CRITICISM

Benardete, José A. “Macbeth's Last Words.” Interpretation 1 (summer 1970): 63-75.

Considers questions of guilt, damnation, and manly virtue in relation to Macbeth's character and that of the other principal figures in the play.

Braunmuller, A. R. Introduction to The New Cambridge Shakespeare: Macbeth, edited by A. R. Braunmuller, pp. 1-94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Extended survey of the sources, themes, language, and stage history of Macbeth.

Calderwood, James L. “Macbeth: Violence and Meaning.” In If It Were Done: “Macbeth” and Tragic Action, pp. 71-114. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.

Offers a psycho-social analysis of violence in Macbeth as it contributes to an understanding of Macbeth's character and motivation.

Cantor, Paul A. “Macbeth and the Gospelling of Scotland.” In Shakespeare as Political Thinker, edited by John E. Alvis and Thomas G. West, pp. 315-51. Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2000.

Argues that Shakespeare molds the tragic action of Macbeth out of a tension between Christian morality and the Scottish warrior ethos.

Carr, Stephen Leo and Peggy A. Knapp. “Seeing Through Macbeth.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 96, no. 5 (October 1981): 837-47.

Observes the potential of Macbeth to directly challenge audiences with its tragic implications by comparing two eighteenth-century illustrations of a scene from the drama.

Carroll, William C., ed. Macbeth: Texts and Contexts. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999, 394 p.

Collection of primary texts that are relevant to the historical and cultural context of Macbeth.

Coursen, H. R. Macbeth: A Guide to the Play. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997, 212 p.

Surveys the sources, contexts, structure, themes, critical reception, and performance history of Macbeth.

Daly, Peter M. “Of Macbeth, Martlets and other ‘Fowles of Heauen.’” Mosaic 12, no. 1 (fall 1978): 23-46.

Comments on Shakespeare's varied and sometimes ironic use of bird imagery in Macbeth.

Fox, Alice. “Obstetrics and Gynecology in Macbeth.” Shakespeare Studies 12 (1979): 127-41.

Asserts the thematic significance of Macbeth's childlessness by exploring evocative allusions to Renaissance obstetrics and gynecology in the language of the play.

Huntley, Frank L. “Macbeth and the Background of Jesuitical Equivocation.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 79, no. 4 (September 1964): 390-400.

Relates Macbeth's actions and subsequent demise to his violation of the historically pertinent theological doctrine of equivocation.

Katz, Leslie. “Rehearsing the Weird Sisters: The Word as Fetish in Macbeth.” In Shakespeare Without Class: Misappropriations of Cultural Capital, edited by Donald Hedrick and Bryan Reynolds, pp. 229-39. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

Endeavors to destabilize gendered references in the interaction of Macbeth's witches in experimental performance and in the historical context of medieval witch hunts.

Knights, L. C. “Macbeth: A Lust for Power,” in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 39-57. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Evaluates the “philosophy” of Macbeth, that is, its concern with illusion, reality, and the human potential for evil.

Kottman, Paul. “Hospitality in the Interval: Macbeth's Door.” Oxford Literary Review 18, nos. 1-2 (1996): 87-115.

Presents a reading of hospitality in Macbeth employing the poststructuralist theoretical perspective of Jacques Derrida.

La Belle, Jenijoy. “‘A Strange Infirmity’: Lady Macbeth's Amenorrhea.” Shakespeare Quarterly 31 (1980): 381-6.

Examines the literal and psychological significance of Lady Macbeth's entreaty that she be “unsexed,” that is, that her menstrual cycle cease and that she become barren.

Mellamphy, Ninian. “The Ironic Catastrophe in Macbeth.” Ariel 11, no. 4 (October 1980): 3-19.

Traces Shakespeare's use of irony in order to achieve catharsis in Macbeth.

Neuenfeldt, William J. The Making of the Cauldron: An Analysis of Witch and Witchcraft Power in Macbeth. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Humanities Honors Program, 1994, 75 p.

Examination of Macbeth's witches within the historical and cultural context of Renaissance-era witchcraft.

Tomlinson, T. B. “Action and Soliloquy in Macbeth.” Essays in Criticism 8 (1958): 147-55.

Argues that in Macbeth Shakespeare fails to create the single-minded man of action necessary for the representation of a tragic hero.

Wills, Garry. Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare's Macbeth. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 223 p.

Book-length study into the original context of Macbeth, with an aim toward making the unedited drama more successful in contemporary performance.