Characters of Shakespeare's Plays

Before Shakespeare became the untouchable bard of English letters, he was a playwright who needed defending. William Hazlitt's 1817 masterpiece changed that forever. Written in the turbulent wake of the Romantic movement, this book was among the first to treat all thirty-five genuine Shakespeare plays as unified works of psychological genius rather than flawed classical imitations. Hazlitt, the era's most electric essayist, brings his theatrical experience and sharp critical eye to characters we think we know, revealing them as mirrors for universal human experience. Here is an Iago who exposes our own capacity for malice, a Hamlet who articulates the modern crisis of consciousness, and a Falstaff who celebrates life's irreducible earthiness. Hazlitt's famous declaration that "it is we who are Hamlet" captures his revolutionary method: these characters are not distant figures on a stage but reflections of our own souls. This is criticism that breathes, argues, and provokes. Whether you come to Shakespeare as a student, actor, teacher, or devoted reader, Hazlitt offers keys to understanding why these plays have haunted humanity for four centuries.