LibGuides: The World of William Shakespeare: Tragedies

Shakespeare's Tragedies

Image from https://gavinpaul.medium.com/comrade-with-the-wolf-and-owl-52c1ba76bde1; accessed 25 Aug. 2021.

Criticism on Shakespeare's Tragedies in the HMCPL Catalog

William Shakespeare: The Tragedies by Harold Bloom, editor
Call Number: R 822.33 SHA WIL
ISBN: 0877546177
Publication Date: 1985
From the introduction: "Perhaps Hamlet is a representation, in himself, no just of how meaning gets started, but also of how meaning itself is invention, of how meaning refuses to be deferred or to be ended. Perhaps again that is why we can imagine Hamlet as the author of 'Hamlet', as the original we call Shakespeare."
William Shakespeare's Coriolanus by Harold Bloom, editor
Call Number: R 822.33 SHA WIL
ISBN: 0877549230
Publication Date: 1987
From the book jacket: "Coriolanus is a familiar Shakespearean tragic hero, whose moral assets, like Brutus's, become his undoing in a play that offers little hope for reconstruction. Indeed, some critics consider 'Coriolanus' an ultimately despairing portrait of human beings and the state that carries the tragic pessimism of 'Julius Caesar' to its extreme conclusion."
William Shakespeare's King Lear by Harold Bloom, editor
Call Number: R 822.3 SHA WIL
ISBN: 087754929X
Publication Date: 1987
From the introduction: "Only the Bible rivals Shakespeare as an influence upon our sense of how human character, thinking, personality, ought to be imitated through, in, or by language. No Western writer shows less consciousness of belatedness than Shakespeare, yet his true precursor is not Marlowe but the Bible. 'King Lear' as tragedy finds its only worthy forerunner in the Book of Job."
William Shakespeare's Macbeth by Harold Bloom, editor
Call Number: 822.33 WIL
ISBN: 0791078752
Publication Date: 2004
From the introduction: "Macbeth ought to be the least sympathetic of Shakespeare's hero-villains. He is a murderer of old men, women, and children, and has a particular obsession with overcoming time by murdering the future...and yet the playgoer and the reader cannot resist identifying with the imagination of Macbeth. Macbeth has few attributes beyond imagination to recommend him...yet it is open to the powers of the air and of the night: occult, medium, prophetic, and moral at least in part, it must be the most singular imagination in all of Shakespeare's plays."
Understanding Hamlet : a student casebook to issues, sources, and historical documents by Richard Corum
Call Number: 822.33 SHA COR
ISBN: 0313298777
Publication Date: 1998
'Shakespeare's Hamlet, regarded by many as "the world's most famous play by the world's most famous writer", is one of the most complex, demanding, discussed, and influential literary texts in English. As a means of access to this play, this unique collection of primary materials and commentary will help student and teacher explore historical, literary, theatrical, social, and cultural issues related to the play. In an approach unique for this series, Corum guides the reader through a literary analysis of Hamlet's options. He examines the popular theatres of the day in which Shakespeare and his company first produced Hamlet and discusses the genre of tragedy in which it is written. Through judicious selection of primary historical documents, the work provides contexts for understanding Hamlet's melancholy, the ghost of Hamlet's fathere, the theme of revenge, and Hamlet's feigned madness. Chapters on Gertrude and Ophelia illuminate these characters in the context of the play and early modern English culture."

From the book jacket.

AVL Articles on Shakespeare's Tragedies

Jeffey, Chris. "What Kinds of Play is Romeo and Juliet? Shakespeare in Southern Africa Vol 28 2016. Gale Literature; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

Cohen, Derek. "The Malignant scapegoats of King Lear." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 49.2 (2009): 371+. Gale Literature; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

Wilson, Jeffrey R. "The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet: Divine Providence and Social Determination." Midwest Quarterly Fall 2020, Vol. 62 Issue 1. MasterFILE Premier; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

Tufts, Carol Strongin. "Shakespeare's Conception of Moral Order in Macbeth." Renascence. Spring98/Summer 98, Vol. 50 Issue 3/4. Academic Search Premier; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

O'Dair, Sharon. "Social role and the making of identity in Julius Caesar." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 33.2 (1993): 289+. Gale Literature; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

Seelig, Sharon Cadman. "'I fetch my life and being from men of royal siege': ghostly paradigms in Othello." George Herbert Journal 22.1-2 (1998): 1+. Gale Literature; accessed 16 Sept 2021.

Symons, Arthur. "An introduction to Antony and Cleopatra." The Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. Henry Irving and Frank A. Marshall. Vol. 6. Blackie & Son, Limited, 1892. 113-124. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Mark W. Scott. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Gale Literature; accessed 16 Sept 2021.