Shakespeare's Macbeth Background PDF

Shakespeare & Macbeth background ENG I HON Ms. Murphy What do you know about Shakespeare? - What do you know about this life and plays? - Have you seen any of his plays performed or seen any movie adaptations (e.g. 10 Things…)? - What do you know about Shakespeare’s style and use of l...

Shakespeare & Macbeth background ENG I HON Ms. Murphy What do you know about Shakespeare? - What do you know about this life and plays? - Have you seen any of his plays performed or seen any movie adaptations (e.g. 10 Things…)? - What do you know about Shakespeare’s style and use of language? - “There Is No Escaping Shakespeare” - “David Tennant Explains Why Shakespeare Still Matters” Who was Shakespeare? - Born in Stratford-upon-Avon ~April 23, 1564 (the “Bard of Avon”) - Son of merchant & landed heiress; supposedly studied Latin, Greek, & the Classics at school - Married Anne Hathaway (7 years older) at 18 & had 3 children - Established himself in London as actor, playwright, & entrepreneur (part-owner of the Globe Theatre) - Part of Lord Chamberlain’s Men (most popular London troupe patronized by aristocracy) & the King’s Men (under King James I) - Two former companions compiled & published his works in First Folio after his death Shakespeare’s Four Great Tragedies - Hamlet (1600) - longest; Hamlet is 18 or 20 - Othello (1604) - Othello is 28 - King Lear (1605) - King Lear is 50+ - Macbeth (1606) - shortest; Macbeth is late 30s, early 40s English Renaissance - Middle Ages → moral lessons/Bible stories - Renaissance → ancient Greek & Roman dramas The Globe - Tragedies & comedies - Queen Elizabeth I & England’s Golden Age - King James I of England/Jame VI of Scotland - Focus on man’s potential (Renaissance man) - Shakespeare wrote for the masses - Supernatural & superstitions  Great Chain of Being - Hierarchical structure of all matter & life, thought in medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God - Starts with God and progresses downward to angels, humans, animals, plants, & minerals - Anything that interrupts this order brings chaos Important elements of drama Dramatis personae - cast of characters ○ Protagonist, antagonist, supporting/minor characters, foil, narrator Direct/indirect characterization Stage directions - instructions given by playwright ○ Blocking - tells actor where to go & how to move Dialogue - conversation between characters (primary development in drama) Monologue - long speech by one character to another character or to audience ○ Soliloquy - character speaking their thoughts aloud to themselves (inner conversation) Plot and structure Freytag’s pyramid ○ Exposition (Act I) ○ Rising action (Act II) ○ Climax (Act III) ○ Falling action (Act IV) ○ Resolution (Act V) Acts - major divisions of plot Scenes - smaller parts of acts Theme - what the author wants to communicate about a subject; ideas or comments on life  Types of drama Tragedy - tells the story of the downfall of a great hero Comedy - follows hero’s rise rather than their fall ○ Has a happy ending but isn’t necessarily funny ○ Farce - outlandish and exaggerated comedy The Taming of the Shrew, Waiting for Godot Shakespearean drama divided into tragedies (Hamlet), comedies (Twelfth Night), historical plays (Julius Caesar), and tragicomedies (The Tempest) ○ A tragicomedy could be a serious drama with funny moments that lighten the mood or a serious play with a happy ending Important elements of drama Conflict between hero and person/force (antagonist) contributes to hero’s downfall Conflict resolved when tragic hero meets their doom with courage and dignity → grandeur (splendor or impressiveness) of the human spirit Hamartia (tragic/fatal flaw) - principal defect that leads to tragic hero’s destruction ○ 7 deadly sins ○ Frequently hubris (Hamlet) ○ Macbeth’s hamartia = ambition Important elements of drama Catharsis - releasing & receiving relief from strong or repressed emotions ○ Audience gets chance to experience and then let go of their negative emotions when tragedy comes to fruition ○ Blood ○ Tragedies don’t necessarily end in catharsis goodticklebrain.com The Scottish play Most familiar of all tragic patterns: the rise and fall of a powerful but flawed man Based loosely on account of 11th-century Scottish history found in Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (most popular book on British history in Shakespeare’s day) ○ Macbeth found his way to the throne of Scotland in 1040, killing his cousin King Duncan in battle ○ Duncan’s eldest son, Malcolm, ended Macbeth’s reign in 1057 by killing him in battle, later assuming the throne as Malcolm III ○ At the time, Scotland was a violent, troubled country ○ Castle was center of each rival aristocrat’s/thane’s power ○ Political murder & revenge to gain power weren’t unusual ○ Plundering Vikings & Norsemen attacked Scotland constantly The Scottish play The supernatural → King James I Many others believed in witches as of England thought himself an well expert on witchcraft Macbeth’s curse ○ Wrote Daemonologie ○ Coven of witches objected to Shakespeare using real incantations in play, so they put a curse on it ○ Productions plagued with accidents ○ Don’t say “Macbeth” in a theatre The Scottish play Whole play takes place over a few months Play is compact - action takes place quickly Blank verse - unrhymed iambic pentameter ○ Line of verse consisting of 5 metrical feet in unstressed/stressed pattern Facilitates memorization Mimics human speech Sounds like heartbeat Ojo! When reading, look out for: ○ Imagery ○ Thematic development ○ Literary devices ○ Dramatic irony (what appears to be true to a character is known to be false by the audience) ○ Soliloquies Long speech in which a character expresses their thoughts and feelings to themselves Type of monologue ○ Asides Short comment a character makes in an undertone to the audience or to another character that others onstage don’t hear Motifs Repeated symbols, ideas, words, or phrases that help you identify theme ○ If something is repeated so much, it’s a hint at what the message might be What seems good can be bad and vice versa - “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (I.i.10) Sleep - “Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his penthouse lid” (I.iii.19-20) Heaven or hell - “The bell invites me. / Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to Heaven, or to Hell” (II.ii.62-64) Light v. darkness Blood Manhood Pathetic fallacy  Essential questions Can you have ambition without wickedness? What are the negative effects of unchecked power? What can guilt do to a person? Do people have free will, or are their lives determined by fate? Is deception ever justified? Is betrayal?