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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... become a man, Who dares do more is none. (I.vii.41–4) (I.vii.46–7) What does it '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 ...
... become a man, Who dares do more is none. (I.vii.41–4) (I.vii.46–7) What does it '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 ...
Page 15
... becomes a free agent acting on its own ; her words evade the deed , as if she cannot bear to see the weapon , or the wound it makes , or the actual shape of the man to be murdered . Macbeth , by contrast , sees the weapon and the deed ...
... becomes a free agent acting on its own ; her words evade the deed , as if she cannot bear to see the weapon , or the wound it makes , or the actual shape of the man to be murdered . Macbeth , by contrast , sees the weapon and the deed ...
Page 16
... become a man , Who dares do more is none . ( I.vii.46-7 ) What does it ' 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 ...
... become a man , Who dares do more is none . ( I.vii.46-7 ) What does it ' 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 ...
Page 17
... becomes an emblem of the deed achieved , and as the vision fades , Macbeth's soliloquy ends with a series of images willing his identification with the powers of darkness , even as they register the ' present horror ' of the moment ...
... becomes an emblem of the deed achieved , and as the vision fades , Macbeth's soliloquy ends with a series of images willing his identification with the powers of darkness , even as they register the ' present horror ' of the moment ...
Page 24
... become an image of death that no longer terrifies anyone . The audience knows more than Malcolm , however , having experienced with Macbeth all that has happened ; Malcolm sees merely the death of a hated tyrant and usurper , which is ...
... become an image of death that no longer terrifies anyone . The audience knows more than Malcolm , however , having experienced with Macbeth all that has happened ; Malcolm sees merely the death of a hated tyrant and usurper , which is ...
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