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 1
... and also 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.
... and also 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 2
... ideas expressed in the play to the central tenets of Christian belief and worship . D.J. Palmer's contri- bution starts from an examination of recurrent visual effects , rather than crucial words and narrative development . The shape of ...
... ideas expressed in the play to the central tenets of Christian belief and worship . D.J. Palmer's contri- bution starts from an examination of recurrent visual effects , rather than crucial words and narrative development . The shape of ...
Page 8
... idea of hell verbalised in Mephistopheles ' description of it as ' being depriv'd of everlasting bliss ' ( Scene III , 1.82 ) . Faustus himself seems to begin to understand this in his curses at the end : curse Lucifer That hath depriv ...
... idea of hell verbalised in Mephistopheles ' description of it as ' being depriv'd of everlasting bliss ' ( Scene III , 1.82 ) . Faustus himself seems to begin to understand this in his curses at the end : curse Lucifer That hath depriv ...
Page 10
... idea of worldly power , of gaining the throne , as when Lady Macbeth says her husband is ' not without ambition ' ( I.v.16 ) , or Ross explains the supposed guilt of Malcolm and Donalbain for the death of Duncan in terms of ' thriftless ...
... idea of worldly power , of gaining the throne , as when Lady Macbeth says her husband is ' not without ambition ' ( I.v.16 ) , or Ross explains the supposed guilt of Malcolm and Donalbain for the death of Duncan in terms of ' thriftless ...
Page 11
... idea familiar to her , even to the murder weapon , the ' keen knife ' that is to do the 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 ...
... idea familiar to her , even to the murder weapon , the ' keen knife ' that is to do the 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 ...
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