It also includes background information on the play. Great for students in high school and for parents who would like to share Shakespeare's writing with younger children. Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Othello focuses on the key issues of reality, feigned reality, and duality in the play, in addition to exploring the role of gender and adultery. It covers everything from performing conditions to auditorium behaviour. It also contains information about Shakespearean music on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage.
Musical examples illustrate the text.
A good book indeed. Smith's new Preface places his work in the context of the continuing controversies in gay, lesbian, and bisexual studies. The true identity of Shakespeare has been a point of contention from the beginning of Shakespearean criticism, and there seems to be no consensus as of yet. Author Richard F. Whalen has his own unique view of the subject and concludes that the case for Oxford is much more persuasive than the case for simple landowner, William Shakespeare. I personally do not agree with his deduction, but for those interested in the authorship debate, it is a well-written examination of the evidence.