Macbeth

• Key Words:

  (T) Tragic hero/ heroine

  (H) Hamartia (fatal flaw)

  (U) Unchecked (uncontrollable)

  (D) Duplicitousness (deceitful)

  (M) Motif of sleep/ blood

  (I) Irresistible allure (pull)

  (T) Tyrannical (cruel/ oppressive leader)

  (C) Carcass of insanity

  (H) Hubris (excessive pride)

  (V) Violating divine order/ law
• Context:

  (King) King James I

  (Duncan’s) Divine Right of Kings

  (Grim) Great Chain of Being

  (Death) Daemonologie

  (Sparks) Seven Deadly Sins

  (Paranoia) Paranoia
• Context:

  King James I

  • Was a patron (funded) for Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare wanted to appease him
  • Wrote against regicide (killing of kings)
• Context:

  Divine Right of Kings

  • God chooses the king. Disrupting this was seen as an assault on God himself.
  • Macbeth violates the divine right of kings by committing regicide
• Context:

  Daemonologie

  • Book written by James I which describes the supernatural and how to punish Witchcraft
  • Witches supernatural depiction matches the exact description of the supernatural in Daemonologie - another way for Shakespeare to appease James I
• Context:

  Seven Deadly Sins & Religion

  • 7 deadly sins we’re to be avoided within Christianity to abstain from being influenced by the devil. They are: greed, wrath, pride, lust, sloth, envy, gluttony
  • Macbeth and Lady Macbeth a body: greed, wrath, pride and envy
  • Macbeth is driven by his pride and is greedy for more power - he is envious of the power of Duncan. This results in his violent wrath as he commits regicide.
• Shakespeare’s Intentions

  • Ambition - It’s morally corrosive, blinding influence on people driven by self-fulfilling and egocentric aspirations.
  • King James - Patron to his plays, uses the play as veiled allegory, intertwining act of regicide tormenting guilt. Potent reminder of consequences for who disrupt the divinely ordained order.
  • He cautions the audience about the perilous consequences of succumbing to the irresistible allure of supernatural powers, emphasising that engagement with this force inevitably results in a quick and catastrophic demise.