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| In his close study of Romeo and Juliet Matt Simpson
takes up the gauntlet thrown by the critic John Wain who once
dismissivley asserted that the play posed no questions. |
| Starting with a seemingly simple one - what's
in a name? - Matt Simpson finds, in the ambivalences out of
which the play is constructed, a great number of highly relevant
questions that we can and should ask, or rather, that the play
itself is urgently asking. Romeo and Juliet raises questions
about secrecy, young love, comradeship, lust, the incompetence
of the older generation, honour, death, suicide and good and
evil - themes made more resonant by Shakespeare's superb poetry. |
| Matt
Simpson is a poet and critic. His critical essays have
recently been published by Shoestring Press. He lives in Liverpool
where he was born. |
| Other titles in this series that might
be of interest |
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| About the Student Guide Literary Series |
| The Times Educational Supplement:
"The style of [this series] has a pressure of
meaning behind it. Students should learn from that...If art
is about selection, perception and taste, then this is it." |
