Macbeth: Analysis

"In the play of Macbeth the dramatist has pictured the "vis phantastica," that is, the force of the imagination, more vividly than in any other play he, or perhaps anyone else, ever wrote." From the series: Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages

"Perhaps no other Shakespearean drama so engulfs its readers in the ruinous journey of surrender to evil as does Macbeth. A timeless tragedy about the nature of ambition, conscience, and the human heart, the play holds a profound grip on the Western imagination."

"A'freeze frame'volume showcasing the range of current debate and ideas surrounding one of the most familiar of Shakespeare's tragedies. Each chapter has been carefully selected for its originality and relevance to the needs of students, teachers and researchers. Key themes and topics covered include:The Text and its Status History and TopicalityCritical Approaches and Close ReadingAdaptation and Afterlife All the essays offer new perspectives and combine to give readers an up-to-date understanding of what's exciting and challenging about Macbeth. The approach based on an individual play, unlike that of topic-based series, reflects how Shakespeare is most commonly studied and taught."

"Shakespeare's four-hundred-year performance history is full of anecdotes – ribald, trivial, frequently funny, sometimes disturbing, and always but loosely allegiant to fact. Such anecdotes are nevertheless a vital index to the ways that Shakespeare's plays have generated meaning across varied times and in varied places."

"Shakespeare's gift for writing tragedies was powerful indeed. His ability to create epic tragic characters—think Hamlet, Lear, and the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet—and scenarios is virtually unrivalled. Readers examine the Bard's major tragedies and their significance, and touch upon the state of theatre and dramatic performance in Shakespeare's England for good measure"

"The book combines an informative guide to these interpretations of Shakespeare, discussed with critical analysis of their relative strengths. It also includes extensive interviews with directors, actors and writers involved in the projects discussed'."

"Contributors suggest new possibilities for the interpretation of Shakespearean drama by engaging with the rich body of contemporary work in the field of moral philosophy, offering significant insights for literary criticism, for pedagogy, and also for theatrical performance."

"This book assesses William Shakespeare in the context of political and religious crisis, paying particular attention to his Catholic connections, which have heretofore been underplayed by much Protestant interpretation."

"This volume in the Writers Lives series offers a reassessment of Shakespeare and his creative output from his earliest work through his'mature'drama and the late plays, taking into account our current knowledge of Shakespeare's biography and consensus on key textual, critical and theatrical issues."

"Shakespeare on Masculinity is an original study of the way Shakespeare's plays engage with this ideal and a subject that provoked bitter public dispute."