Despite their diversity in tone and subject matter, Shakespeare's four mature tragedies -- Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth -- all have an essential experience in common. Bernard Mc Elroy defines this experience as the collapse of the subjective world of the tragic hero. The world-view of the central character is undermined at a fundamental level; his basic assumption about who he is and what is reality are rendered untenable, and he must struggle...