Play Analysis: A Reader

This play-analysis textbook contains 50 short essays on a number of geographically diverse, historically significant dramas-among them, Oedipus Tyrannos, Hamlet, King Lear, Tartuffe, Hedda Gabler, Major Barbara, Our Town, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Homecoming, Plenty, and Glengarry Glen Ross. Supplementing these essays are a Step-by-Step Approach to Play Analysis, a Glossary of Dramatic Terms, Study Guides, Topics for Writing and Discussion, and bibliographies.§Written with college students in mind, these critical essays cover some of the central plays treated in today's dramatic literature courses and will provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. The author is a "close reader" committed to a detailed yet objective examination of the structure, style, imagery, and language of a play. Moreover, he is concerned chiefly with dramatic analysis that can be of benefit not only to playreaders and theatergoers, but also to directors, designers, and even actors.