George F Held: 5 books

Two essays on Shakespeare's Othello. The first argues that Cassio’s and Othello’s losses of reputation and honor form a tripartite climactic progression: a loss of reputation through little fault of one’s own (Cassio’s), a loss of honor through no fault of one’s own (Othello’s through...

Hamlet first appears on stage in the second scene; he does not learn of his father’s murder until the fifth. That he is presented to us before learning of that murder is a most important element in the play’s structure, for Shakespeare employs that second scene to bring out that Hamlet, even before...

This essay forms Chapter 5 of my ebook: A Christian Pattern In Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, available at Lulu. It argues that Macbeth and Richard III are less similar than many think. An ambitious person is someone for whom the possession of the ancillary ends...

This essay forms Chapters 3 and 4 of my ebook: A Christian Pattern In Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, available at Lulu. Lastly and most importantly, the action of both plays is structured around a pair of love tests: one at or near the beginning of each play, and...

The compositional pattern documented in this book consists of two elements. The first is taken from Romeo and Juliet and is relatively simple. It consists of a situation in which both Romeo and Juliet find themselves: each survives the death of the other. The protagonists of Shakespeare’s greatest...