This book makes Shakespeare accessible to a new generation of students as well as general readers interested in the subject. It makes no assumptions about prior knowledge of the plays and poems and places them in their historical context. This book is aimed at all readers for whom there are barriers of language and cultural distance. Dr Innes provides chapters on characterisation, genre, setting, structure, performance and history; information that will help them untangle his works. He explains the implications of Shakespeare's writing and performance techniques as well as describing how criticism has treated him, from liberalism to feminism, from psycho-analysts to materialists. This book explains: how to deal with genre, setting the scene, sub-plots, interspersing and chiamus, the different types of character, how to analyse text, performing the plays and reading the poems