Tag: Shakespeare
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Iago
One of the more puzzling aspects of Shakespeare’s Othello is precisely why does Iago do all that he does; deliberately manipulating others to bring about the murder of the innocent Desdemona and the suicide of the mercenary Moor? That there appears to be no satisfactory answer to this puzzle is what makes it so entertaining.…
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Macbeth 3: The metaphor
There is a reason why students of Shakespeare must perennially confront the questions of who is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet and whether Macbeth is free to act according to his own desires or is manipulated by his wife and/or the Witches. Simply put, Shakespeare gives us enough to raise the…
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Macbeth 2: The Witches
Macbeth, Shakespeare’s play about male ambition leading to death and destruction, opens with Witches. Whether they are there to please a King or to act as the stimulus to make a king, they are plainly evil. In this role they would be as familiar to Shakespeare’s audience as they remain to a modern one. We…
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Macbeth I: For Entertainment’s Sake
Despite being one of the most heinous villains in the history of the theatre, we are supposed to retain a modicum of sympathy for Macbeth as he meets his fate at the hands of Macduff. Shakespeare constructed the play in such a way that we are not without some sympathy, even if only because we…
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