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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... deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. (I.vii.12–16) It is more than a 'double trust' – Duncan is his kinsman, his King, his guest in his own home, and, Shakespeare suggests, a ...
... deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. (I.vii.12–16) It is more than a 'double trust' – Duncan is his kinsman, his King, his guest in his own home, and, Shakespeare suggests, a ...
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... deeds . Lamb strikingly linked , perhaps equated , ambition , aspiration and intellectual activity , in a way which now may seem a little eccentric . For on the one hand , the meaning of ambition is more restricted than this on the one ...
... deeds . Lamb strikingly linked , perhaps equated , ambition , aspiration and intellectual activity , in a way which now may seem a little eccentric . For on the one hand , the meaning of ambition is more restricted than this on the one ...
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... deed ( I.v.49 ) . If the thought of murdering Duncan is already there , so to speak , in the minds of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth , then the notion of Macbeth as tempted needs further scrutiny . The Weird Sisters announce that Macbeth will ...
... deed ( I.v.49 ) . If the thought of murdering Duncan is already there , so to speak , in the minds of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth , then the notion of Macbeth as tempted needs further scrutiny . The Weird Sisters announce that Macbeth will ...
Page 14
... deed as a triumph of the will . In her terrible soliloquy in I.v she turns herself by an act of will into another Weird Sister , shedding her sex ( ' unsex me here ' , I.v.38 ) and suppressing pity and remorse , so that when Macbeth ...
... deed as a triumph of the will . In her terrible soliloquy in I.v she turns herself by an act of will into another Weird Sister , shedding her sex ( ' unsex me here ' , I.v.38 ) and suppressing pity and remorse , so that when Macbeth ...
Page 15
... 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 acting on its own ; her words evade 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 acting on its own ; her words evade 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 |
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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