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Macbeth. These icons indicate that teacher’s notes or useful web addresses are available in the Notes Page. This icon indicates that a worksheet accompanies this slide. This icon indicates that the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable.
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Macbeth These icons indicate that teacher’s notes or useful web addresses are available in the Notes Page. This icon indicates that a worksheet accompanies this slide. This icon indicates that the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable. For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation. 1 of 22 © Boardworks Ltd 2006
Introduction In this unit we will look at Macbeth written by William Shakespeare. We will consider its storyline, characters and themes. Before we start looking at the play itself, it will be useful to explore some of the background to the play and its playwright. What do you know about William Shakespeare?
Author information Name:William Shakespeare Dates:1564–1616 Background Information: Shakespeare is the most famous British playwright in history. There are many texts on his life and work that you can read to further your knowledge of him. His work is well known across the world, and his plays are still performed frequently. In addition, some of his best known works have now been turned into films. Shakespeare came from Stratford-upon-Avon, where the Royal Shakespeare Company are now based. He worked in London, and was extremely prolific, writing poetry as well as many plays.
Studying Shakespeare Shakespeare’s plays are written very differently to modern ones. Here are two of the differences – see which others you can think of: • They are written both in poetry (usually using iambic pentameter) and in prose. As a rule, the important characters talk in verse, while the servants and other minor players talk in prose. • The way that language is used, and some of the vocabulary, may seem strange to you at first. Most versions of the text will offer definitions of words that might not be understood by modern readers. When you find any words or phrases that you do not understand, discuss them as a class to see if you can work out what they mean.
Studying a play Studying a play is very different from reading a novel or a poem. When you are writing about and analysing Macbeth, you should bear in mind that: • a play is written to be performed. When you read it, you should remember this, and try to see the actors on stage in your mind. If possible, do go to see a live performance of the play, as this • will develop your understanding. • the main way that we learn about the story and themes of a play is through hearing the characters speak to each other. When you read the dialogue, think about how they might stress certain words, or the rhythms that they might use in their speech, to put across their emotions.
Characters The two central characters in the play are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They seem to feed off each other, both in terms of how ambitious they are and also in the evil that they do. They are clearly very close, and although there are several different interpretations, it would seem that Shakespeare views Lady Macbeth as the stronger person; she has a great deal of influence on her husband. She wants to mould him so that he gains power, and consequently she will become more powerful too. …Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire?
Ambition Both Macbeth and his wife are deeply ambitious and hungry for power. When Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecy, he immediately starts to imagine how he might be king. In an aside (spoken to the audience, so that none of the other characters can hear) he says: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me …” Macbeth writes to his wife to tell her of his encounter. As soon as he arrives home, they start to plan how they might kill Duncan, and thus become king and queen. Lady Macbeth’s ambition is for her husband, but bear in mind that at this time this would have been her only way of gaining power and fulfilling her own ambitions.
Chaos and disorder The evil crime committed by Macbeth and his wife creates disorder in the natural world. At the time Shakespeare was writing, it was believed that the death of a king, appointed by God, would cause chaos in nature. In Act Two, Scene Four, Ross and an Old Man talk outside Macbeth’s castle. They discuss the unnatural things that have been happening. Ross tells the Old Man how Duncan’s horses“Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, / Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would / Make war with mankind.” The country has been thrown into chaos with the death of its king, and this disorder is apparent at Macbeth’s banquet, when he sees Banquo’s ghost.
Light and dark Even before Macbeth returns, Lady Macbeth is calling up the night to hide the crime that they will commit:“Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. Duncan’s murder takes place at night; it is easier for Macbeth to hide what he is doing in the darkness. When Lady Macbeth goes mad, she keeps a candle with her constantly to keep the darkness at bay. It is as though, with the darkness of night, evil lurks all around.
Evil The crime that Macbeth commits is the ultimate evil: killing a king. It is left to the reader/ audience to decide whether the evil is precipitated by the prophecies of the witches, or if these simply act as catalysts to wake the evil that was already inside the couple. Once evil takes hold, there is no turning back for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They commit further murders, including that of Macbeth’s best friend, Banquo, and Lady Macduff and her children. Eventually, the evil that they have done returns to haunt them, both literally, in the form of Banquo’s ghost, and metaphorically, in the blood that stains Lady Macbeth’s hands. Reread Macbeth’s ‘Is this a dagger?’ speech in Act Two, Scene One. He is yet to commit a crime, but his mind is already affected by thoughts of evil.
Images As well as the themes, there are also many recurrent images in Macbeth. Shakespeare makes careful use of imagery in all his plays, and Macbeth is perhaps one of the most powerful examples. Can you think of any images that recur in Macbeth? Did you think of these? • sleep • blood Make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it. There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’ That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers and addressed them Again to sleep. Find three more quotations that illustrate these themes.
Sleep As soon as the crime has been committed, both Macbeth and his wife have difficulty sleeping. In Act Two, Scene Two, he tells his wife that he heard a voice crying,“Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep”. Again, in Act Three, Scene Two, Macbeth tells of how they both“sleep / In the affliction of these terrible dreams / That shake us nightly.”At this point, it seems that they are both having trouble sleeping. As we have seen, it is at night that evil is abroad, and their lack of sleep strengthens this theme. Finally, we find that when Lady Macbeth has gone mad, she is both sleepwalking and, dangerously, talking about their crimes in her sleep.
Blood After murdering Duncan, Macbeth returns with blood on his hands. Lady Macbeth tells him to“wash this filthy witness from your hand”.Macbeth despairs that he will ever be able to clean his hands, asking“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” The blood acts as a metaphor for the evil crime they have committed, a crime that cannot simply be washed away. Like their guilt, the blood stains their minds. In her final scene, when she has gone mad, Lady Macbeth believes that her hands, too, are stained with blood, and that she will never wash them, or her guilty conscience, clean.
