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Palgrave Macmillan

Shakespeare's Irrational Endings

The Problem Plays

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. David Margolies

    1. Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • David Margolies
    Pages 1-12

  3. All’s Well That Ends Well

    • David Margolies
    Pages 13-35

  4. Much Ado About Nothing

    • David Margolies
    Pages 36-55

  5. Measure for Measure

    • David Margolies
    Pages 56-85

  6. The Merchant of Venice

    • David Margolies
    Pages 86-111

  7. Troilus and Cressida

    • David Margolies
    Pages 112-137

  8. Othello

    • David Margolies
    Pages 138-161

  9. Conclusion

    • David Margolies
    Pages 162-173

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 174-183
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Keywords

About this book

Problem Plays' has been an awkward category for those Shakespeare plays that don't fit the conventional groupings. Expanding from the traditional three plays to six, the book argues that they share dramatic structures designed intentionally by Shakespeare to disturb his audience by frustrating their expectations.

Reviews

"Because of its lucidity, clarity, and textually focused detail, the discussion is ideal for undergraduates, which is not to undervalue its scholarship . . . Margolies's insistence upon the importance of emotional response contributes usefully to a renewed critical interest in aesthetics and performance in early modern studies." - New Theatre Quarterly

"Shakespeare's Irrational Endings offers an unparalleled history of both the concept and status of problem plays. As well as the traditional trio, Margolies includes Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello in the 'problem play' category. These six works, Margolies argues, are designed to unsettle and worry Shakespeare's audiences by offering them appropriate formal outcomes marriages or deaths without the expected emotional release." - Notes and Queries

Authors and Affiliations

  • Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

    David Margolies

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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