GETTING READY TO READ

MACBETH

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Lived 1564-1616

One of England’s greatest writers

Wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 narrative epic poems• Plays: Comedies, histories, and tragedies.

4 Categories or “eras”:1. Pre 1594 (Richard III, The Comedy of Errors)

• Christopher Marlowe• Roots in Roman and medieval drama• Somewhat predictable plots

2. 1594-1600 (Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Midsummer Night’s Dream) • Begins interweaving comedy and tragedy• Greater characterization

3. 1600-1608 (Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear)• Greatest tragedies that earned him fame• Comedies “problem plays” without comic resolution

4. Post-1608 (Cymbeline, The Tempest, Henry VIII)• More serious, most symbolic era• Shakespeare’s maturity as a playwright

• Sonnets: Vivid, passionate, technically constructed poems of 14 lines • Themes of love, beauty, time, nature, and heaven• Click here for Shakespeare’s Sonnets

A HISTORICAL TRAGEDY

Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy

Historical references to real people and places

Source for the main plot of the play:• Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland (1587)• “The Chronicle of Macbeth” and other chronicles

• Macbeth, King of Scotland, 1040-1057

Shakespeare wrote plays to please his royal patrons:

Queen Elizabeth Tudor (1558-1603) and King James Stuart (1603-1625)• Established the legitimacy and nobility of the reigning king or queen• Glorified the monarch’s ancestors

• Richard III, a play written for the Tudors• Macbeth, a play honoring the Stuarts

Click here for Shakespeare’s Theaters

Click here for the all-time record of Kings and Queens of England

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRAGEDY

Tragedy originated in ancient Greece• Aristotle (400 BC) Greek Philosopher

• Tragedy arouses pity for the hero, and fear for all human beings• Catharsis: Cleansing of emotions• Tragic Flaw: Hubris or pride• Fate and destiny

The main character, called the tragic hero, comes to an unhappy or miserable end

The tragic hero is generally a person of importance in society,

such as a king or queen

The tragic hero exhibits extraordinary abilities but also has a tragic flaw• The tragic flaw, or fatal error in judgment or weakness of character, leads directly to

his or her downfall

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE RENAISSANCE

Shakespeare wrote during the Renaissance (1400-1600)

Renaissance is French for “Rebirth” • Middle Ages (500-1400) widely believed to be period of social stagnation and religious domination• Petrarch called the Middle Ages the “Dark Ages”

Revival of classical learning, values, and wisdom• Classical philology (study of language and literature)• Ancient Greece and Rome

Art: New forms of drawing, painting, and sculpture• Humanism: Importance of the Individual, downplay religious and secular dogma• Artists inspired by classical Greek and Roman works• Remained unchallenged until Pablo Picasso and Cubism

Music: Major changes in styles of composing music and developing new musical instruments• Close relationship of music and poetry• Essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life• Hautboy = Oboe; Spinet = First piano

Science: Discovery and exploration of new continents and space• Inventions: Telescope, Mariner’s compass, submarine, parachute• Substitution of Copernican for Ptolemaic system of astronomy

Spread of knowledge and ideas• Gutenberg’s Printing Press

WITCHCRAFT

Renaissance - widespread curiosity and belief in the supernatural

Witchcraft was punishable by death• King James I of England published a book entitled Demonology • 50,000 people murdered for practicing witchcraft in Northern Europe

Macbeth and Witchcraft• Three evil witches (the “wyrd” sisters) drive the action in Macbeth

• The Three Fates control the “thread” of life (they spin, measure, and cut)

• The play is thought to be cursed due to witches and untimely deaths • Theatrical superstition: If the word “Macbeth” is spoken on a stage or

in a theater, all friends involved in the production will die horrible deaths

• The euphemism “The Scottish Play” is used to refer to the play instead

MACBETH & BANQUOMEET THE WITCHES (ACT I , SCENE

3 )

Using figures, tables or examples with textHow might this painting contribute to the meaning of a dramatic scenein a novel or play? What details does the artist use to illustrate the toneand mood found between the lines of the story?

SETTING OF MACBETH

11th century SCOTLAND

References to Ireland, the Hebrides, Northern England

Castles and battlefields• Inverness – Macbeth’s castle• Forres – Royal palace for the reigning king• Dunsinane Hill – Macbeth’s fortress• Birnam Wood – Near Dunsinane

SETTING OF MACBETH

Inverness

Dunsinane

SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE

Grammatical forms• Pronouns: You = thou, thee, thy, thineself, thine• Verbs

• Are = art • Come = cometh

Grammatical structures• Helping verbs

• “Know you not he has?” = Don’t you know he has?

• Unusual word order• “O, never shall the sun that morrow see!” = O, the sun shall never see tomorrow.

Rhythmic patterns of verse • Iambic pentameter – 5 sets of “iambs” unstressed and stressed syllables• Trochaic tetrameter – 4 sets of “trochees” stressed and unstressed syllables

Plays on words• Contractions for rhyming effect: For it = for’t• Puns for humorous effect

• Murderer: “My Lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.”• Macbeth: “Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats!”

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM MACBETH

Witches: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”• The witches’ philosophy of life

Macbeth: “Let not light see my black and deep desires”• Macbeth wrestling with his values and the morality of his actions

Lady Macbeth: “Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ the

milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way”• Lady Macbeth wishing her husband would be more evil

Banquo: “Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all / Just

as the weird women promised, and I fear / Thou play’dst

most foully for’t”• Banquo reflecting on Macbeth’s rise to the throne