The Drama of Love and Desire examines 11 of Shakespeare's most familiar plays to illuminate their increasingly complex view of the heart's deepest needs. Intended for anyone looking to understand these works and the man who wrote them, the chapters never allow the evident scholarship to divert attention away from the significance of each text.

The book's premise is that Shakespeare's preferred topic was love's various manifestations. Schoolboy translations of Ovid's Latin stories of gods imposing their carnal passions on hapless mortals initiated this fascination, but they eventually raised troubling questions about desire, love, and the human intersection with the divine. Though the Elizabethans greatly admired antiquity, a resolutely Christian England's struggled to accommodate pagan approval of the erotic. Shakespeare was no exception. Though his early work imitates Ovid, his view of love becomes surprisingly rich and complex as he confronts the morality of desire, a need which was tolerated by Ovid but largely reviled by the church. From these conflicting cultural values come plays carefully delineating the consequence of passions that easily degrade as well as enrich. A close reading of these 11 plays becomes a journey into the heart of desire that will challenge contemporary media's often simplistic and decidedly secular conception of love.

Much in contemporary life argues against ever taking that journey. Besides the time and effort required, developments in science, politics, economics, or even language make Shakespeare's world seem irretrievably foreign. Avoiding that would be most unfortunate, however. As The Drama of Love and Desire guides you through these plays, you will discover a remarkable artist concerned with the same issues troubling us today. Why, for example, do men and women regard love differently? How should sexual desire be conveyed? What makes a person worthy of love? Why can people easily manipulate others? Why is temptation hard to resist? Does it matter if we don't? Is there a difference between right and wrong? Or is morality equivalent to personal preference? Is happiness an absolute right? Or do social relationships restrict what we do? Why are cruelty and suffering so prevalent? Is joy possible? How? Do we even deserve it? Resolving such questions is impossible without an understanding of need and desire, the heart of these 11 plays.

Clearly, this is not the shallow, boring entertainment occupying so much of today's entertainment space. In Shakespeare's imaginary worlds, these are the tough but important questions he tries to answer for and with us. His thinking is neither haphazard nor lazy. And he's honest enough to distinguish questions that have answers from those that don't. The writer who comes into view from all this had to be an intelligent, interesting, understanding, clear-headed, moral, kind individual who was immensely talented and humble at the same time. He's one of those intriguing people you want to know better. And it's why his plays remain relevant to this day.