Shakespeare's Villains [Hardcover]

Shakespeare's Villains is a close reading of Shakespeare's plays to investigate the nature of evil. Charney closely considers the way that dramatic characters are developed in terms of language, imagery, and nonverbal stage effects. With chapters on Iago, Tarquin, Aaron, Richard Duke of Glaucester, Shylock, Claudius, Polonius, Macbeth, Edmund, Goneril, Regan, Angelo, Tybalt, Don John, Iachimo, Lucio, Julius Caesar, Leontes, and Duke Frederick, this book is the first comprehensive study of the villains in Shakespeare.Maurice Charneyhas written books on Shakespeare since the 1960's. He retired from Rutgers University as a distinguished professor and was President of both the Shakespeare Association of America and the Academy of Literary Studies. In 1989 he was awarded the medal of the city of Tours in France.Charney (emer., Rutgers Univ.) has written a useful guide to Shakespeare's villains. They reveal a repetitive nature in the drama and poems as creatures of will who are jocular, full of policy, vulgar, and murderous. Often villains appear linked to the author, always plotting and steeped in the secretive ways of the imagination. Charney devotes chapters to, respectively, Iago, Tarquin and Aaron, Richard of Gloucester, Shylock, Claudius, Macbeth, a trio from King Lear (Edmund, Goneril, Regan), Angelo, Tybalt, 'calumniators' (Don John, Iachimo, and Lucio), and 'tyrants' (Julius Caesar, Leontes, and Duke Frederick). He offers no grand synthesis of Shakespeare's symbolism of evil, and he is guided in his close readings mostly by Shakespeare critics of a couple of generations ago who are still foundational to modern studyRobert Heilman, Marvin Rosenberg, and Bernard Spevack. The strength of Charney's work lies in the amount of close detail captured in summaries of what each villain does and says. These will be especially valuable to readers less than familiar with the plays. & Summing Up: Recommended. Choice Reviews

Introduction
Chapter 1: Iago