Since their first production four centuries ago, the plays of William Shakespeare have been widely produced and examined. In this book, Victor Cahn guides the reader scene by scene through each of Shakespeare's 37 plays, in an attempt to recreate the freshness and theatrical effect of performance. He has based his approach on the assumption that the fundamental appeal of Shakespeare's plays lies in the characters and he focuses on how the implications of the characters' actions and the nuances of their language contribute to the plays' impact. The introduction briefly traces Shakespeare's life and career and explains some of the social and artistic circumstances that influenced his work. The plays are grouped by genre - tragedies, histories, comedies and romances. This structure allows Cahn to explore Shakespeare's development in all four dramatic forms, as well as to suggest relationships between characters, themes and images throughout the works. In addition, Cahn discusses the plays as reflective of Shakespeare's age, particularly the Renaissance concern with the tension between individual rights and social responsibility. The text is free from extensive scholarly apparatus, but suggestions for further reading follow the analysis of each play and a selected bibliography concludes the volume.