Macbeth%20Pre-Reading

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Macbeth Pre-Reading

• Shakespeare and His Times

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Iambic Pentameter

• A rhythm pattern based on syllables daDUM
• Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
  syllable
• One daDUM is called an iam
• If you put 5 iams on one line,
• daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM, you have iambic
  pentameter!
• All of Shakespeares plays are written this way

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Iambic Pentameter

• I think that Bob is full of crap today
• CiEN eGA will BEAT saHUA ro NEXT
• Now you try. Write one now!

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Shakespearean Iambic Pentameter

• Ill fight til my flesh is hacked from my
  bones is a line from Macbeth
• Rearrange the words so they fall in iambic
  pentameter
• Ill fight til from my bones my flesh be hacked

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Important Cultural Knowledge

• Women had a lower social status
• Great Chain of Being
• There is a proper order of things, based on
  complexity, from the smallest grains of sand to
  heaven and God
• Harmony vs. Disorder
• Divine right and its disruption
• You vs. Thou

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Macbeth Background

• Historical King Macbeth existed, although without
  much of the murder and intrigue that
  characterizes the play
• Shakespeare wrote Macbeth as a tribute to James I
• Interested in witchcraft
• Claimed to be descended from original Duncan and
  Banquo, both characters from the play that are
  treated quite favorably

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Shakespeares Goals

• Shakespeare wanted to explore (from a safe
  distance) the events and attitudes of his own
  time.
• Gunpowder Plot of 1605
• The threat to an anointed king
• Shakespeare also altered his text to pay homage
  to his own king and country.
• Shakespeare more interested in psychological
  truth than in historical fact.

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Themes?

• What themes do you expect to encounter in
  Macbeth, based on the information in this
  PowerPoint?