William Shakespeare’s Macbeth Background Notes and Dramatic Conventions

Essential Question What dramatic conventions do I need to know in order to understand and interpret a play?

Dramatic Conventions Dramatic conventions are rules in which the actors and audience engage during a play. For example, the audience knows to become quiet when the lights dim.

Fourth Wall The imaginary wall that is supposedly removed to allow the audience to peer into a room to see the drama unfold.

What do these actors and actresses have in common? They’ve all starred in movies based on a Shakespeare play. Kenneth Branagh Julia Stiles Laurence Fishburne Heath Ledger Michelle Pfeiffer Josh Hartnett Claire Danes Toshiro Mifune Denzel Washington Calista Flockhart Mel Gibson Alicia Silverstone

What Makes Shakespeare’s Plays Great? Shakespeare’s plays have been popular worldwide for four hundred years because they appeal to powerful and universal human emotions contain striking images, memorable expressions, and compelling passages

Elements of Drama Drama Stage Directions Tragedy Close Read Elements: Comedy Dialogue Imagery Monologue Internal conflict and Characterization Soliloquy Aside Blank Verse

Dramatic Speech Dialogue-conversation between or among characters Monologue-long speech by one single character (private thoughts)

Drama Story written to be acted for an audience. Made up of scenes and acts Scenes: settings for the events, the environment of the characters Acts: a major formal division of a play which marks a clear, unified portion of the total action

Comedy A lighthearted play intended to amuse the audience. Comedies usually end happily.

Tragedy A serious play that ends in disaster and sorrow.

Stage Directions Stage directions are the instructions that the playwright gives the actors to tell them how and where to move or act onstage. Stage directions can describe the setting characters’ appearances, personalities, thoughts, and movements Stage directions are usually in italics and enclosed in parentheses or brackets

Stage directions help readers understand what the characters are feeling Julie (wearily). Here we go again. Julie (cheerfully). Here we go again! see what actions are taking place onstage [Grabbing his keys, he turns and jumps back when he sees Ed lurking in the doorway.] know when the mood changes onstage [A bell tolls as the lights dim and fade out, except for the light upon Hannah, who stares blankly at the telegram in her hand.]

Stage Directions help actors Know where to go onstage C, Center Stage L, Stage Left R, Stage Right U, Upstage or Rear D, Downstage or Front [The father enters stage left.]

The Language of Shakespeare’s Plays Shakespeare uses both poetry and prose in his plays. Elizabethan playwrights generally considered poetry to be elevated language. Poetry is usually spoken by the main or high-ranking characters. Elizabethan playwrights generally considered prose to be common language. Prose is usually spoken by the supporting or low-ranking characters.

Shakespeare’s Use of Blank Verse Blank verse sounds similar to human speech but is still considered elevated language. The rhythm of blank verse emphasizes imagery and heightens the emotional impact of language. Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams; Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy; Which is as thin of substance as the air, . . . from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

In general, a tragedy is a play that depicts serious and important events in which the main character comes to an unhappy end.

More specifically, a tragedy is a drama in which a character (usually a good and noble person of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior force (fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values).

The character also comes to understand the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment.

Often the protagonist's downfall is a direct result of a fatal flaw in his or her character.

Elements of Drama

Drama Story written to be acted for an audience

Elements in Drama Scenes- settings for the events, the environment of the characters Acts- a major formal division of a play which marks a clear, unified portion of the total action Plot- series of related events that make up a drama/story

Plot series of related events that make up a drama/story Exposition Rising Action Turning Point/Crisis Falling Action (Climax) Dénouement

Plot Structure for Five Act Play

ACT I 1. Exposition: establishes the setting, introduces some of the main characters, explains background, and introduces the characters’ main conflict.

Act II 2. The rising action consists of a series of complications. These occur as the main characters take action to resolve their problems.

ACT III 3. The crisis, or turning point, is the moment when a choice made by the main characters determines the direction of the action: downward to tragedy.

Act IV 4. The falling action presents events that result from the action taken at the turning point. These events usually lock the characters deeper and deeper into disaster; with each event we see the characters falling straight into tragedy.

Act V 5. The final and greatest climax occurs at the end of the play—usually, in tragedy, with the deaths of the main characters. In the resolution (or denoument) all the loose parts of the plot are tied up. The play is over.

Five-Part Dramatic Structure Act III Crisis or Turning Point Act II Rising Action/ Complications Act IV Falling Action Act V Climactic Moment/ Resolution Act I Exposition/ Introduction