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Title: Macbeth: Text and Contexts by William Shakespeare, William C. Carroll ISBN: 0-312-14454-7 Publisher: Bedford Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.10 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.31 (86 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: foul is fair...
Comment: Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more gloomy plays. It is downright grim. It starts grim and only gets blacker... ...It is one of Shakespeare's better plays
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more ambiguous main characters. Motivation is always a big question with him. Sure, he is hungry for power. Yet he also needs prodding from several quarters to take most of his actions.
Lady Macbeth is really no different. She comes off as eager for evil early on, but is utterly shocked by its repercussions. Her attempt to go against nature leaves her absolutely unhinged and thirsting after guidance--only to find despair. In this regard, Shakespeare anticipates the psychology of Dostoevsky.
Macbeth is also one of Shakespeare's most supernatural plays. Regardless of whether one wants to debate the reality of Banquo's ghost, there are forces at work in Macbeth that are often unseen, but which drive the plot. The witches and all the unnaturalness come up against the forces of nature (the trees) and the divinely appointed King.
The most remarkable thing about this play is, for me at least, that it becomes a true tragedy only in its last moments. Only when all the stuff has hit the fan, and he has realized his doom is eminent, does Macbeth show the courage and nobility of a true tragic hero.
Macbeth is a great place to start if you are new to Shakespeare. It is a fun place to return if you're not.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best for your class in reading Macbeth...
Comment: The New Leadership Charter School read the Folger Shakespeare Library edition for its 2002 Shakespeare Festival. The entire school saw the play performed at Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA.
Several other books were helpful in preparing the teachers and students for discussing Macbeth: (1) The Cambridge School Shakespeare edition, which has many wonderful suggestions for class activities (but which is more expensive than the Folger edition); (2) Peggy O'Brien, Shakespeare Set Free, which has a great section on teaching Macbeth; (3) LitPlans on CD, which has a number of pencil-and-paper activities about Macbeth; (4) Greenhaven Press's Readings on Macbeth, which has 16 interpretive chapters on Macbeth, all of which teachers and upper level high school students will find useful; (5) Two books of college-level lectures on Shakespeare, with chapters on Macbeth (A.C. Bradley and Harold C. Goddard); and (6) Nick Aitchison's history of midaeval Scotland, Macbeth: Man and Myth.
Amazon has all of this stuff, and I found them all very useful.
The one interpretive book that I did not find useful was Susanne Wofford's Shakespeare's Late Tragedies.
Rating: 5
Summary: A very useful edition of a great play
Comment: Macbeth has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It is vivid, has blood & murder, magic, visions, treachery, and just deserts. I mean, what is not to love? The play moves along quickly and isn't one of the longer plays. For all these reasons and more, audiences love it.
But there is a lot more to the play than the plot outline might suggest. Shakespeare brilliantly works out the subtleties of character through the action, interactions, and self-discussions in the play. It isn't a simple "action" play, it is also a masterwork of revealing the character of the characters even when they are themselves unaware of the trap they are leaping into.
I am partial to the Arden editions because I trust the text, love the extensive notes, and the introductory and additional material that helps give the play context and talks about sources Shakespeare almost certainly used. In this case Holinshed's "Chronicles of Scotland". Throughout this edition there are also discussions of the textural problems of this play: where some things seem to be missing, what might be interpolations, and so forth.
This is a very useful edition of a great play.
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Title: Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy: Modern English Version Side-By-Side With Full Original Text) by William Shakespeare, Alan Durband ISBN: 0812036387 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The TEMPEST by William Shakespeare ISBN: 0671722905 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Othello by William Shakespeare ISBN: 0671722816 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Bruce Coville, Tim Raglin, William Twelfth Night Shakespeare ISBN: 0803723180 Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare ISBN: 0671722719 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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