getting ready to read macbeth. william shakespeare lived 1564-1616 one of england’s greatest...
TRANSCRIPT
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Historical references to real people and places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