Macbeth

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Macbeth

• A tragedy
• By William Shakespeare

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• The Scottish Play is based loosely on an episode
  from history the death of King Duncan at the
  hands of his kinsman, Macbeth, in the year 1040.
• Full title The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Genre Tragedy
• Setting 11th century
• Setting Scotland, and briefly, England

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Historical Connection

• Scotland at the time was a violent and troubled
  country
• The castle was the center of
• each rival aristocrats
• (Thanes) power
• Political murder and
• revenge were not unusual
• ways to gain power

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Shakespeares Writing

• Written between 1604-1606.
• The shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies.
• It chronicles Macbeth's seizing of power and
  subsequent destruction.
• It is considered Shakespeares darkest work.

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Shakespeares Writing
-Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. -James was the
next blood relative and was the King of Scotland.
He became Gods appointed heir on the thrown
(Divine Right) -When writing, Shakespeare would
have wanted to impress his new King.
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Shakespeares Inspiration for Macbeth

• The play's focus on regicide, a supreme crime in
  Shakespeare's day, tied into the November 1605
  Gunpowder Plot where English Roman Catholic
  conspirators plotted against King James.

• Shakespeare also incorporated James interest in
  Witchcraft.

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Some images from recent productions
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Macbeth
From This
To This
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Lady Macbeth
From This
To This
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The Representation of Witches
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Modern Perception of Witches
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In Shakespeare's day it was believed that witches
could
- fly, talk to the dead, see the future- make
people ill- conjure visions- make themselves
invisible- conjure storms- cause shipwrecks-
cause crops to fail
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It was believed that witches were women who sold
their souls to the devil in exchange for doing
evil deeds and also murdered children.
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Throughout Europe in the late 1500s/early 1600s,
hundreds of thousands of women were accused of
witchcraft, tortured or even killed.
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• King James I
• Very interested in witchcraft before coming to
  England
• He believed black magic was used on him- this
  increased his concern
• Believed in Christian Witch Theory
• (that witches worked in groups and made pacts
  with the devil)

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V
Good King James was a Christian who believed
firmly that he was God's representative on earth.
Evil He argued that if God was represented on
earth in human form, then so was the Devil. The
Devil's representatives were witches.
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King James I -Wrote Daemonologie in 1597 -80
page book - 3 sections magic, sorcery/witchcraft,
and spirits/ghosts
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Getting back to the play
Lets look at the criteria that marks a tragedy..

• The hero is of high birth and position
• He has many good qualities but one fatal flaw
• This brings about his downfall.
• Innocent people suffer in the process.
• -Macbeth is our hero who ultimately falls