Dr Donald Richardson (Registrar in Renal Medicine St James's University Hospital Leeds)
Measure for Measure is "usually considered one of Shakespeare's] unpleasant comedies" (Asimov, 635) since mercy is offered to "the villain" (Asimov). The duplicity of the Duke is debatable too, along with the final resolution that offers mercy toward the guilty. Like All's Well That Ends Well, the play should foster discussion about the paternalistic and somewhat insensitive treatment of women and their right to control their own bodies. "Critics have often debated both the quality of the justice the play delivers and its attempt to balance the respective claims of Law and Mercy" (Crewe,...
Measure for Measure is "usually considered one of Shakespeare's] unpleasant comedies" (Asimov, 635) since mercy is offered to "the villain" (Asimov)....
Dr Donald Richardson (Registrar in Renal Medicine St James's University Hospital Leeds)
Cymbeline repeats many of Shakespeare's plot devices: "villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, the appearance of Jupiter in a vision, and final repentance, forgiveness, and reunion" (Mowat, xiii), all of which result in an "improbable story" (Mowat, xv). As a romance, the play calls to mind the need for Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief" (Biographia Literaria, quoted in Greenblatt, 478). Yet it is still Shakespeare.
Cymbeline repeats many of Shakespeare's plot devices: "villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, the appea...
Dr Donald Richardson (Registrar in Renal Medicine St James's University Hospital Leeds)
Cymbeline repeats many of Shakespeare's plot devices: "villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, the appearance of Jupiter in a vision, and final repentance, forgiveness, and reunion" (Mowat, xiii), all of which result in an "improbable story" (Mowat, xv). As a romance, the play calls to mind the need for Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief" (Biographia Literaria, quoted in Greenblatt, 478). Yet it is still Shakespeare.
Cymbeline repeats many of Shakespeare's plot devices: "villainous slander, homicidal jealousy, cross-gender disguise, a deathlike trance, the appea...
Dr Donald Richardson (Registrar in Renal Medicine St James's University Hospital Leeds)
Titus Andronicus, like Hamlet, is a revenge tragedy but one that “focuses on violence and horror[;] . . . its mood is one of revulsion” (Bevington, Introduction). Despite parallels between Aaron and Iago and between Titus and Lear, the play extends the genre of revenge tragedy and becomes one of unremitting violence and bloodshed. Although the revenge is supposed to offer some type of catharsis, it is challenging to accept the unmitigated and almost purposeless violence of the play. It is small wonder that scholars have denied Shakespeare as the author.
Titus Andronicus, like Hamlet, is a revenge tragedy but one that “focuses on violence and horror[;] . . . its mood is one of revulsion”...
Dr Donald Richardson (Registrar in Renal Medicine St James's University Hospital Leeds)
Even though most Shakespearean scholars argue that Pericles is not entirely the work of Shakespeare, similar to The Winter’s Tale, it continues to attract playgoers.
“Shipwreck, famine, and other disasters punctuate this wondrous tale, in which a knight in rusty armor fights for his true love and a princess kidnaped by pirates retains her honor by setting a virtuous example for her captors” (Daurio, cover).
The play is a true romance, or as Joseph Papp states, it “is a fairy tale about a separated family’s coming back together...
Even though most Shakespearean scholars argue that Pericles is not entirely the work of Shakespeare, similar to The Winter’s Tale, it continu...
