Publisher's Synopsis
In the view of the author, imitation does not merely bring people together, but also simultaneously pulls them apart. Individuals who desire the same thing (or person) are united by something so powerful that, as long as they can share what they desire, they must be the best of friends; as soon as they cannot, they become the worst of enemies.;In this work, Girard applies his theory to Shakespeare, who represents for him the great exemplar of mimetic desire, termed in Shakespeare's works "envy", and he uses the theory to analyze many areas of difficulty of the "problem plays".
