POLITICS & DEATH
TRAGEDY
MACBETH
1606
SHAKESPEARE
ROYAL PATRON
JAMES I
CROWNED 1603
"THE SCOTTISH PLAY"
BASED IN SCOTLAND & DEEMED
UNLUCKY - MENTIONS OF WITCHCRAFT
FLASH STUDY GUIDE
Originally King of Scotland, James I came to the throne of England in 1603, after the death of Elizabeth I. James honoured Shakespeare's acting company by giving them the title of 'the King's men'. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth specifically to appeal to James and to avoid royal censorship -- this can be seen through its themes, references to Banquo --whom James believed himself a descendant of (even though fictional) & Scottish references.
James was fascinated with witches: he wrote Daemonologie (1597) and administered the
Witchcraft Act (1604), banning the practice of magic in Britain, believing they were a threat to his
political power and derived power from the devil -- he even acted as a judge in some witchcraft trials.
Furthermore, Macbeth was written as a reaction to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed treason plot against the monarchy. In an effort to deter others from treason, and to please James I, Shakespeare chose to end Macbeth with the monarchy as the ultimate victor. This decision was also to avoid
common censorships of artistic works of this period.
Although historical in nature, Macbeth has a lack of historical accuracy in terms of the real 14th century Macbeth of Scotland and was written with
entertainment rather than historical accuracy in mind, i.e. the use of the word "cannon" (1.2) -- a 14th-century creation -- to give a clearer image to its Jacobean audience.
Context
Society was very religious during the time period of Macbeth's release. Therefore, throughout
Shakespeare's play he typically uses themes of holiness, light, and order to contrast evil, dark, and disorder, thereby making it easier for his audience to follow and categorise good vs evil.
A key theme of Macbeth is the battle between good and evil. These two are commonly distinguished with the use of pathetic fallacy. Day and night (or light and dark) are encouraged to be distinguished as opposing forces in Macbeth and are "at odds" (3.4) with one another.
Characters such as Banquo, described as "a light" (3.2), and Macduff or Malcolm, who are only seen in scenes set at daytime, are representative of the light of day, and therefore, the hope of Scotland.
Conversely, Macbeth, who possesses "black and deep desires" (1.4), and Lady Macbeth, who enforces dark imagery of "the dunnest smoke of Hell" and "the blanket of dark" (1.5) are representative of the dark night that is corrupting Scotland and are punished for their transgressions with "deep damnation" (1.7).
The same theme can be seen used in the "unnatural" (2.4) descriptions of animals in the food chain to parallel Macbeth's unnatural disregard for his King -God's appointed representative on Earth.
Themes
Lady Macbeth can be interpreted as similarly
unnatural due to her strength and disregard for her stereotypical female role in society -- as society would have been very patriarchal during this period.
Throughout the play, men are linked to strength & violence and so her demand of spirits to "unsex" and fill her with "direst cruelty" would have been
particularly shocking to a Jacobean audience.
These desires make her comparable to the witches, who would be perceived as satanic by Shakespeare's original audience. However, it can be argued she is stereotypical as it was thought at this time that women were more susceptible to the Devil.
Religious aspects appear throughout Macbeth. The audience of this period would have placed more emphasis on the "deep damnation" (1.7) Macbeth, our tragic hero, suffers following Duncan's death, a King as chosen by God.
Similarly, they would have perceived the witches as satanic and would have seen the hallucinations of Macbeth, particularly the dagger, to be the
temptations of the Devil and all sleepless images following (sleep being a connotation of innocence in Shakespeare's plays) the consequences of sinful action on a haunted human mind.
Themes
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." (1.1)
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." (1.2)
"For the brave Macbeth - well he deserves that name." (1.2) "They were as cannons overcharged with double cracks." (1.2) "What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won." (1.2)
"So wither'd and so wild in their attire, that look not like the inhabitants o' the earth." (1.3)
"Why do you start and seem to fear things that do sounds so fair." (1.3)
"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more." (1.3)
"The instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray's in deepest consequence." (1.3)
"Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires." (1.4)
"I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness." (1.5)
"Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it:" (1.5)
"Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts. Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty." (1.5)
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't." (1.5) "Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep
damnation of his taking-off." (1.7)
"Screw your courage to the sticking-place." (1.7)
"False face must hide what the false heart doth know." (1.7) "Is this a dagger which I see before me. The handle toward my hand?" (2.1)
"'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep." (2.2)
"My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white." (2.2)
"There's daggers in men's smiles." (2.3)
"My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white." (2.3)
"Dark night strangles the travelling lamp." (2.4)
"A falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." (2.4)
Key Quotes
"To be thus is nothing but to be safely thus." (3.1) "O, full of scorpions is my mind dearest wife." (3.2) "Who did strike out the light?" (3.3)
"Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me." (3.4)
"Blood will have blood." (3.4)
"I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er." (3.4)
"Security is mortals' chiefest enemy." (3.5)
"Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble." (4.1)
"Something wicked this way comes." (4.1) "Damn'd all those that trust them!" (4.1)
"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell." (4.3) "Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny!" (4.3) "He has no children. All my pretty ones?" (4.3) "Dispute it like a man." (4.3)
"I must also feel it as a man." (4.3) "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (5.1) "What's done cannot be undone." (5.1)
"Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles" (5.1) "I have almost forgot the taste of fears." (5.5)
"She should have died hereafter." (5.5)
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow." (5.5)
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sounds and fury, signifying nothing." (5.5)
"I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, to one of woman born." (5.8)
"Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd." (5.8) "The usurper's cursed head: the time is free." (5.8)
"This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen." (5.8)
