William Shakespeare: The Problem Plays (Twayne's English Authors Series) - Hardcover

Are they comedies, romances, tragedies, or satires? Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, All's Well that Ends Well, and Measure for Measure so clearly resist conventional genre classification and reductive critical schemes that they have come to be known as his "problem plays." In one of the few books in recent years to take on these notoriously slippery texts as a group, Richard Hillman elegantly turns that artificial categorization to critical advantage, showing us that this radical instability of genre is not an obstacle but an invitation to understanding, and that it frames human existence itself as a tableau of shape-changing uncertainties. In these three works, Hillman explains, the dramatist played with, not according to, the rules of genre; each is an exquisitely volatile fusion of traditional romance material and realistic style, comic resolutions and tragic tendencies.
In close, detailed readings of the plays, Hillman shows us how each creates a turbulent world of circulating desire, misplaced blame, moral instability, and pervasive self-deception. With his guidance we see, as Shakespeare's confused characters do not, that even romantic love, for instance, "is less a subject for serious scrutiny than a red herring," and that the real issue is often the wielding of personal and political power. From Hillman's insights arise fascinating new perspectives on such traditional "problems" as the culpability of Cressida, Bertram's dubious qualifications as a romantic lead, the dilemma of Isabella, and the moral authority of Vincentio.
Informing this exciting analysis at every stage are Hillman's learned discussions of Shakespeare's cultural milieu: the rise of "citizen comedy," the fashion for satire, the stereotype of the malcontent, and the typical Jacobean mixture of cynicism and idealism. The postmodern concept of intertextuality plays a prominent role in the discussion, as does an innovative application of the principle of metadrama. Hillman develops - and combines - these approaches with originality, wit, and intellectual dexterity.
In essence, this is a study that reanimates the "problem plays" as precisely that, thereby earning the status of a true landmark in Shakespeare criticism.