Macbeth

• Macbeth is a tale told by a genius, full of soundness and fury, and signifying many things. (James Thurber)

• It’s a drama about the success, the treachery, and the disintegration of a brave but flawed individual.

                 

          

• Macbeth is courageous and intelligent, but also ambitious and murderous.

• Even though Macbeth decides to murder his king for his kingdom, he nevertheless thinks of himself as a good man.

• Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating tragic heroes…he mirrors the contradictions most of us have experienced between duty and desire.

Macbeth

• Macbeth was a real king of Scotland.• He murdered King Duncan in 1040 C.E.

["Common Era" (or alternatively, "Christian Era") and refers to the same dates as "AD" or "Anno Domini" does. (Except that "AD" goes before the year number and "CE" goes after it: e.g. "AD 1996" is the same year as "1996 CE".)]

• Macbeth reigned for about 17 years before Duncan’s son Malcolm killed Macbeth.

• Macbeth was based largely on accounts in Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The story combines many historical facts, such as the 11th-century kingships of Duncan and Macbeth, into a tale of regicide (murder of a king), corruption, and consequences that reveal the darkness of man’s soul.

• Scholars date the play in 1606, after Shakespeare’s famous tragedies Hamlet and Othello.

• Strong evidence suggests it was written to pay homage to James I, Shakespeare’s most prominent patron. This play recognized James’ Scottish heritage and appealed to James’ family’s assertion that they were descendants of Banquo.

• The picture of good kings versus vicious tyrants also pleased James I as he attempted to define himself as a benevolent monarch who ruled through the Devine Right of Kings.

• Shakespeare wrote his play using the sources that were available to him, and he felt free to:– modify them, – compress time, and – add witches and whatnot to suit his whim.

• In this play more than any other, Shakespeare explores the nature of free will:– Is Macbeth the master of his fate, or is it the

other way around?

Macbeth

Setting

The play is set in Scotland with a brief foray into England

• The action occurs in several locations:– The Scottish countryside where military

operations unfold– The king’s palace at Forres– Heaths and caverns that the witches inhabit– Macbeth’s castle at Inverness– Macduff’s castle at Fife– The palace at Dunsinane.

• According to Holinshed, Duncan and Macbeth reigned during the years 1034-1057, making this the likely time period of the play.

• Key elements in the story are ideas of:– Honor– Lineage– Position

Macbeth

Characters

• The main characters are part of the Scottish nobility, the elite classes.

• The male protagonists are also part of the king’s military and are rewarded or punished according to their loyalty and their battlefield success.

• Duncan – King of Scotland when the play opens.

He symbolizes benevolent rule and trusted

authority; he rewards men who do well and

punishes traitors.

• Malcolm – Duncan’s older son and heir to the

throne. He demonstrates cowardice initially

but is able to overcome his fears and act

valiantly in the end.

• Donalbain – Duncan’s younger son who plays a

minor role in the play.

• Macbeth - Scottish nobleman, general in the King’s army, and thane of Glamis (and Cawdor). In Scotland, a thane is a feudal lord or baron. Although he acts admirably in the beginning, ambition and greed reveal the dark side of his character. • Banquo – Scottish nobleman. A general in King Duncan’s army whose morality wins out over his ambition; thus, he acts as a foil of sorts to Macbeth. He is told that his sons will become kings.

• Macduff – A Scottish nobleman who ends up working against Macbeth. He suffers a personal tragedy at Macbeth’s hand and seeks revenge.

• Lennox – A Scottish nobleman who becomes involved in the political intrigue.

• Ross – Another Scottish nobleman who

becomes involved in the political

intrigue.

• Menteith - Scottish nobleman

• Angus - Scottish nobleman

• Caithness - Scottish nobleman

• Fleance – Banquo’s son, who according to

the witches’ prophecy is in line to

ascend the Scottish throne, but who is

unaccounted for at the end of the play.

• Siward – Earl of Northumberland and

general of the English army that

invades Scotland in an attempt to

unseat Macbeth from power.

• Young Siward - Siward’s son

• Seyton – Macbeth’s officer

• Lady Macbeth – Macbeth’s wife and the

catalyst behind much of his behavior.

