Shakespeare and the Problem Play

<p> Shakespeare's plays provide a rich source of genre variation as well as moral or ethical issues that invite deep study. The genre issue often proves the very moral crux where Shakespeare raises the most complex questions. He aimed to build good plays not simple fulfillments of genre demands. To him good plays meant leaving his audience with problems to consider.</p><p> This book begins with those works most commonly appearing in studies of problem plays <I>The Merchant of Venice Troilus and Cressida All's Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure</I>; moves to some comedic problem plays <I>Much Ado About Nothing A Midsummer Night's Dream</I> and <I>Twelfth Night</I>; and then to tragic problem plays <I>Hamlet Othello</I> and <I>King Lear</I>. It concludes with some problems in the history and romance genres for the issues they raise in love adventure and governance: <I>Henry IV Part 1 Henry V Cymbeline The Tempest</I> and <I>Love's Labor's Lost</I>.</p>