S. Connell - Rick Hansen S.S.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Taken from YPT Teaching Guide Macbeth

Will’s quill from

(1564-1616)

Where was Will from?Where was Macbeth from?

Map of Modern Europe

Macbeth is set in Scotland 500 years before Shakespeare was alive…

• Scotland in the 7th-11th centuries was a violent and troubled country.

• Families and clans were constantly feuding to keep their territorial lands.

• Raids from neighboring countries (Norsemen) were common and a continual threat.

Scotland before William Wallace

of Braveheart (1300)Macbeth’s Scots would have known:

• Revenge, killings, and murders

for political reasons were common.

• Each thane, (war-lord) considered his castle his strong hold.

An example of Scottish Weaponry and Garments

This sword is the type of 11th century weaponry used in medieval Scotland.

• This map of Scotland shows the location of the places mentioned in the play.

Locations mentioned in the play• It was once the

place where Scottish kings were crowned.

Scone Palace. The chapel at Scone palace sits by Moot Hill where Scots gathered to crown their kings.

Glamis

Castle and the location of Duncan’s murder?

murder weapon…..

“Is this a dagger I see before me?”

The Scottish Landscape

• Scotland’s rain soaked highlands, blanketed in eerie fogs and clouds are an integral part of the atmosphere of Macbeth.

A view of the cloud covered hills of the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

The Scottish LandscapeA cloudy heath on the Isle of Skye, (below) is indicative of the type of weather Macbeth could have encountered when meeting the three weird sisters.

500 years later, in Shakespeare’s time..

• When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, she didn’t have a direct heir. Her distant cousin James, already on the Scottish throne, became King James I of England. In the 1606 Act of Union, Scotland joined England and Ireland, forming Great Britain.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

The cost of a show

• 1 shilling to stand• 2 shillings to sit in the balcony• 1 shilling was 10%

of their weekly income• Broadway Today:

– $85 Orchestra– $60 Balcony– 10% of a teacher’s weekly salary

So, a real Duncan & Macbeth existed in the 11th century

• Shakespeare borrowed parts of real Scottish history to write a fictional story to entertain the new King James I in 1606.

• (James’s love = $ for the theatre)

**This new English king, born

in Scotland, was believe to be able to trace his roots to Fleance, Banquo’s son.

Witchcraft during the reign of King James I (Will’s time)

• Londoners, obsessed with witch-mania,

believed witches had the power to predict the future, fly, cause fogs and storms, and bring on the night when it was day. They were thought to raise evil spirits, induce nightmares, bring on sterility, and curse their enemies with fatal diseases.

(1692 Americans killed 20 people for

Witchcraft…)