In Blood Will Tell in Shakespeare's Plays, Dr. Berkeley studies various manifestations of Shakespeare's class bias seen in the poet's division of all human beings in the plays into two genetic classes, gentle and base. Berkeley examines both Renaissance physiology and the Shakespearean applications of it, helping to make this conception seem more credible than superstitious or quixotic. In this light, Shakespeare is seen not as a eugenics propagandist but as one whose characterization of humanity has the solidity of natural process. In the plays, gentles (excepting degenerates) are all endowed, sometimes prodigally, with excellent virtues; and the base born, though sometimes characterized with modestly admirable qualities, usually are portrayed with vices and shortcomings. Thus, Henry V in Shakespeare's plays appears to have mastered many fields of learning without having tutors or being known as a reader of books. His longbowmen, however, who were largely responsible for the British victory at Agincourt, are not given their share of credit because, one may surmise, they did not expose themselves to hand-to-hand combat in the manner of gentlemen (Henry gentles them in consolation only because of some intractable, historical source-stuff). In the Winter's Tale's primary source, Pandosto, the base shepherd is finally made a knight, a matter evidently so repellent to Shakespeare that he jettisons it. One finds that Shakespeare's plays invariably magnify class distinctions found in the poet's sources. Quality of blood determines what his characters are and how they behave. Thus seen, Shakespeare is firm in the medieval tradition of viewing blood quality in term of hierarchy. The business of his plays is presenting disturbed situations that are finally calmed by the characters' assumption of the places pointed to by the "kindly enclyning" of their blood. This important conception, which underlies all the Shakespearean plays and sets the poet apart from writers like Chaucer, Marlowe, and Milton, has generally been ignored by critics, many of whom, especially since the Blutezeit of Romanticism, have had an either liberal or Christian bias that does not readily tolerate a blood-based aristocracy and the submerged commonalty that it implies.

Follows the treatment of repentance in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest to show the relationship of theme and form, and the dramatist's experimentation with forms until he accomplished his goal--the probing psychological exploration of men who sin, repent, and achieve redemption.

This book is a study of As You Like It , which shows how the play represents issues of interest to literate playgoers of its time, as well as speculatively to Shakespeare himself.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespear’s As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s “great” or “middle” comedies. As a satirical tale of pastoral romance, As You Like It examines the cruelties and corruption of court life and love. Moreover, Shakespeare amusingly weaves a tale of love manifested in varied forms but targets the main theme of “love at first sight” through his playful imagery and characters. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespear’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s The Sonnets, which remains to be one of the most influential verse collections in English poetry. As a rebellious collection of rhyme schemes of the Renaissance, The Sonnets often employ a distinct sequence of metaphors or ideas to illustrate society and life. Moreover, Shakespeare explores themes such as lust, misogyny, and infidelity in ways that challenges the traditional sonnet. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Blood, according to Gil Anidjar, maps the singular history of Christianity. As a category for historical analysis, blood can be seen through its literal and metaphorical uses as determining, sometimes even defining Western culture, politics, and social practices and their wide-ranging incarnations in nationalism, capitalism, and law. Engaging with a variety of sources, Anidjar explores the presence and the absence, the making and unmaking of blood in philosophy and medicine, law and literature, and economic and political thought from ancient Greece to medieval Spain, from the Bible to Shakespeare and Melville. The prevalence of blood in the social, juridical, and political organization of the modern West signals that we do not live in a secular age into which religion could return. Flowing across multiple boundaries, infusing them with violent precepts that we must address, blood undoes the presumed oppositions between religion and politics, economy and theology, and kinship and race. It demonstrates that what we think of as modern is in fact imbued with Christianity. Christianity, Blood fiercely argues, must be reconsidered beyond the boundaries of religion alone.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, known as an “actor’s play” for its condensed script and the interpretive freedom it gives actors on stage. As a tragedy of the early seventeenth-century, Macbeth follows a man living in a constructed universe in which he cannot toy with evil without facing consequences. Moreover, readers witness the primary theme that destruction comes to characters who do not fear the outcomes of their actions. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Othello, the inspiration behind many operas, films, and literary adaptations. As a tragedy of the seventeenth-century, Othello’s performance continues today due to the timeless themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance. Moreover, Shakespeare was inspired by English, French, and Italian works, but Othello was primarily inspired by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio’s Hecatommithi. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s King Lear, listed as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. As a theatrical work of the seventeenth-century, King Lear provides commentary on power dynamics within family and political structures. Moreover, it shows how the use of imagery in a narrative contributes to the overall meaning. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare’s last two tragedies. As an unusual and intense, intellectual drama, Shakespeare employs single narrative line and striking images, but the most effective moments in the play are developed through understated silence. Moreover, he implements late, lean, and compact style in which images are used for their intellectual and thematic importance, rather than their emotional content. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.