Context

• Context - Genre:

  • a dramatic tragedy - classic five-act structure.
  • Protagonist Macbeth , witches act as a catalyst

  Hamartia:

  • 'fatal flaw' leading to ultimate downfall

  Catharsis:

  • the 'purging' or 'cleansing' of emotions, particularly through pity and fear, that the audience experiences at the end of a tragedy.
  • Results in renewal and restorations.
  • Macbeth's self-destructive actions climax in Act 5 - Leads the audience to pity Macbeth - and so experience catharsis when he dies
• Different Sources:

  Original:

  • Macbeth was a good king for 10 years
  • Changes Macbeth to cruel and tyrannical, using violence and terror to make up for his unjust way he ascended to the throne. He declares "blood will have blood" - cycle of violence he initiated
  • Changed for dramatic purpose - more interesting plotline
  • Alternatively, support in Divine Right of Kings.
• Different Sources:

  Original

  • Holinshed's Chronicles the weird sisters were called the 'goddesses of destine'
  • changed to just three simple witches - limiting their power, and increasing Macbeth's choice and agency, making him responsible for his actions
  • Jacobean era were intensely religious and witchcraft was sinful. Witch hunts were a know and practised activity. King James was also interested in the topic, even writing a book called 'Daemonologie'.
  • By reducing witches power, Shakespeare delegitimises their power, perhaps to appeal to audience and monarch
• Different Sources:

  Original

  • Banquo is a partner with Macbeth to kill King Duncan.
  • In Shakespeare's version, Banquo is not an accomplice to the murder and is an honourable
  • Flatter King James I as he was a patron. - trace his lineage to Banquo.
• Context - Divine right of kings

  • James was ordained by God - he had a supernatural duty to complete witch-hunts.
  • When he sailed to get his betrothed, Anne of Denmark, he was attacked by deadly weather, he thought it was witchcraft, so launched a large scale witch-hunt and published Daemonologie.
  • Evidence "Though his bark cannot be lost/Yet it shall be tempest-tossed
  • James was also misogynistic, living in patriarchal times. Evidence in Daemonologie. They were the weaker sex and so easily trapped by the devil. He thought this because of Adam and Eve.
• Context - purpose of witches

  • warning against witchcraft, evil and bloodshed, whilst setting the pace for the play
  • parallels between the witches and the three Fates in Greek mythology.
  • Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft in Greek mythology
  • Witchcraft is high treason against God, and they influence Macbeth to go against God.
  • Lady Macbeth is the fourth witch.