Politics and Romance in Shakespeare’s Four Great Tragedies

Author:   Kenneth Usongo
Publisher:   Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Edition:   Unabridged edition
ISBN:  

9781443851855


Pages:   155
Publication Date:   22 February 2017
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Available To Order   Availability explained
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Politics and Romance in Shakespeare’s Four Great Tragedies


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Overview

This study of the political and romantic impulses of Shakespeare's tragic characters – including Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Iago, among others – discusses the overblown ambition of these characters as they embrace cunning and evil in order to acquire power and romance. The excessive ambition shown by these characters fuels action in the plays and significantly contributes to their downfall. In other words, the book interrogates, in a pluralist critical frame, the forces behind the quest for power and romance by Shakespeare's protagonists, and explores how these forces propel the demise or fall of the heroes and heroines. While Edmund in King Lear, for example, is analysed as a crafty villain who exploits any opportunity to politically aggrandise himself, Claudius in Hamlet is portrayed as a diabolical schemer who acts mostly independently in his bid to secure the Danish throne. On the other hand, Macbeth's killing of Duncan is considerably invigorated by the ambition of Lady Macbeth to become queen and the prophecy of the witches that Macbeth shall be king. However, Iago is seen to display the scheming and ruthlessness of a traditional stage villain in his mission to unseat Cassio and overthrow Othello. The study contends that most of the politically and romantically driven characters of Shakespeare in the Four Great Tragedies are avaricious, artful and callous. As a result, the actions of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Claudius, Edmund, Iago, for instance, are activated by their excessive political and romantic cravings, which subvert the norms of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. In depicting these characters, Shakespeare decries unorthodox methods of realising one's dreams, and demonstrates attempts to challenge Elizabethan and Jacobean orthodoxy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kenneth Usongo
Publisher:   Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Imprint:   Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Edition:   Unabridged edition
Dimensions:   Width: 14.80cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.20cm
Weight:   0.363kg
ISBN:  

9781443851855


ISBN 10:   144385185
Pages:   155
Publication Date:   22 February 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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Kenneth Usongo received a PhD in Comparative literature from the University of Denver, USA, and a doctorate in English Literary Studies from the University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon. In addition to his books, Art and Political Thought in Bole Butake, Ruminations of Ipome, and The Rising Sun and Boma, he has also published two dozen essays in English, postcolonial, and American literatures in various journals and edited collections. He is currently Associate Professor of English at Texas College, USA.

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