Critics Flashcards
L Woodbridge
Refers to tragedies as ‘interrogative genre’.
Shakespeare doesn’t provide questions, the plays can be revisited.
Richard Eye
Each generation has to keep rediscovering ways of doing Shakespeare plays as style, fashions and taste is not fixed to history.
Wilson Knight- Measure for Measure and the Gospels
The Duke controls the play from stary to finish as a mysterious figure. He finds that each case is justified by it’ intentions.
Emma Smith- Measure for Measure: Symmetry and Situation
The play is full of argument without compromise and an avoidance of half-measures. It is a polarised play.
FS Boas
Coined the term ‘problem play’ to describe the darker comedies and tragedies.
M Lawson
‘How resonant it’s themes of sexual licentiousness ands twisted democracy are today’
J Middleton
‘Shakespeare seeks equilibrium for characters whose circumstances have placed them in a flux’.
N Arndt
‘A simmering tale ensures, rife with power plays, politics and licentiousness’
M Roberts
‘Shakespeare underlined the virgin/whore dichotomy by juxtaposing the convent and the brothel, both institutions that contained and controlled women.’
J Evans
‘A play greatly interested in patriarchal; authority’
H Williams
‘An incredibly dark story of hypocrisy, deceit, coercion, death and eternal damnation.’
‘Moments of true redemption and romance’
‘sub plot of bawdy, comic characters making a mockery’
M Billington
‘We are totally at home with a play about corruption in high places, the abuse of power and unfettered sexual licence’
