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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays
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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays Hardcover - 2012

by D. Margolies


From the publisher

Shakespeare's plays are too often analysed as if they existed in a vacuum. This book looks at the Problem Plays as designed to produce a response in the audience, and offers a vision of them quite different from conventional judgements. Extending the category from the traditional Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure to include The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and Othello, the author closely examines the texts to argue that Shakespeare purposely disturbs his audience. The endings in particular reveal an intention to cause frustration by first creating expectations through the form and then contradicting them in the content. Thus, the marriages which seem to fulfil the expectations of a comedy's happy ending clash unresolvably with the audience's recognition of their doubts about the specific match. Shakespeare's cynicism feels surprisingly relevant today, while the plays' increasing skill and subtlety continue to offer real pleasure.

Details

  • Title Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays
  • Author D. Margolies
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Pages 183
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Palgrave MacMillan
  • Date 2012-07-24
  • Features Bibliography, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780230277618 / 0230277616
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 in (21.84 x 14.22 x 1.78 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: Modern
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Shakespeare, William - Tragicomedies, Tragicomedy - History and criticism
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2012021612
  • Dewey Decimal Code 822.33

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 02/01/2013, Page 0

About the author

DAVID MARGOLIES Emeritus Professor of English at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He has published widely on Shakespeare and popular culture, notably Novel and Society in Elizabethan England and Monsters of the Deep: Social Dissolution in Shakespeare's Tragedies.
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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays
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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays

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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays
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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays

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Shakespeare's Irrational Endings: The Problem Plays

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