William Shakespeare

 Have you ever given in to temptation?  Do you believe in prophecies?  How do you personally decide what is good and what is evil?  What is the difference between greed and ambition?  Do you believe “you reap what you sow”?  Do you believe our lives are lead by fate or our actions alone?

1. People who are striving to get ahead often step on other people. 2. Being powerful usually is the same thing as being happy. 3. One mistake can often lead to another. 4. Everyone is capable of murder under the right circumstances. 5. People who are involved in criminal activities can still feel love, fear, and concern for other people.

 Macbeth is a dark, relentless tale of a good and brave Scottish general who, encouraged by the dark prophesies of three evil witches and by his own wife, murders the King of Scotland  Macbeth then becomes King and brings about his own destruction

 The Tutor family ruled in England  Elizabeth I had no children and there was no heir to the throne  She had killed her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, to ascend the throne.  To ease her way into Heaven, Elizabeth chose Mary’s son James to succeed her.

 He was known as James VI, King of Scotland  Upon Elizabeth’s death in 1603, he became James I of England  The appointment of James I was a good political move, unifying England and Scotland under one King.

 Gunpowder Plot in  A group of rebel Catholics tried to blow up King James and Parliament  Guy Fawkes, “Remember, Remember the 5 th of November”  Referenced directly in Macbeth  Act II, Scene iii: Reference to Catholic “equivocators”

 Macbeth was written for King James I in 1606  Macbeth was set in Scotland  Banquo was an ancestor of James and is shown in the play as a virtuous person  James considered himself an expert on witchcraft, having written personally on the subject (Demonology, 1597)  One of Shakespeare’s shortest plays because King James often fell asleep during plays

 Shakespeare used Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, & Ireland as historical reference for his plays  King of Scotland (1040–57).  He succeeded his father as governor of the province of Moray c.1031  was a military commander for Duncan I.

 In 1040, Macbeth killed Duncan in battle and seized the throne.  Possibly of royal descent himself, he acquired a direct claim to the throne through his wife, Gruoch; she was a granddaughter of Kenneth III, who had been overthrown by Duncan's ancestor Malcolm II. (Portrait: Duncan I)

 Macbeth was defeated in 1054 by Siward, earl of Northumbria, who regained the southern part of Scotland on behalf of Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's son.  Malcolm himself regained the rest of the kingdom after defeating and killing Macbeth in the battle of Lumphanan. He then succeeded to the throne as Malcolm III.

 Shakespeare wrote this play to appeal to the people of England:  A combination of fact and fiction …  The country is stable only if the King is good and virtuous.  Evil occurs in darkness, which is a recurring theme in Macbeth.  Lots of blood and murder  A threat to an anointed King and the perceived evil behind the threat (a thriller)

MACBETH AND BANQUO MEET THE WITCHES (ACT I, SCENE III) BY JOHANN HEINRICH FUSSI PORTRAYAL IN THE 2006 FILM VERSION OF MACBETH

 They tell Macbeth that he is destined to be king, and urge him to do bloody things.

 Their character is modeled after Norse mythology- the Norns (three Fates)  the name Urðr (Wyrd, Weird) means "fate" or simply "future",

The Three Fates of Roman mythology  They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death.  The names of the Three Fates were:  Nona - spun the thread of life onto her spindle.  Decima - measured the thread of life with her rod.  Morta - was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of a person's death. When she cut the thread with "her abhorrèd shears", someone on Earth died.

 Represent darkness, chaos and confusion.  “Fair is foul and foul is fair”- a contradiction.  Evil is good, while good is evil.

 “Double, double toil and trouble” – they cause more grief for the mortals around them.  The witches never actually tell Macbeth to kill Duncan, but merely tempt him with the idea of becoming king. What theme of temptation might Shakespeare be representing here?

The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition  The destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints  Embodied in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth  In each case, ambition is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities.

The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity  Questioning a Man’s Manhood  Forces men into action... Leads to violence  Violence and Women  The Witches lead Macbeth down a violent path  Lady Macbeth is the “brains” behind Macbeth’s actions (manipulation / deception)  Goes against societal rules and norms

Kingship vs. Tyranny  A debate between the role of king and tyrant  Duncan = King, Macbeth = Tyrant  King must be loyal to Scotland, bringing stability  Tyrants bring chaos and death (symbolized in the bad weather and supernatural events)

Alienation and Loneliness  It is truly lonely on top...  Macbeth finds himself alone in his own Kingdom, all friends and allies now enemies  Lady Macbeth also finds herself alone...

The Role of Women  The dutiful wife vs. The ambitious, power hungry, independent woman.  Lady Macbeth vs. Lady Macduff  The role of women in a “man’s world”