Product Description

A "Heinemann Advanced Shakespeare" version of the play "Measure for Measure", designed for A Level students. Aimed at bridging the gap between GCSE and A Level, the work includes notes to help students understand the text, space for students' own annotation and activities and assignments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182039 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 274 pages

Customer Reviews

You won't get your measure of money for this
The actual annotations around the text were great which boosts the books rating up to a 2- shame it was all in the wrong order! Acts were in the wrong places, pages were missing and the contents page was somewhere about a fifth of the way through- waste of my money!!

Read it at school - without a doubt one of Shakespeare's best
Barcode: 9780435193119

Everyone does Shakespeare at school but i'll confess that out of all his plays i had never heard of Measure For Measure before. But boy am i pleased i had the chance to stufy it as it really is a fascinating play. The ideas presented come across remarkably forward thinking and the characters are just fantastic - they'll move you to rage, move you to sympathy and above all totally involve you in this fantastic story.

This edition is a really good one, really well produced and neatly layed out with the as standard annotations and summaries - but done in an easily understandable and concise way.

I won't spoil the plot for those who haven't read the play but it basically deals with a scheming Duke who shucks his duties as ruler of Vienna, leaving it in charge of Angelo, a man who initially seems impossibly cold and emotionless but as the plot progresses, is tempted by a trainee nun - Isabella. Her brother is on trial for bearing a child into an unmarried relationship and the only way Isabella can save him is if she sleeps with Angelo. But the plot gets really murky here as she offers the instantly provoking line 'more than our brother's life is our chastity'.

As i've said before, once you get into the play it is absolutely fascinating and feels as if its on an epic scale - people playing with their very essence against a backdrop of a city which has descended into sin. As with all Shakespeare plays, the play is open to interpretations - but Measure For Measure for so than most others epitomises this. Certainly in my class, opinions were very divided on some of the characters and why they do what the do and part of what hooks you so much with this play is that you are forced to make judgement on these characters - in many ways almost involving you in the events themselves - truly the mark of any great work of fiction.