Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Shakespeare’s Life In a nutshell

The Bard –154 sonnets –2 long poems –37 plays (tragedy, comedy and history)

For Whom Was Macbeth Written? King James I –Enjoyed witchcraft and the supernatural l

The Big Picture Shakespeare provides a window into the human soul (the human condition) Things are not always as they seem Absolute power corrupts absolutely

Essential Questions How does power corrupt people? Is our future beyond our control? Why are people motivated to create a false face? Can a lust for power lead to a loss of humanity? Can wanting something so much lead us to do things against our nature?

Personal Understanding Is humanity basically good or evil? Does man have free will to act upon the universe or is his fate determined by forces outside his control?

Doth Thou Fear the Bard’s Speech? In English, or any other language, the meaning of a sentence greatly depends upon where each word is placed in that sentence. “The child hurt the mother” and “The mother hurt the child” have opposite meanings, even though the words are the same, simply because the words are arranged differently.

Shakespeare’s Language Because word position is so integral to English, the reader will find unfamiliar word arrangements confusing, even difficult to understand. Since Shakespeare’s plays are poetic dramas, he often shifts from average word arrangements to the strikingly unusual so that the line will conform to the desired poetic rhythm.

Often, too, Shakespeare employs unusual word order to afford a character his own specific style of speaking.

Today, English sentence structure follows a sequence of subject first, verb second, and an optional object third. Shakespeare, however, often places the verb before the subject, which reads, “Speaks he” rather than “He speaks.”

Inversions like these are not troublesome, but when Shakespeare positions the predicate adjective or the object before the subject and verb, we are sometimes surprised. For example, rather than “I saw him,” Shakespeare may use a structure such as “Him I saw.” Similarly, “Cold the morning is” would be used for our “The morning is cold.”

Lady Macbeth demonstrates this inversion as she speaks of her husband: “Glamis thouart, and Cawdor, and shalt be/What thou art promised” (Macbeth, I, v, ll. 14−15). In current English word order, this quote would begin, “Thou art Glamis, and Cawdor.”

More Hurdles As we read Shakespeare, we will find words that are separated by long, interruptive statements. Often subjects are separated from verbs, and verbs are separated from objects. These long interruptions can be used to give a character dimension or to add an element of suspense.

What Does This Mean? Another example, taken from Hamlet, is the ghost, Hamlet’s father, who describes Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, as …that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts— O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce—won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming virtuous queen. (I, v, ll. 43−47)

The Answer From this we learn that Prince Hamlet’s mother is the victim of an evil seduction and deception. The delay between the subject, “beast,” and the verb, “won,” creates a moment of tension filled with the image of a cunning predator waiting for the right moment to spring into attack. This interruptive passage allows the play to unfold crucial information and thus to build the tension necessary to produce a riveting drama.

Shakespeare’s Wordplay All of Shakespeare’s works exhibit his mastery of playing with language and with such variety that many people have authored entire books on this subject alone. Shakespeare’s most frequently used types of wordplay are common: metaphors, similes, synecdoche and metonymy, personification, allusion, and puns. It is when Shakespeare violates the normal use of these devices, or rhetorical figures, that the language becomes confusing.

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