—all ensure a changed relationship between parties, and in Shakespeare the terms are nearly always reserved for use in the contexts of marriage and fellowship. Harmon explores the theory and practice of contractual obligations in Renaissance England, especially those involving marriage and property, in order to identify contractual elements and their formation, execution, and breach in the plays. Using both legal and literary resources, Harmon reveals the larger significance of these contractual concepts by illustrating how Shakespeare develops them both dramatically and thematically. Harmon's study ultimately enables the reader to perceive not only these plays but also all of Shakespeare's writing—including his poetry—as integral with, and implicated in, the proliferating legalism that was helping to define early modern English culture.
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Troilus (Legendary character)
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
Author: Simon Barker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137208902
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
This New Casebook offers a wide-ranging selection of contemporary critical readings of Shakespeare's three 'problem plays': All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Trolius and Cressida. Together, they reflect the diversity of late twentieth-century theory and the controversy that continues to be generated by the plays, and discuss a variety of key issues. These include the meaning of the term 'problem play', the historical context and political and cultural significance of the plays, as well as issues of staging and theatre history. The volume also provides a helpful introduction which guides the reader through the critical approaches, terms and debates, as well as explanatory notes for each essay and a useful section on further reading.
Author: Robbie Duschinsky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315529718
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443
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Book Description
Mary Douglas’s seminal work Purity and Danger (Routledge, 1966) continues to be indispensable reading for both students and scholars today. Marking the 50th anniversary of Douglas’s classic, the present volume sheds fresh light upon themes raised by Douglas by drawing on recent developments in the social sciences and humanities, as well as current empirical research. In presenting new perspectives on the topic of purity and impurity, the volume integrates work in anthropology and sociology with contemporary ideas from religious studies, cognitive science and the arts. Containing contributions from both established and emerging scholars, including protégées of Douglas herself, Purity and Danger Now is an essential volume for those working on purity and impurity across the full spectrum of the social sciences and humanities.
