AJ Dunn Reads

  All's Well That Ends Well By William Shakespeare 3 stars.

  Much Ado About Nothing By William Shakespeare   This is a play about misunderstandings and also about love. Hero is set to be married to Claudio, but two others decide to set her up as a wanton so the marriage will not happen. It works, but the set-up is uncovered and they end up marrying. The side plot of Hero's lady Beatrice who is constantly picking on Benedick, and vice versa, is the better story. The two are set up in a different way by Hero and her maidservant. The bickering and jibes back and forth between Beatrice and Benedick are fun and funny. I liked the play a lot. I think Shakespeare's comedies might be preferable to his tragedies for me.

 Hamlet by William Shakespeare   In Elsinore Castle in Denmark two sentinals and Horatio see the ghost of the dead King Hamlet and rush to tell his son, Hamlet, and to bring him to see it for himself. The ghost tells him to avenge his murder, that young Hamlet's uncle, the new King Claudius who married his mother Gertrude, was the one who killed him. Hamlet delays his revenge as he sinks into sadness and apparent madness. The King and Gertrude try to figure out what is wrong with him, employing two school friends to discover the cause. lord Polonius suggests that Hamlet is mad with love for Ophelia, his daughter, and schemes to discover if this is the case. Hamlet pretends he doesn't love her and looks like he's crazy. When some actors show up at Elsinore Hamlet uses them to get a reaction out of Claudius by having them perform a play that closely resembles the murder he perpetrated against King Hamlet. Claudius does react and Horation and Hamlet decide he is guilty of the ...

  MacBeth by William Shakespeare MacBeth, a general of the King Duncan plots with his wife to kill the king to become king himself, framing the king's sons. He does this because of a prophesy of three witches, who also tell him that Banquo's heirs will inherit succession. MacBeth decides to kill Banquo even though Banquo was never told he would be king.  MacBeth visits the witches again, who tell him that he will remain king until the Birnam Wood itself marches against him. He scoffs, but becomes paranoid and goes on a killing rampage, murdering many including MacDuff's family. MacDuff has fled to find Malcolm, one of Duncan's sons, and pleads with him to lead an army against MacBeth. MacDuff's army carries branches in front of them to hide their numbers as they march on MacBeth's castle. MacBeth had felt secure before this. In the meantime Lady MacBeth has been walking in her sleep and discloses what was done, and is overheard. She is plagued by conscience and ...