By William Shakespeare Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Or by Edward De Vere Christopher Marlowe Francis Bacon King James I, King of Scotland and England

The Shortest play!! Macbeth is William Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. Macbeth seeing the Ghost of Banquo by Théodore Chassériau. Macbeth is William Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. It explores the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. There are many superstitions centered on the belief the play is somehow "cursed", and many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "the Scottish play".

Background For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland. In 1040, Macbeth, with the aid of the king’s own men, kills the king and assumes the throne. The King’s name was Duncan. Mac Bethad mac Findlaích anglicised as Macbeth, was King of Scots from 1040 until his death in 1057.

Origin Macbeth was written between 1603 and 1606 during the reign of King James, the successor to Queen Elizabeth, the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Macbeth was first printed in the First Folio of 1623 and the Folio is the only source for the text. The text that survives had been altered by later hands. Most notable is the inclusion of two songs from Thomas Middleton's play The Witch (1615); Middleton is conjectured to have inserted an extra scene involving the witches and Hecate. On this basis, many scholars reject all three of the interludes with the goddess Hecate as inauthentic.

The "Scottish play" - superstitions While many today would simply chalk up any misfortune surrounding a production to coincidence, actors and other theatre people often consider it bad luck to mention Macbeth by name while inside a theatre, and usually refer to it as The Scottish Play, or "MacBee“. This is because Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in his text, purportedly angering them and causing them to curse the play. Thus, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury or worse to cast members. Several methods exist to dispel the curse. One is to leave the building, walk around it three times, and then wait to be invited back into the building. Another popular "ritual" is to leave the room, knock three times, be invited in, and then quote a line from Hamlet. THE THREE WITCHES, 1827, by Alexandre-Marie Colin

Themes One of the main themes is the idea from Act One, Scene 1, where the witches say ‘fair is foul, foul is fair’. This basically means that looks can be deceiving. What appears to be good can be bad. This is especially the case for Lady Macbeth whose deceptive façade goes undetected by King Duncan and his sons or the predictions of the witches who tell Macbeth of his rise to be King of Scotland. Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent (1889).

Symbolism The witches can serve as a symbol of Macbeth’s (and our own) inner evil ambitions. They inspire Macbeth to kill the King and later the family of Macduff. Blood also is a symbol in Macbeth. The blood on both Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s hand symbolizes that they are both guilty of the crime. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth tries to wash her hands of the blood while walking in her sleep. Although there is no blood on her hands, this too symbolizes her guilty feelings about her actions and demonstrates the impossibility of regaining peace of mind after committing literally and figuratively the deadly sin of murder. Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking, Henry Fuseli,1783

Tragedy "Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath" by Théodore Chassériau In England just before Shakespeare’s time, the definition of tragedy was accepted based on the idea of fortune’s wheel, which in its continual revolution, raises up one person while another falls. A tragedy thus involved the descent of a great person from fortunate success to defeat and death. The tragic hero will have to make certain choices that will directly result in the web of circumstances that bring about the downfall

The Tragic hero, Macbeth The tragic hero must oppose some conflicting force, internal or external. He is overthrown by hamartia, a tragic flaw, such as pride (hubris- excessive pride) but not before bringing about the destruction or deaths of other people and institutions or nations. The hostility of his/her destiny may be a result of circumstances (fate), of activities of enemies and villains or the intervention of some supernatural force hostile of him/her personally or to all humanity. When it is too late, the victim usually realizes what has happened. The audience is acquainted with the evil destiny before the hero does. This sets up an ironic tension as the audience awaits the characters downfall Sir Ian MacKellen and Dame Judi Dench.

Other Tragic heroes

Conclusion Through the life events of Macbeth, Shakespeare does not only reveal the evil that appears to lie within, but he is also be able to identify and predict the patterns of the rise and fall of dictators to come, from Napoleon, Hitler, to Saddam Hussein.