Coming-to-Know : Recognition and the Complex Plot in Shakespeare

Adams (English, Cornell U.) applies the Aristotelian idea of anagnorisis ("recognition" or "discovery") to Shakespeare's comedies. A survey of anagnorisis as it functions in each of the 18 plays examined is followed by a detailed discussion of anagnorisis in Shakespeare's five early comedies, five middle comedies, three problem comedies, and five late romances. The final chapter sketches a possible application of the same mode of analysis to Shakespeare's tragedies and histories.