Product Description

The Oxford School Shakespeare is a well-established series which helps students understand and enjoy Shakespeare's plays. As well as the complete and unabridged text, each play in this series has an extensive range of students' notes. These include detailed and clear explanations of difficult words and passages, a synopsis of the plot, summaries of individual scenes, and notes on the main characters. Also included is a wide range of questions and activities for work in class, together with the historical background to Shakespeare's England, a brief biography of Shakespeare, and a complete list of his plays. This topical and relevant play is a new addition to the Oxford School Shakespeare. The text follows the redesign of the series, photographs of recent stage productions have been included, and the attractive cover design follows the revised series style. Roma Gill, the series editor, has taught Shakespeare at all levels. She has acted in and directed Shakespeare's plays, and has lectured on Shakespeare all over the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408564 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A dark and difficult play, Measure for Measure has been a popular play since the latter half of the 20th century for its prescient dramatisation of the issues of sexual and political hypocrisy, and the ways in which the state interferes in the private lives of its citizens. Set in Duke Vincentio's Vienna, where poverty, disease and prostitution are rife, Claudio and his fiancée Juliet are arrested for having sex before marriage, and Claudio is sentenced to death. Angelo, the Duke's deputy, who stands in for the Duke whilst he ostensibly goes off on a pilgrimage, enthusiastically endorses the sentence. In fact the Duke remains behind the scenes, watching Angelo as he falls for Claudio's sister Isabella, who comes to beg for her brother's life. Angelo is a wonderful creation, loathsome yet fascinating as he struggles with the double standards of his enforcement of draconian laws whilst lusting after the sister of the man he is prepared to execute, debating "The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?".

No one is spared Shakespeare's withering look at the mores of early 17th-century life, not even the pimps and madams who try to get by in the midst of the Duke's bizarre and coercive disguises and performances. The deeply ambiguous ending of Measure for Measure confirms it as one of Shakespeare's most ambivalent and arguably despairing plays. --Jerry Brotton

About the Author
Roma Gill. the series editor, has taught Shakespeare at all levels. She has acted in and directed Shakespeare's plays, and has lectured Shakespeare all over the world. She was awarded the OBE in 1994 for services to English Literature.

Customer Reviews

measure for measure
not shakespeare's most famous work, but certainly one of my favourites. the characters are devilishly brilliant, the plot is a little weak in places, but as usual the language more than makes up for it.