Juliet Character Traits

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

This guide surveys the truly essential criticism of the play over the last four centuries, from 16th-century responses to the present day. Discussing key areas of debate, and a wide range of scholarship, Gillian Woods provides an invaluable introduction to the vast array of criticism surrounding one of Shakespeare's most popular plays.

Character

“In her wide-ranging cultural history of the term [‘character’], Garber has unearthed fascinating material and is a convivial, stimulating critic.” —Michael Saler, The Times Literary Supplement Since at least Aristotle’s time, philosophers, theologians, artists, and scientists have pondered the enigma of human character. Whether defined as a moral idea, a literary persona, or a scientifically observable type, character has become omnipresent in discussions of politics, ethics, gender, morality, and the psyche. In this “magisterial book,” Marjorie Garber examines the evolution and influence of this pervasive concept. Is there a connection between “character” in the moral sense and the “character” of a novel or a play? Can character be “formed” or taught in schools, in scouting, in the home? From Plutarch to John Stuart Mill, from Shakespeare to Darwin, from Theophrastus to Freud, from nineteenth-century phrenology to twenty-first-century brain scans, the search for the sources and components of human character still preoccupies us. With her distinctive verve, humor, and erudition, Marjorie Garber explores the stakes of these conflations, confusions, and heritages, from ancient Greece to the present day.