(or “The Scottish Play”)

1. (or “The Scottish Play”) William Shakespeare

2. The Scottish Play • It is believed to be bad luck to even squeak the word ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre • Legend has it you will lose all your friends involved in the production--horribly • MORE ON THAT LATER...

3. Basic Plot • Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis (his title) • Thane= Scottish nobleman • He is a subject of King Duncan of Scotland • He is traveling home from a recent battle (where he showed great valor) • Traveling with his best friend Banquo • Going to his home-Inverness

4. Basic Plot • Banquo and Macbeth encounter the Wyrd Sisters • Wyrd=Scottish word for “fate” • They make three predictions for each man

5. Macbeth’s Prophecy • First Witch: “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!” • Second Witch: “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” • Third Witch: “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!”

6. Banquo’s Prophecy • First Witch:  “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. ” • Second Witch: “Not so happy, yet much happier.” •  Third Witch: “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none”

7. Macbeth & Banquo’sReactions • Both men are puzzled. • Banquo doesn’t really care about prophecies • Macbeth • He is currently Thane of Glamis • Because of his valor in the recent battle King Duncan has just named him Thane of Cawdor • He thinks to himself how wonderful it would be to be king • BUT- What will he have to do to become king?

8. Premise of the Play • Macbeth will stop at nothing to make these predictions come true. • His ambition will destroy him.

9. The Big Question Is Macbeth a horrible monster? OR Is Macbeth a victim of the Wyrd Sister’s treachery? OR Is Macbeth a victim of his own ambition?

10. Setting: 1th Century Scotland • How do we know this? • Shakespeare invented the plot by combining several stories taken from Scottish history • The real story of Macbeth who kills a King Duncan • King James I was King of England when the play was written. He was the former King of Scotland • King James IV (son of Mary Queen of Scots) • Scotland is very dark and dreary. It is also full of superstition (Thanks to the pagan Celts).

11. Macbeth’s Scotland

12. Historical Connection • Scotland at the time was a violent and troubled country • The castle was the center of each rival aristocrat’s (thane) power • Political murder and revenge were not unusual means to gain power • Plundering Vikings and Norsemen attacked Scotland constantly

13. At the Start of the Play • Macbeth is a very successful and highly respected member of a social group, loaded with honors and enjoying every prospect of future commendations . He has a loving wife and a secure home in his castle at Inverness. He is praised for his heroic actions in defense of the kingdom. King Duncan thinks of Macbeth with high regard and treats him generously.

14. At the End of the Play • Macbeth is totally alone. He has no friends, he is universally despised, his wife is dead, and all his most eager hopes have been disappointed. He is a man without a place in the social community. He has become totally isolated.

15. Conflict • Macbeth struggles with his conscience (before and after murder) • evil (Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) • struggles with good (Malcolm and Macduff)

16. Themes • Anatomy of Evil • Ambition • Honor and Loyalty • Fate and Destiny • The Supernatural

17. Anatomy of Evil • Sense of evil throughout the play 1. Is evil contrary to human nature or is it part of human nature? 2. Is Macbeth inherently evil or do his surroundings change him? 3. Evil always disrupts the natural order of the world (Remember the Great Chain of Being?). The world will continue to be in chaos until the order is restored.

18. Ambition • Macbeth’s downfall is ambition • It is his tragic flaw • Tragic Flaw: An error in judgment or character weakness that will bring about the downfall of the protagonist or Tragic Hero.

19. What is a Tragedy? • A story in which a heroic character dies or comes to some other unhappy end. The character’s downfall generally occurs because of some combination of fate, an error in judgment, or a personality failure known as a tragic flaw. • Has a tragic hero • Usually gains wisdom by the end of the story

20. What Makes a Tragic Hero? Four Characteristics of a Tragic Hero (According to Aristotle’s Poetics) 1. POSITION: The hero is royal or noble with great power, usually a king. He is a good, respected man who acts out of good intentions. He has much to lose • TRAGIC FLAW: (hamartia).In spite of his good intentions, the hero makes a tragic error which causes his reversal. The error usually stems from a character flaw, usually pride. (HUBRIS) 3. REVERSAL: (catastrophe).Because of his tragic error, the hero suffers a downfall from his happy, envied position to suffering and misery. 4. RECOGNITION: (catharsis). The hero realizes that his own flaw or error has caused his reversal. This recognition always occurs too late for the hero to prevent or escape his reversal.

21. Famous Tragic Heroes

22. Honor & Loyalty • Men of honor obey certain rules. • Macbeth “throws that out the window.” • Once he does that, the country is in turmoil.

23. Fate or Destiny • The play suggests that a person should trust his destiny to a higher power (God). • When Macbeth tries to take fate into his own hands, his actions bring him nothing but grief.

24. Supernatural • Wyrd Sisters (witches) • Dark setting • Prophecies • James I had an interest in the occult and wrote a book entitled Daemonologie.

