Shakespeare: The Comedies

For Shakespeare, the trials and tribulations of love become a subject for both laughter and sympathy, presented in a dramatic form that combines such diverse elements as high poetic imagination, intelligent criticism, and farcical popular entertainment. This complex image is presented to readers in this book through detailed analysis of extracts from the four major comedies--A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It. Methods are explained and further work suggested to enhance reading of the plays, and they are related to the rest of Shakespeare's works.