Difficult Language

The Meanings of Macbeth

Brief examination of the historical context of Macbeth• A Macbeth for King

James?

Witches and Witchcraft in Macbeth

OBSOLETE WORDS• “aroint thee” (be

gone)• “runnion” (a gross

woman)• “anon” (right away)• “sewer” (a servant

who handles food)• “hautboy” (a type of

instrument)

WORDS WITH CHANGED MEANINGS• “composition” (peace)• “present” (immediate)• “choppy” (wrinkled)• “addition” (title or

rank)• “receipt” (bucket or

receptacle)

Consider these sentences:1. The dog bit the boy.2. The boy bit the dog.3. Bit the boy did the dog.4. The boy the dog bit.

What is the SUBJECT of each sentence? (who is doing the biting?)

What is the DIRECT OBJECT of each sentence (who is being bitten?)

1. Looking? Found someone you have I would say!

2. Help you I can. 3. Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is! 4. No, no. Stay and help you I will

find your friend. 5. Yes. Take you to him I will.

“My noble partner you greet with present grace and great prediction.” – Banquo, (Act I Scene 3 lines 57-58)

Translation: “You greet my noble partner with immediate grace and great prediction.”

ASIDE• Character whispers to another character or to

himself or herself• Cannot be heard by most (or all) other char’s

SOLILOQUY• Long speech by ONE character alone on stage• Heard only by audience• Innermost, TRUE thoughts of the character

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

•10 syllables in a line (5 feet – PENTA)•Alternating stressed and unstressed

“If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere wellIt were done quickly. If th’assassinationCould trammel up the consequence and catchWith his surcease success…..”

- Macbeth, (I:7.1-4)

In 1603, King James VI comes to power and takes Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, as his own The King’s Men.

Shakespeare may have wanted to please his new “boss”, and so he wrote a play about issues his King (and the paying public) would want to see.• King James claimed to be a

descendant of the real Banquo (a major character in Macbeth), with only eight kings in between them.

• James was also famous for his obsession with witchcraft, a big theme that Shakespeare incorporates into the play.

Shakespeare took the basic story of Duncan and Macbeth from Hollinshed’s Chronicles, which dates the reign of these two Scottish monarchs between 1034 - 1057.

The real Macbeth was born in 1005, the son of a ruling family.

Macbeth’s father was murdered by his cousin.

Macbeth married the granddaughter of the High King of Scotland (Gruach)

Martin, Banquo and Macbeth on the Heath

Duncan was the king of Scotland at the time the real Macbeth was born

Duncan was 38 at the time of his murder - a murder possibly committed by the real Macbeth.

Macbeth was elected High King of Scotland in 1040.

Macbeth ruled Scotland for 17 years, during which time Scotland became comparatively peaceful and stable.

Duncan’s son, Malcolm, invaded Scotland in 1054, supported by Edward the Confessor.

Macbeth was killed on August 15, 1057 and buried at Iona, the sacred burial place of the Kings of Scotland.

Banquo (pictured at right)

• an elaborate family tree of the Stuart dynasty suggests that King James is descended from a real Banquo (Holinshed). In fact, Banquo never existed.

• Shakespeare lays full responsibility for Banquo’s death upon the Macbeths

• the change to the traditional telling of the story was probably made to appease King James, who hated King-killers (regicides).

Henry Fuseli, Macbeth, Banquo and the Witches on the Heath

King James’ interest in witchcraft was well known

King James visited Oxford in 1605 and was greeted by three witches who hailed him as the descendent of Banquo . . . interesting.

Alexandre-Marie Colin, The Three Witches from Macbeth

A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.

Most people believed in witches and circulating pamphlets containing tales of witches and witchcraft were the equivalent of today’s popular newspapers.

Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches

Witches were said to have “diabolical” powers. They could:• predict the future• bring on night in the daytime• cause fogs and tempests• kill animals• curse enemies with fatal, wasting diseases• cause nightmares and sterility• take demonic possession of any individual• raise evil spirits by concocting a brew

It was believed that witches allowed the devil to suck their blood. Accused witches were examined for the “Devil’s Mark” - a red mark on their body from which the devil had sucked blood.

Between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people, nearly all of them women, were convicted as witches and executed

In 1604 an official Act of Parliament decreed that anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft should be executed

Those who confessed to being witches did so under torture or because they were in the grip of delusions recognized today as psychiatric disorders.

Macbeth was seen as a

A “man of high standard who falls from that high because of a flaw that has affected many” - Aristotle

Drama where the central character(s) suffer disaster/great misfortune• The hero’s downfall results from:

• Fate• Character flaw/Fatal flaw• Combination of the two

Act I: Exposition• This is where the setting, characters, and conflicts are introduced.

Act II: Rising Action

Act III: Turning Point (Climax)• This is where it all starts to go badly for the tragic

hero.

Act IV: Falling Action

Act V: Resolution• The conflicts are resolved; chaos returns to order.

Why do people do evil knowing it is evil?

How do people deal with temptation?

What determines your future? Is it fate? Social pressure? Ambition?

What are the consequences of success at any cost?

There are many superstitions centred on the belief that the play is somehow “cursed”.

Explanation #1 Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real

witches in his text, purportedly angering the witches and causing them to curse the play.

Explanation #2 Struggling theatres or companies would often put

on this popular 'blockbuster' in an effort to save their flagging fortunes.

However, it is a tall order for any single production to reverse a long-running trend of poor business.

Therefore, the last play performed before a theatre shut down was often Macbeth, and thus the growth of the idea that it was an 'unlucky' play

A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth (or by actors who had uttered the name).

Many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play".

Here are some of the gory particulars:

Beginning with its first performance, in 1606, Dear Will himself was forced to play Lady Macbeth when Hal Berridge, the boy designated to play the lady with a peculiar notion of hospitality, became inexplicably feverish and died.

When performed in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the blunted stage one and with it killed Duncan in full view of the entranced audience.

As Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons was nearly ravaged by a disapproving audience in 1775; Sybil Thorndike was almost strangled by a burly actor in 1926; Diana Wynyard sleepwalked off the rostrum in 1948, falling down 15 feet.

During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, a riot broke out in which 31 people were trampled to death.

The indestructible Charlton Heston, in an outdoor production in Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.

An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's 1970 production in New York City; two fires and seven robberies plagued the 1971 version starring David Leary; in the 1981 production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth Campbell, who played Macduff, was mugged soon after the play's opening.

Superstition of Characters’ Names MacBee Macker’s Mr. and Mrs. M. The Scottish King MacWhat’s-his-face

Scotland, roughly 1040• Almost 600 years before it was written

Civil war• Forces of KING DUNCAN

vs. The rebels MACDONWALD and the THANE OF CAWDOR

Macbeth and Banquo• Generals in the army of King Duncan

LADY MACBETH• Macbeth’s wife

MALCOLM and DONALBAIN• Sons of the king Duncan

FLEANCE• Son of Banquo

MACDUFF, LENNOX, ROSS, ANGUS• Noblemen of Scotland

LADY MACDUFF• Wife of Macduff

POWER

AMBITION

GENDER ROLES

DECEPTION

TRUST and LOYALTY GUILT and CONSEQUENCES FATE and DESTINY

BLOOD (Family, and the red stuff)

ANIMALS (especially nasty ones)

CLOTHING (especially clothes that don’t fit properly)

FAIR IS FOUL (Unnatural things)