She wants the throne for him and

urges him to commit criminal acts.

Her conscience eventually troubles

her to such an extent that madness

descends.

• Lady Macduff – Macduff’s wife who suffers at Macbeth’s hand. She appears briefly along with her young children.

• Three Witches – Old women who live on the fringes of Macbeth’s world and whose charms and foretellings bring Macbeth to a terrible end.

Hekate was a popular and ubiquitous goddess from at least 700 BCE until late antiquity. In Pre-Classical Ancient Greece She was represented as a young woman clad in a long robe, holding burning torches. Later Hekate appears triple-formed, with three bodies standing back to back, probably so that she could look in all directions at once from the crossroads. She is the goddess of Witchcraft. The threeWitches appeal to herAs they utter prophecies for Macbeth.

Minor Characters

• Macduff’s son

• An English doctor

• A Scottish doctor

• A Porter

• An Old Man

• Three murderers

• Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman

• Hecate

• Apparitions

• Lords, Officers, etc.

Macbeth – Act I

William Shakespeare

Plot

• Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, has successfully quelled a rebellion against his king, Duncan.

• Thane is the Scottish equivalent of an English earl.

• The scene shifts to a military camp and King Duncan of Scotland learns that during the fierce battle, “Brave Macbeth” killed the traitor, Macdonwald, by ripping him open from the navel to the lips and cutting off his head, which he displayed on loyalists’ castle.

• Then came the king of Norway and another traitor, the Thane of Cawdor.

• Cawdor is sentenced to death, and Macbeth will get his title and lands.

• Duncan sums up the situation in the line, “What he [the Thane of Cawdor] hath lost,

noble Macbeth hath won.”

• But even though Cawdor was a cad, he knew how to die, as this famous line shows: “Nothing in his life/Became him like the leaving of it,” says Malcolm.

• Macbeth and his sidekick, Banquo return in triumph when three witches stop them.

• The witches greet Macbeth three times:

- Using his

current title – Thane of Glamis

- Using the title that is about to be his reward for defeating the traitor – Thane of Cawdor

- Using his future title – “King of Scotland”

• “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” introduces the idea of moral relativity, of deceptiveness of appearances.

• Is the witches statement– A warning?– A temptation?– A prophecy?

• Macbeth marvels at the greeting because Cawdor is not his title, and certainly king is beyond his reach.

• The witches predict that Banquo will be “lesser than Macbeth and greater” and “not so happy, yet much happier.”

• The witches also tell him that he will be the father of kings.

• Messengers from King Duncan arrive and tell Macbeth of the story of Cawdor’s disloyalty.

• Macbeth learns that he is now the Thane of Cawdor.

• The witches were right about Cawdor – perhaps they will be right about king, too.

• Macbeth tells his wife about the witches and their prediction.

• To Lady Macbeth, the prediction is almost a command, and she thinks immediately of seizing the throne by force.

• She fears that her husband “is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” (1.5.16) for such a deed.

• For Macbeth to be king, they must get rid of Duncan and his two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain.

• Their best opportunity will be that very night because Duncan will stay with Macbeth on his way home.

• Notified by letter of the King’s plans (and her husband’s ambitions), Lady Macbeth worries that her husband character is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness,/To catch the nearest way.”

• To prepare for the bloody task, Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits:– “Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full– Of direst cruelty. (1.5.40-41)

• Macbeth is reluctant to follow through on his plans because he feels that Duncan is a good king, so Macbeth cannot rationalize his murder.

• Lady Macbeth has no such inhibitions.

• She creates the murder plan:– Let Duncan go to sleep– Lady Macbeth will get the attendants drunk– Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will murder

Duncan.– Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will lay the blame

on the drunken guards.

• She urges her husband to do the job saying,“when you durst do it, then you were a

man” (1.7.49).• She will ply Duncan’s bodyguards with wine

and give Macbeth the opportunity to kill the unguarded Duncan.

• They will then frame the guards for the murder.

• Macbeth’s wife

finally sways him,

and Macbeth is

resolved to carry

out the deed.