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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... Macbeth 7 R.A. Foakes 2 The kingdom, the power and the glory in Macbeth 30 Brian Morris 3 'A new Gorgon': visual effects in Macbeth 54 D.J. Palmer THE PLAY IN THE THEATRE 4 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the eighteenth and nineteenth ...
... Macbeth 7 R.A. Foakes 2 The kingdom, the power and the glory in Macbeth 30 Brian Morris 3 'A new Gorgon': visual effects in Macbeth 54 D.J. Palmer THE PLAY IN THE THEATRE 4 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the eighteenth and nineteenth ...
Page 1
... Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in the scenes for the witches and in its compression – that any assessment must suggest exceptional purposes in its writing or entry into hitherto unexplored regions of human experience. At times the language ...
... Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in the scenes for the witches and in its compression – that any assessment must suggest exceptional purposes in its writing or entry into hitherto unexplored regions of human experience. At times the language ...
Page 10
... 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 ambition' (II.iv.28). The compulsion that drives Macbeth is ...
... 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 ambition' (II.iv.28). The compulsion that drives Macbeth is ...
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... Macbeth is that because he has great poetry to speak he must be an 'intellectual giant',10 when a very important question the text raises is how far Macbeth ... Lady Macbeth appears, for the death of Duncan is already an idea familiar to her, ...
... Macbeth is that because he has great poetry to speak he must be an 'intellectual giant',10 when a very important question the text raises is how far Macbeth ... Lady Macbeth appears, for the death of Duncan is already an idea familiar to her, ...
Page 14
... Lady Macbeth's coolness, for her unfamiliarity with images of death perhaps makes it easy for her to contemplate the murder of Duncan without anxiety. Coleridge thought of her as having a 'visionary and day-dreaming turn ofmind ...
... Lady Macbeth's coolness, for her unfamiliarity with images of death perhaps makes it easy for her to contemplate the murder of Duncan without anxiety. Coleridge thought of her as having a 'visionary and day-dreaming turn ofmind ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
The Play in The Theatre
| 71 |
Enacting The Text
| 111 |
Special Studies
| 153 |
A Directors View of The Play
| 229 |
Afterword | 249 |
Index | 255 |
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Common terms and phrases
A.C. Bradley action actor ambiguity ambition audience Banquo becomes blood Cawdor character critics crown dagger deed dramatic effect Elizabethan England evil fear feel feudal Fleance gives Glamis guilt Hamlet hand Hecate Holinshed Holinshed's honour horror husband imagery images of death imagination Jacobean James JRB PH JRB Keith Michell killing Duncan kind king kingship Lady Macbeth Lady Macduff look Malcolm mind monarchy moral murder Duncan murder of Duncan nature Nicol Williamson Olivier Olivier's performance perhaps Peter Hall PH JRB PH play play's political present production prophecies reality recognises rhythm Richard III role royal Scotland seems sense Shake Shakespeare Shakespearean Tragedy Siddons significant sleep sleep-walking scene soliloquy speak speech stage Stratford-upon-Avon suggestion supernatural tanistry Thane Thane of Cawdor theatre thee theme thing thou thought tragedy virtues vision visual Weird Sisters Weyard wife Wilson Knight witchcraft witches woman women words