Context

• King James I hated witches and wrote a book about them.
• King James I descended from Duncan
• Duncan was an unjust king.
• Macbeth was a great king
• King James I descended from Banquo.
• Idea of the play may have come from King James I.
• Shakespeare's company was called "The kings' men" as King James I liked him.
• During Shakespeare's era most things were controlled by the church and the crown.
• The great chain of being was followed by everyone.
• The divine right of kings was believed religiously.
• King James I wanted the public to know if the great chain of being was distrupted it would cause chaos.
• Macbeth is propaganda
• 1605 = gun powder plot was 1 year before the play
• Drunken porter says something said by an executed person involved in the gun powder plot
• Equivocator = double talk = someone who hides their true being.
• Under James' I rule 2500 thousand 'witches' were burnt alive
• King James I was obsessed with witches after trip to denmark where his ship almost sunk
• James I personally supervised torture of women labelled 'witches'
• 3 witches. 3 symbolises harmony, holy trinity, 3 archangels.
• 1. witches address Macbeth by 3 titles
  2. they condure 3 apparitions
  3. there are 3 murderers
  4. and 3 murder scenes
  5. in Macbeth's last soliloquy he says 'tomorrow' 3 times