Context

• Shakespeare is England's most famous playwright. He lived from 1564 – 1616. His plays can be divided into Histories (e.g. Henry VI), Comedies (e.g. Midsummer's Nights Dream), and Tragedies (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet)
• For the majority of his career, Shakespeare wrote for the acting group the Lord Chamberlain's Men (who became known as the King's Men in 1603 when James I ascended the throne)
• Shakespeare was writing during the Renaissance, a period between the 14th and 17th centuries where there was an expansion of artistic expression
• Plays were an incredibly popular and central medium of entertainment during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era
• Macbeth is a history play (like Richard II and Henry IV) and was written in 1606 - a few years after the ascension to the throne of James VI of Scotland who succeeded as the monarch of England in 1603 known as James I
• Macbeth


  A dramatic tragedy that follows the classic five-act structure, surrounding the protagonist Macbeth and the witches who act as catalysts for the play's events
• Hamartia


  An ancient Greek term first used by Aristotle in his Poetics, meaning 'fatal flaw'. A character's fatal flaw is the thing that leads to their ultimate downfall - in Macbeth's case it is his ambition and lust for power
• Catharsis


  An ancient Greek term that means the 'purging' or 'cleansing' of emotions, particularly through pity and fear, that the audience experiences at the end of a tragedy. It results in renewal and restoration
• The original source of the story of Macbeth comes from Holinshed's Chronicles (1577), a large work describing the collaborative histories of England, Scotland and Ireland
• While Holinshed's Chronicles was the main source for many of the history plays of Shakespeare, most now believe that the narrative is more legend than truth
• There is also some evidence to suggest that the play Macbeth in part may have been written by someone else, such as Thomas Middleton
• 3 main changes Shakespeare made from Holinshed's 'Historie of Scotlande'

  • Characterised Macbeth as cruel and tyrannical, rather than a good king for 10 years
  • Changed the 'goddesses of destine' to three simple Elizabethan witches
  • Banquo is not an accomplice to the murder and is an honourable man, rather than a partner with Macbeth to kill King Duncan
• The Jacobean era was one of uncertainty and tension due to the way that King James I came to power
• King James I


  His life can be referred to as a 'Scottish tragedy' - his parents were Mary I, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and he became King of Scotland at 8 months old after his father was assassinated and his mother was imprisoned and executed
• King James I had a great interest in the supernatural and witchcraft, and wrote a book called 'Daemonologie' (1597) which may have been a source for Shakespeare's Macbeth
• The 3 parts of King James I's book 'Daemonologie'


  • Magic and necromancy
  • Witchcraft and sorcery
  • Spirits and spectres
• After King James I published his book, the cases of witchcraft in Scotland skyrocketed by 53%
• Divine right of kings


  King James I believed he was chosen by God to be the king, and had a supernatural duty to complete witch-hunts as the closest being to God on Earth
• King James I was deeply misogynistic, believing that only women could be witches as they were the 'weaker sex'
• The witches in Macbeth serve as a warning against witchcraft, evil and bloodshed, with parallels to the three Fates in Greek mythology and the goddess Hecate
• Some have argued that Lady Macbeth is the fourth witch in the play, due to her passion, power and ambition
• Fates


  In Greek mythology, the deities in charge of the destinies of mortals who spun the weave of human lives
• Hecate


  In Greek mythology, the goddess of witchcraft; in Macbeth, the witches' mistress
• The Scottish tragedy Macbeth starts with the words of the witches and ends in blood and carnage
• Discord and confusion in the line of succession


  Only evil and bloodshed came to be
• Macbeth is a warning to the English people about witchcraft and evil - it is both a sin against God as well as against the state
• Witchcraft


  In the words of King James I, "high treason against God"
• Sometimes women in power were attacked and accused of witchcraft
• Great Chain of Being


  An ideological belief circulating at the time, originating from ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato, in which everything had a fixed place according to its importance and spiritual nature, with God at the top and rocks at the bottom
• When Lord and Lady Macbeth conspired and killed King Duncan


  They committed a carnal sin, a sin against the state, and a sin against the order of the universe according to the Great Chain of Being
• Macbeth's actions distort the natural order of the universe, setting off chaos and bloodshed
• Divine Right of Kings

  A belief that God had specifically chosen monarchs to rule the country, so an attempt to kill the one God had chosen was not just a worldly sin but a sin against God
• The gunpowder plot was a failed conspiracy by some Catholics to assassinate the king and parliament on November 5th 1605
• The tragic consequences of Lord and Lady Macbeth

  They sinned against God, for which the punishment is eternal damnation
• Macbeth can be seen as a warning against regicide and a representation of what could happen if any of the audience attempted it
• James I believed that the gunpowder plot was an act of witchcraft, and allusions of this can be seen in Macbeth
• The witch trials and hunts that took place during James' reign and resulted in thousands of deaths marked a dark time in English and Scottish history
• This dark mood pervades Macbeth, a story in which higher forces 'control' and dictate the lives of people
• Through Macbeth, the viewer is able to see the terrible consequences of what happens when power is given to these forces of darkness
• During this period in England, there was a lot of religious conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism