Four of the greatest works in the English dramatic canon, this collection brings together Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth — the plays in which Shakespeare most profoundly explored the destruction wrought by human weakness. Each tragedy turns on a different failing: the consuming ambition of Macbeth, the wilful blindness of Lear, Hamlet’s inability to act, and the corrosive jealousy of Othello. What makes these dramas so enduring is the paradox at their heart: the causes of catastrophe are often small, even petty, yet the suffering they unleash is vast. And though each hero is undone by his own nature, there remains in him a greatness that commands our sympathy rather than our contempt. It is from this tension between nobility and ruin that Shakespeare draws his most searching insights into what it means to be human. Each of the four plays is accompanied by editorial notes and an individual introduction, making this an especially useful edition for students and those approaching the plays in the theatre.
ISBN 13: 9780140434583
Author: William Shakespeare
