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Introduction to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. English IV. William Shakespeare. Shakespeare The man, the myth, the legend.
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Introduction toShakespeare’s Macbeth English IV
Shakespeare The man, the myth, the legend William Shakespeare was born the third of eight children on April 23, 1564, in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. His father, John, was a well-to-do shopkeeper and a man of some importance in Stratford and served for a time as mayor.
Education William attended school where he studied grammar, Latin and Greek literature, and rhetoric (the uses of language).
Let There Be Love… In 1582, at the age of eighteen, Shakespeare fell in love with Anne Hathaway who was 26. They married and had three children. Susanna was the oldest, and Hamnet and Judith were twins.
What did he do. . . Aside from the birth of his children, little is known about Shakespeare between 1582 and 1592, except that he built a career as an actor and eventually became an established and popular member of the London theatre circuit.
Success as a playwright… Shakespeare’s first play was A Comedy of Errors, written in 1591. Shakespeare wrote a total of thirty seven plays. Macbeth was written probably about 1606, when Shakespeare had made enough money to buy a house in the country for his wife and children, to which he retired, probably about 1613.
His Plays: The Comedies • A Comedy of Errors • Taming of the Shrew • Two Gentlemen of Verona • A Midsummer’s Night Dream • Love’s Labour’s Lost • Merchant of Venice • As You Like It • Much Ado About Nothing • Twelfth Night • The Merry Wives of Windsor • All’s Well That Ends Well • Measure for Measure
His Plays: The Histories • Henry IV, Part 1 • Henry IV, Part 2 • Henry V • Henry VI, Part 1 • Henry VI, Part 2 • Henry VI, Part 3 • Richard II • Richard III • King John • Henry VIII
His Plays: The Tragedies • Titus Andronicus • Romeo and Juliet • Julius Cesar • Hamlet • Troilus and Cressida • Othello • King Lear • Macbeth • Timon of Athens • Antony and Cleopatra • Coriolanus
His Plays: The Romances • Pericles • Cymbeline • A Winter’s Tale • The Tempest Shakespeare also wrote 154 sonnets and two long poems.
R.I.P. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, on his 52nd birthday. His only son Hamnet had died at the age of 11 and his wife died seven years after her son’s death. Although his two daughters married and had children, the line died out, so there aren’t any descendants of Shakespeare alive today. Shakespeare was buried at Trinity Church in Stratford as an honored citizen. His tombstone bears the following inscription:
R.I.P. Good Friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he who moves my bones. These are hardly the best of Shakespeare’s lines, but like his other lines, they seem to have worked. His bones lie undisturbed to this day.
The Globe • Shakespeare performed his plays here • Constructed in 1599 • On the banks of the Thames River • Near London • Shape: Octagonal • Play time: 2 hours in • the afternoon • Cost: One penny
The Globe continued • Seating: • Pit: General crowd • Galleries: A small additional fee would get you these seats • Box Seats: Royalty or noblemen only • The capacity for the play performance was 3,000 • Sound effects were made in the huts • Ghosts could appear on stage through trap doors
The Globe continued • Flags, trumpets, and fliers told when there would be a play • The flags also told the audience what type of play they would be seeing: • Red flag = history play • White flag = comedy play • Black Flag = tragedy play
InsideShakespeare’sGlobe This is a photograph of the newly restored Globe Theater in England. This picture shows what the stage looks like.
Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth I ruled England during the time that Shakespeare wrote many of his plays.
QueenElizabeth I continued During the 1600s, London was a busy, bustling, walled city. It was having a Renaissance (rebirth) of arts and sciences under two monarchs who loved the theater. Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was a liberal-minded monarch who enjoyed the theater and wrote plays for special performances. Shakespeare gave 32 performances at her court during her reign.
King James I King James I, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, reigned from 1603 to 1625. He also supported the theatre and wrote many poems and plays. At least half of the plays that he saw performed had been written by Shakespeare.
King James & Macbeth In 1606, following the death of Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare wrote a play for his new patron, James I (James VI of Scotland); and, being the smart playwright and businessman he was, he chose subjects he knew would interest the king.
King James & Macbeth cont… • James had published a treatise called Deamonology and was particularly concerned with the threat of witchcraft • The Stuarts, of which James was the ninth to assume the throne, had descended from Scotland. • Consequently, Shakespeare’s newest play, Macbeth, was full of witchcraft and Scottish genealogy.
And more King James & Macbeth… Interestingly, Banquo is James’s ancestor. Shakespeare’s scene where the witches prophesy to Banquo: “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none,” was a reference to James.
And more King James & Macbeth… There are many other instances throughout the play that mention Banquo’s descendants assuming the throne. The Witch/Apparition sequence where eight descendants of Banquo are shown with crowns was a direct reference to the ninth descendant, James, who was watching the play. All of these were for the sake of James’s patronage
Macbeth: A History Probable Main Source: Shakespeare based Macbeth primarily on accounts in The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed’s Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed. Shakespeare may also have used Declaration of Egregious Popishe Impostures by Samuel Harsnett; Rerum Scoticarum Historia by George Buchanan; and published reports of witch trials in Scotland. Date Written: Probably by 1605 but no later than 1607. First Performance of Play: Probably between 1605 and 1607 at the Globe Theatre. It was printed in 1623 as part of the First Folio. Number of Words in Complete Public-Domain Text: 18,301. Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies. It has no subplots.
