“UNNATURAL DEEDS/DO BREED UNNATURAL

TROUBLES”An introduction to William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

MACBETH IN 2 SENTENCES

Macbeth lusts for power associated with being King of Scotland. Helped by his overly ambitious wife and the “Weird sisters” he makes his desires a reality, eventually resulting in his and his wife’s demise.

Background and Influence

Loosely based in the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland

After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, James VI of Scotland became James I, King of England in 1603

James I was the primary influence on Shakespeare writing Macbeth

James I influence

The 15th century was the formative period for the European witch craze.

James I created severe legislation against witches with his kingship.

James I produced the book Daemonologie (1597), which provided ways to recognize witches as well as ways to defeat their spells.

James I was resentful of female rule and the increase of their power.

Witches were mostly women who were considered “agents of evil” and associated with the devil.

This helped raise anxiety amongst men about women in society.

To murder a KING!!

To commit murder is always a crime, but those who lived in Shakespeare’s time believed that to commit regicide was the ultimate crime.

Kings were appointed by God and therefore, if you killed a king it is believed that this was a rebellion against God.

The Devine order of Kings suggests that all things are interconnected, and at the top of the order was the king. If he was killed, all else would end in chaos.

SHAKESPEARE WAS BRILLIANT!

• Shakespeare was a smart business man. He knew that writing a play about witches would attract people to the theatre and make him rich.

• Even more importantly, Shakespeare would ingratiate himself with James I

• Shakespeare was a very educated man of extraordinary intellect and insight. He undoubtedly thought of the witchcraft talk as nonsense.

Scaring people Macbeth probably frightened audiences the same

way the Exorcist frightened people in 1973 In Scotland at the time of Macbeth (who was a real

Scottish king in the 1200’s) and in Shakespeare’s (early 1600’s) England, belief in witches was common. Witches were thought to have the ability to prophesy and to influence the outcomes of certain events. They could also control the weather; ride on storms, fog, etc. Witches were associated with a “familiar” [Gray malkin – cat, Paddock – toad, Harpier – owl] through which some of their powers came. Witches did not, however, control life and death.

Macbeth’s encounter with the witches builds on this tradition.

The play begins with an Infernal (from Hell) Trinity→ of thunder, lightning and rain where the audience realizes that chaos is warring against the light (goodness).

The play begins “in medias res” (in the middle of the action) since the three witches are ending their meeting.

They plan to meet with Macbeth and Banquo (they give “prophetic” greetings)

dagger scene banquet scene – Banquo’s ghost Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me” speech ties to the sleep motif – sleepwalking scene cauldron scene and the apparitions

The witches are called the “weird sisters” (similar to the Scandinavian spelling “wyrd” which suggests a connection to the Fates) and “filthy hags”

Major themes in Macbeth

Things are not what they seem. Blind ambition, corruption of power,

superstition affects human behaviour and manhood are all focused on.

Themes of classic tragedy: the tragic flaw, the role of fate, the inevitable nature of tragedy and the isolation of the tragic hero.