Macbeth by William ShakespeareA few important facts you need to know presented in a completely informal way.P.S. All these slides have way too much writing on them to be considered proper for a PowerPoint.

Shakespeare the Author• He is famous. Very, very, famous! People read his plays all

over the world and in lots of different languages. • If you continue to study English literature you will continue to

study Shakespeare. He is everywhere. Learn to love his writing and the process will be much more enjoyable.

• He wrote so many plays they had to be put into categories: comedy, history, and tragedy.

• He was considered pop-culture in his day (mid-late 1500s). He brought theatre to the general public.

• He is the biggest plagiarizer I (your teacher) know about. • This means people actually enjoyed and continue to enjoy how

he writes. If they didn’t we wouldn’t be studying his knock off copies of other people’s work.

ReadingShakespeare• To much garbley goop, too

many words you don’t understand? Have no fear there is a reading strategy near.

• Sincere Moment: Shakespeare is a brilliant writer. His plays don’t have elaborate sets. Instead, he uses dialogue to express every detail and takes advantage of many different literary devices and components all in one play.

Reading Strategies• Things to Know:• A character’s words start on the same line as their name.• Apostrophes are used to remove letters from words so they fit into the ten

syllable requirement. • Try and Figure it Out on Your Own:• Don’t get lost in all the details. If you don’t understand a word move on. • Even though it is written in iambic pentameter there is sentence structure. Look

for the periods and then dissect the sentence from there. • Read an entire character’s speech before trying to dissect it. • Use the context of what is going on in the play at that moment to give a

character’s lines meaning. • Still Stuck?• Most copies of Shakespeare’s plays have word definitions or line explanations on

the right hand page or along the bottom. Check your copy to see where it is.• Still Stuck Now?• Go online and find a modernized version or a summary. I guarantee you there are

hundreds of them.

Three Categories of Plays• Comedy:• Usually about love• Is everyone married and dancing at the end? If the answer is yes then

it is a comedy. • A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, etc…

• History • Stolen straight from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle of English History.

Remember the population was not literate so they could not have read said chronicle on their own.

• If it is about one of these kings of England it is a history: Henry, John, Edward, and Richard. There are many plays for each.

• Tragedy• The tragic hero goes crazy because of some mental/emotional

dilemma resulting in everyone dying by the end. • Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, etc…

Romeo and Juliet Specific Information• The play takes place in Verona, Italy during the fourteenth

century. Like most of Shakespeare’s works it is based off of a real story and it is plagiarized from an Italian playwright.

• It features to rival families the Montagues and the Capulets. Both are extremely wealthy and have a large network of family members.

Macbeth Specific Information • The play is all about nobles and the political turmoil that

ensues when they become too ambitious. • There is also a supernatural element that is carried

throughout the story by the weird sisters and other thins that shall not be named at this moment.

Scotland according to Macbeth

• Macbeth takes place in Scotland. Although the precise date is takes place in the eleventh century.

• For those visual learners in the class, this map indicated places that are important to know about.

• Nobles are named after the lands they own.

Macbeth’s Homes – yes both of them!

Cawdor Castlewww.cawdorcastle.com

Glamis Castle

The Physical Landscape

Dunsinane Hill Birnam Oak

(from Birnam Wood)

How the play begins…• After meeting the weird sisters (or witches) the play begins on

a battle field where Macbeth has just secured a victory for Scotland against invading Norway.

• As a note, the Weird Sisters have often been portrayed as witches; however, the term weird comes from wryd which actually means fate or destiny. Keep this in mind as we read and you assess their role in the play.

Tragic Hero• What is a tragic hero?• Take apart the two words and try and come up with a definition.• Think you have it. Grab a dictionary and check if you are right.

• Class Definition:

• Why am I making sure you know the definition of a tragic hero?

Motifs• What is a motif?• Some motifs to pay attention for throughout the play:• appearance vs. reality• hallucinations/ghosts/lack of sleep• nature/animals/night• an intended order/fate

Why did Shakespeare write Macbeth?• Persuade:• As we read, think of what messages Shakespeare is trying to teach

his audience.• Hint: fate/the natural order of things and ambition play a major

part in the play. • Inform:• The play is loosely based on historical fact. Since King James I

England was also King James VI of Scotland people were interested in Scottish history.

• Entertain• You may not think that Shakespeare is entertaining but it is a lot

more interesting than having someone stand and deliver information in a monotone voice.

• If it wasn’t entertaining people would not have gone to see it.

The Real Macbeth• The play is based on a real king of Scotland named Macbeth. • Like his history plays Shakespeare stole his material from

Hollinshed’s. • In order to not upset King James I of England (the king at the

time and the man financing the theatre) Shakespeare changed a lot of details because James I was related to some of the characters.

• Later on we will look at the real Macbeth and compare them but I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

Hollinshed’s Chronicle• ... A peace was also concluded at the same time betwixt the

Danes and Scotishmen, ratified (as some haue written) in this wise: A peace concluded betwixt Scots and Danes. That from thenceforth the Danes should neuer come into Scotland to make anie warres against the Scots by anie maner of meanes. And these were the warres that Duncane had with foren enimies, in the seuenth yeere of his reigne. Shortlie after happened a strange and vncouth woonder, which afterward was the cause of much trouble in the realme of Scotland, as ye shall after heare.

• It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied towards Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie togither without other companie, saue onelie themselues, passing through the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund, there met them three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder world, whome when they atteniuilie beheld, woondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said: The prophesie of three women supposing to be the weird sisters or feiries.All haile Makbeth, thane of Glammis (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Sinell.) The second of them said: "Haile Mabeth thane of Cawder. But the third said; All haile Makbeth that heereafter "shalt be king of Scotland."

• "Then Banquho: What manner of women (saith he) are you, that seeme so little "favourable vnto me, whereas to my fellow heere, besides high offices, ye assigne also "the kingdome, appointing foorth nothing for me at all: Yes (saith the first of them) we "promise greater benefits vnto thee than vnto him, for he shal reigne in deed, but with an "vnluckie end: neither shall he leaue anie issue behind him to succeed in his place, where "contrarilie thou in deed shalt not reigne at all, but of thee those shall be borne which "shall gouerne the Scottish kingdome by long order of continual descent. Herewith the foresaid women vanished immediatlie out of their sight.

• This was reputed at the first but some vaine fantasticall illusion by Mackbeth and Banquho, insomuch that Banquho would call Mackbeth in iest, king of Scotland; and Mackbeth againe would call him in sport likewise, the father of manie kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall science, bicause euerie thing came to passe as they had spoken. For shortlie after, the thane of Cawder being condemned at Fores of treason against the king committed; his lands, liuings and offices were giuen of the kings liberalitie to Mackbeth.