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland Like many of Shakespeare's plays, he combined the events of two different stories to create the character Macbeth.
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland In Holinshed’s history a figure named Donwald murdered King Duff while the king was safely sleeping in Donwald’s castle, “though he abhorred the act greatly in heart, yet through instigation of his wife he cut his throat while he lay sleeping.”
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland Shakespeare combined this tale with the story of Makbeth, a valiant and courageous general. The witches, their prophecies, the death of a King Duncan brought with the urging of a power-hungry wife, Banquo’s friendship and his death, even the climatic ending with Birnam Wood marching on the castle and Macduff proclaiming that he “was never born of my mother, but ripped out of her womb,” are all contained within the Holinshed history.
The Real Macbeth Macbeth was an 11th Century Scot who took the throne in 1040 after killing King Duncan I, his cousin, in a battle near Elgin in the Moray district of Scotland. History tells us that “Macbeth appears, contrary to popular belief, to have been a wise monarch and to have ruled Scotland successfully and well for seventeen prosperous years.” In 1057, Duncan's oldest son, Malcolm, ended Macbeth's reign by killing him in battle and later assuming the throne as Malcolm III.
The Real Banquo Because James I, the King of England, was a descendant of Banquo. It would not do to suggest that His Royal Majesty's ancestor was a murderer. In Holinshed's Chronicles, the real Banquo is depicted as a conniver who took part in the plot to assassinate King Duncan. Why did Shakespeare portray Banquo as one of Macbeth's innocent victims?
Influence of Seneca The Roman dramatist Seneca (4-65 A.D.), a tutor to Emperor Nero, wrote plays that described in elaborate detail the grisly horror of murder and revenge. After Elizabethans began translating Seneca's works in 1559, writers read and relished them, then wrote plays imitating them. Shakespeare appears to have seasoned Macbeth and an earlier play, Titus Andronicus, with some of Seneca's ghoulish condiments.
Witchcraft in Shakespeare's Time In Shakespeare's time, many people believed in the power of witches. One was King James I. In 1591, when he was King of Scotland, a group of witches and sorcerers attempted to murder him. Their trial and testimony convinced him that they were agents of evil. Thereafter, he studied the occult and wrote a book called Daemonologie (Demonology), published in 1597. This book–and an earlier one called Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer, 1486), describing the demonic rites of witches–helped inflame people against practitioners of sorcery.
Everyone loves to be scared Shakespeare, good businessman that he was, well knew that a play featuring witches would attract theatergoers and put a jingle in his pocket. When Macbeth was first performed, it probably frightened audiences in the same way that The Exorcist, the 1973 film about diabolical possession, scared American audiences. Magically, Shakespeare's bank account and reputation grew. In a manner of speaking, Macbeth was The Blair Witch Project of the 17th Century.
Mix it all together… Shakespeare combined these historical and cultural events with poetry and philosophy, immortalizing the tragic tale of Macbeth.
Type of Play • Macbeth is a tragedy in five acts. It is an atypical tragedy in that the protagonist of the play, Macbeth, is a villain. In most other Shakespeare tragedies the protagonists–though flawed in many ways–are not villainous.
.......Forres is in northeastern Scotland. After William I became King of Scotland in 1165, the castle at Forres served as a sort of hunting lodge for royalty. The real-life Macbeth and Duncan were among those said to have used the castle. Nearby is a curious tourist attraction, the Witches’ Stone, where accused witches were burned. Setting Macbeth takes place in northern Scotland and in England. The scenes in Scotland are set: • at or near King Duncan’s castle at Forres, • at Macbeth’s castle at Inverness, at Macduff’s castle at Fife, • in Birnham Wood and Dunsinane Hill in the countryside (where Macbeth fights Macduff), • in countryside locales where the witches meet (a desert place, a heath, and a cavern). • A scene is also set at a castle in England.
The Real Forres Castle • Forres is in northeastern Scotland. After William I became King of Scotland in 1165, the castle at Forres served as a sort of hunting lodge for royalty. The real-life Macbeth and Duncan were among those said to have used the castle. Nearby is a curious tourist attraction, the Witches’ Stone, where accused witches were burned.
Two Climaxes? • The climax of a play can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of Macbeth occurs, according to the first definition, when Macbeth murders Duncan and becomes king. According to the second definition, the climax occurs in the final act when Macduff corners and kills Macbeth.
Imagery & Symbolism • There are many prevalent images and symbols in Macbeth including: • Darkness / Night • Blood • Adam & Eve • Ambition
Fascinating Fact • The words blood and night (or forms of them, such as bloody and tonight) occur more than 40 times each in Macbeth. Other commonly occurring words that help maintain the mood of the play are terrible, horrible, black, devil, and evil.
Themes • Great ambition, or inordinate lust for power, ultimately brings ruin • Evil wears a pretty cloak • Temptation can defeat even the strongest human beings • Guilt haunts the evildoer
Which Witch? • Four named witches appear in Macbeth–the three hags who open the play and later Hecate, the goddess of sorcery. • But is there a fifth witch, Lady Macbeth? In Act I, Scene V, she invokes spirits to “unsex” her and bids “thick night” to dress “in the dunnest smoke of hell” so that she may assist her husband in the murder of King Duncan.
