Macbeth key words

• Society


  Every time Shakespeare writes anything at all he's reacting to the Jacobean or the Elizabethan Society he wrote in
• McBeth


  Shakespeare is criticizing this martial society that values violence as proof of manhood and he's also trying to warn the Nobles not to change society by killing the King
• Romeo and Juliet


  Shakespeare is writing about patriarchal society and how male violence again is ruining the lives of men and women and that's what kills the Two Lovers
• The Tempest


  Shakespeare is writing about kingship and absolute power and happiness is only achieved once Prospero relinquishes absolute power and hands over to a younger generation
• Patriarchal


  A patriarchy is any society run by men in the interests of men
• Masculinity


  Shakespeare is asking whether men are in fact the best kinds of rulers
• Power


  Shakespeare thinks about the power of the day King James and how that power should be exercised
• Machiavellian


  Any kind of political trickery or way to manipulate events or people
• Great chain of being


  The idea that everything is in its natural order with God at the top followed by the Angels followed by who is appointed as king or queen followed by the Nobles followed by the merchants followed by the normal people at the bottom and then animals
• Original sin


  The Catholic idea that we are all born with the sin of Adam and Eve when they defied God and started eating of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
• Fate


  Characters are constantly wrestling with how far they can act on their own choices versus how far their fate is controlled either by God or by Society
• Utopian and dystopian


  Utopia is trying to create a perfect world, dystopia is a world that has fallen away from Perfection and become damaged and damaging
• Justice


  Shakespeare always tries to restore the natural order and when you examine the ending you can see whether he wants a Christian Society what kind of ruler he wants to rule it
• Redemption


  The Christian idea that we commit sins but we can redeem ourselves through goodness
• Conscience


  Shakespeare's characters think for themselves and try to work out what decision they should make, what choice would be good and what choice would be evil