Test

• Macbeth was written


  1606
• Shakespeare's reason for writing a play about regicide (murdering a king) was to warn against ambition, not to liken James to Macbeth
• The great chain of being


  A belief in a sacred order that underpinned all existence, with God at the top, the king as God's lieutenant, and the people serving the king
• When someone oversteps their place, like when Macbeth kills the king he is supposed to serve

  The chain of being is thrown into chaos
• Shakespeare wrote in a misogynistic period, and his female characters were influenced by gender stereotypes of the time
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's characterization


  • Subverts traditional gender roles, with Lady Macbeth taking on masculine qualities and Macbeth losing masculine virtues
• Macbeth is a dramatic tragedy, a play with a moral message in which everyone usually dies at the end
• Shakespeare's message in Macbeth


  • A warning to his audience not to violate the divine right of kings
  • Disrupting the natural order causes chaos
  • Reflecting the Gunpowder Plot and warning against overthrowing King James I
• The supernatural in Macbeth


  • The witches trigger Macbeth's ambition, leading to a series of mistakes and his downfall
  • The supernatural were agents of chaos that were not to be trusted
  • King James I was very superstitious and wrote about how to spot witches