25. Daemonologie • A spirit will return to one who seeks revenge, is ignorant, is evil, or who hates God. • An evil spirit finds it easy to work on a melancholic mind. • A spirit may cause madness, a humor imbalance, or force the inflicted to test the good. • Murderers will be haunted by the ghost of their victims. Their wounds will bleed in the presence of the murderer.

26. Characters: Duncan • King of Scotland • Old man • Good and gracious • Well-loved • His castle – Dunsinane • Has two sons – Malcolm & Donalbain

27. Terms Associated with the King • Thane – Scottish nobleman • Regicide – murder of a king • The king is chosen and anointed by God. He rules the secular world(Great Chain of Being). If he is murdered or if his first-born son does not get the crown, chaos will ensue until the order is restored. • Primogeniture – The crown moves from father to the first-born son (Malcolm)

28. Macbeth • Protagonist and Tragic Hero • Thane of Glamis at the beginning of the play • Very ambitious

29. Lady Macbeth • Macbeth’s wife • Very ambitious • Relentless • Ruthless • “Behind every man is a strong woman”

30. Banquo • Scottish thane • Macbeth’s best friend • Man of integrity • Trusting • Will not compromise his honor • Has a young son named Fleance

31. Foil Character • Banquo is a foil of Macbeth • Foil – Exact opposite; Character who contrasts another character in order to bring out the flaws in the first character.

32. Wyrd Sisters • Three sisters • Witches • Have supernatural powers • Can cause storms, curse people, appear and disappear, prophesy the future • Their predictions are temptation to Macbeth • They never tell him to DO anything • Agents of the devil – They want Macbeth’s soul • They trick him into damning himself

33. Macduff • Important Scottish thane • Macbeth’s adversary

34. Cast of Characters

35. Literary Terms Irony – An “unexpected twist” in a story • Verbal – Someone says one thing but means the opposite. • Situational- When you expect one thing to happen in a story and the opposite occurs. • Dramatic – When the character in play thinks one thing is true, but the audience knows better. Hyperbole- An excessive exaggeration for literary effect. Example:“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” -Macbeth Paradox: an apparent contradiction that is somehow true. Example: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” - Macbeth

36. Motif Definition:is a recurrent device, image, object, phrase, word, incident, situation, or action that is used to unify a work. Certain motifs occur frequently and are repeated in many works. For example, the hero saving the damsel in distress is a common motif in melodrama. Remember that a motif occurs several times within a work whereas a symbol may occur only once.

37. A leitmotif is a motif which is specific to a particular work such as the idea of “Big Brother” IN 1984 by George Orwell or the phrase “Catch 22” from the Joseph Heller novel of the same name. As some of these become familiar to more and more people, they actually become symbols.

38. Motifs in Movies • The old Jaws movies used music as a motif—every time the Jaws theme music resounded in the background and then increased in volume and pace, you knew something treacherous lured beneath the waves. • A movie which uses the motif of a phrase is the James Bond series in which the name “Bond, James Bond” is often repeated. • In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the recurring phrase “We got a future,” is used as a motif to express George and Lennie’s hopes for the future. • In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, the mist is a motif that clouds Pip’s vision on several occasions. • In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden the pond serves as a motif, especially when it reflects the changing of seasons.

39. Motifs Cont. • Blood • Hands • Sight, Light, Darkness, and Blindness • Manhood • Babies and children • Sleep • Clothng • Kingship • Heaven and Hell

40. Theatrical Terms • Soliloquy:a meditative kind of speech in which a character, usually alone on stage and pretending that the audience is not present, thinks out loud. • Example: “To be or not to be” speech from Hamlet • Aside:a characters’ private comments on what is happening at a given moment in the play. They are spoken out of the side of the mouth, for the benefit for the audience; the other characters on stage pretend that they do not hear them.

41. Funky Poetry Terms • Iamb: metrical foot (section) of poetry that contains One unstressed and one stressed syllable • Example: Mac bethsuccess to win • Pentameter-each line of verse has five feet, or five sections of unstressed, stressed syllables • Example: “Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear…” • Iambic Pentameter: five feet of stressed, unstressed syllables for each line of poetry. Shakespeare uses this because it most closely mimics the rhythm of regular speech. • Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter Form of poetry that comes closest to imitating the natural rhythm of English speech. Lower-ranked characters speak in blank verse.

42. Couplet • Definition: Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. • Usually at the end of a scene to sum up the action of the scene and provide closure. • Example: In Act I scene II, "Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth" "I'll see it done." "What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won."

43. Reading Shakespeare • End-stopped Line: A line of poetry in which the meter and the meaning concludes at the end of the line. As a reader we always read to the punctuation marks, NEVER just stop at the end of the line of poetry unless there is an end mark there. • Run-on Line: A line of poetry does not contain a pause or conclusion at he end, but rather continues on to the next line.