Study Guide to The Comedies by William Shakespeare

Study Guide to The Comedies by William Shakespeare PDF

Author: Intelligent Education

Publisher: Influence Publishers

Published: 2020-03-27

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 164542555X

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A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by William Shakespeare, considered one of the greatest playwrights in history. Titles in this study guide include Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, All's Well that Ends Well, The Winter's Tale, and Measure for Measure. As a collection of humor filled tales of Elizabethian life, the comedies depict fun, mischief, irony, mistaken identities, and intriguing wordplay. Moreover, his work draws audiences to sadness, joy, tragedy, comedy, darkness, and the depths of human experience. 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.

Gale Researcher Guide for: Shakespearean Comedy

Gale Researcher Guide for: Shakespearean Comedy PDF

Author: Ian Calvert

Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning

Published:

Total Pages: 10

ISBN-13: 153585233X

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Gale Researcher Guide for: Shakespearean Comedy is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.

Four Comedies

Four Comedies PDF

Author: William Shakespeare

Publisher: Bantam Classics

Published: 2009-08-26

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13: 0307420590

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The Taming of the Shrew Robust and bawdy, The Taming of the Shrew captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio, in a comedy of unmatched theatrical brilliance, filled with visual gags and witty repartee. A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood turn the mismatched rivalries of four young lovers into a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, all touched by Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between dreams and the waking world. The Merchant of Venice This dark comedy of love and money contains one of the truly mythic figures in literature–Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. The “pound of flesh” he demands as payment of Antonio’s debt has become a universal metaphor for vengeance. Here, pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglements, to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Twelfth Night Set in a topsy-turvy world like a holiday revel, this comedy juxtaposes a romantic plot involving separated twins and mistaken identity with a more satiric one about the humiliation of a pompous killjoy. The hilarity is touched with melancholy, and the play ends, not with laughter, but with a clown’s plaintive song. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors"

A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's

Author: Cengage Learning Gale

Publisher:

Published: 2017-07-25

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9781375390293

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A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Shakespeare for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Shakespeare for Students for all of your research needs.

A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"

A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's

Author: Gale, Cengage Learning

Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 35

ISBN-13: 1410361349

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A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Shakespeare for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Shakespeare for Students for all of your research needs.

Shakespeare's Festive Comedy

Shakespeare's Festive Comedy PDF

Author: Cesar Lombardi Barber

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 0691149526

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In this classic work, acclaimed Shakespeare critic C. L. Barber argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Brilliantly interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, Barber traces the inward journey--psychological, bodily, spiritual--of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies' combination of seriousness and levity. "I have been led into an exploration of the way the social form of Elizabethan holidays contributed to the dramatic form of festive comedy. To relate this drama to holiday has proved to be the most effective way to describe its character. And this historical interplay between social and artistic form has an interest of its own: we can see here, with more clarity of outline and detail than is usually possible, how art develops underlying configurations in the social life of a culture."--C. L. Barber, in the Introduction This new edition includes a foreword by Stephen Greenblatt, who discusses Barber's influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that Barber has inspired, showing that Shakespeare's Festive Comedy is as vital today as when it was originally published.

A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies

A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies PDF

Author: Michael Mangan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-06

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1317895045

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This is an informative and interesting guide to the comedies of love - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it and Twelfth Night - which were written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. As well as supplying dramatic and critical analysis, this study sets the plays within their wider social and artistic context. Michael Mangan begins by considering the social function of laughter, the use of humour in drama for handling social tensions in Elizabethan and Jacobean society and the resulting expectations the audience would have had about comedy in the theatre. In the second section he discusses the individual plays in the light of recent critical and theoretical research. The useful reference section at the end gives the reader a short bibliographic guide to key historical figures relevant to a study of Shakespeare's comedies and a detailed critical bibliography.