1. BR – 02.01.2018 – Update your notes on Elizabeth Theater to include the following:
Shakespeare wrote three types of plays: comedies, histories, tragedies
Comedies –
end happily / typically with a marriage
Primary purpose to make us laugh
Histories –
Represent the compromise of life
May end in catastrophe or in triumph
The nation is the hero
Tragedies –
Must end in some tremendous catastrophe / death of main character
The catastrophe must not be the result of an accident, must be brought on by some essential trait in the character of the hero
Hero must be likable so the audience roots for him

2. Tragedy A tragedy is a play that ends unhappily.
Most classic Greek tragedies deal with serious, universal themes such as
right and wrong
justice and injustice
life and death
Tragedies pit human limitations against the larger forces of destiny.

3. Tragedy
The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a tragic hero. This hero
pride
is noble and in many ways admirable
has a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to a tragic end
rebelliousness
jealousy

4. Series of events following the climax
Dramatic Structure
Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves characters who face a problem or conflict.
Climax
point of highest tension; action determines how the conflict will be resolved
Complications
tension builds
Falling Action
Series of events following the climax
Resolution
conflict is resolved;
play ends
Exposition characters and conflict are introduced

5. A tragedy by William Shakespeare
Macbeth
A tragedy by William Shakespeare

6. The Many Meanings of Macbeth
4/15/2019
The Many Meanings of Macbeth
A historical thriller
a fast-moving, action-packed murder mystery demonstrating that crime doesn’t pay
A psychological study of a murderer’s mind
A play of political and social realism
how oppressive and hierarchical society can corrupt individuals
A play of illusions
the effect of the mysterious or supernatural on humans
A play of ideas or themes
for example, “appearance versus reality”
A tragedy
the fall of a great person brought about by a fatal flaw in their character
Everyone brings something unique to their reading of a play or a novel . . .
How people interpret something is largely due to their own prior experiences . . .
These are just a few of the interpretations of Macbeth that people have dreamed up over the years. More than anything else, I want to impress you with the fact that Macbeth is a really gutsy, interesting play.

7. Introduction
rD5goS69LT4

8. Historical Context of Macbeth
4/15/2019
Historical Context of Macbeth
Shakespeare was a playwright, not an historian. However, he knew that history provided great material for plays: war, conflict, ambition, the downfall of great rulers.
Eleventh-Century Scotland was a violent and troubled country.
Feuding families and clans fought to control trade and territory.
The castle was the power base of each rival war-lord (thane).
Political murder and revenge killings were commonplace.
BEFORE INSERTING THE BULLETS . . .
Can anyone tell me when the action of the play takes place? Where the action takes place?
**Lay out the main characters and the basic plot line without giving too much away**
Bring in the bullets

9. 4/15/2019
The Real Macbeth
The real Macbeth was born in 1005, the son of a ruling family.
Macbeth’s father was murdered by his cousin.
Macbeth married the granddaughter of the High King of Scotland (Gruach)
Lots of politics, intrigue and dirty dealings going on in Scotland at the beginning of the Eleventh Century . . .
Martin, Banquo and Macbeth on the Heath

10. 4/15/2019
Duncan and Macbeth
Duncan was the king of Scotland at the time the real Macbeth was born
Duncan was 38 at the time of his murder - a murder possibly committed by the real Macbeth.
Macbeth was elected High King of Scotland in 1040.
Macbeth ruled Scotland for 17 years, during which time Scotland became comparatively peaceful and stable.
Duncan’s son, Malcolm, invaded Scotland in 1054, supported by Edward the Confessor.
Macbeth was killed on August 15, and buried at Iona, the sacred burial place of the Kings of Scotland.
BEFORE BRINGING IN THE BULLETS . . .
Anyone remember who "Duncan" is?
Remember, this play is loosely based on factual information. Where would this factual information be found?
How much to you trust the factual information?
That might be a good project for you - determine the extent to which the play is based on fact or deviates from established fact . . .

11. A Macbeth for King James?
4/15/2019
A Macbeth for King James?
King James succeeded Queen Elizabeth in a Stuart, he was already King of Scotland
Shakespeare’s Macbeth may have been performed for the first time before King James in 1606
Macbeth contains many echoes of King James’ interests . . .
Just a little more historical background. . .
Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in the early 1600s. The time during which the play appeared is called the Renaissance.
Characteristics of the Renaissance from students.
Although he was writing plays and performing them in front of a Renaissance audience, Shakespeare and his contemporaries were most heavily influenced by the mores of the Elizabethan Era.
A little reinforcement of the Elizabethan World Picture (on blackboard)
Remember our discussion of the Globe Theatre? Well, it was likely that at any one performance, Shakespeare's audience would have consisted of the lowest of the low ("the unwashed masses") and the higest of the high (nobility, courtiers, perhaps even the King/Queen). How was Shakespeare paid? You must remember how important patronage would have been to a playwright at this time it's very likely that Macbeth was written with the preoccupations of the new King in mind sucking up would have been one way to 'get in good' with the new monarch . . .

12. A Macbeth for King James?
4/15/2019
A Macbeth for King James?
King James’ interest in witchcraft was well known
King James visited Oxford in and was greeted by three witches who hailed him as the descendent of Banquo interesting.
There are the weird sisters . . .
The weird sisters - the witches - open the play, Macbeth. They're a pretty gruesome threesome, and when we view one of the film versions of the play, you'll see just how awful one director thought they should look (Kenneth Branagh version)
Alexandre-Marie Colin, The Three Witches from Macbeth

13. Witches & Witchcraft A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.
4/15/2019
Witches & Witchcraft
A witch-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.
Most people believed in witches and circulating pamphlets containing tales of witches and witchcraft were the equivalent of today’s popular newspapers.
Remember that a person is very much a product of their times.
Elizabethan and Renaissance audiences were morbidly fascinated with witches and witchcraft. Persecution of people for the "crime" of witchcraft reached terrifying proportions - between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people (nearly all of them women) were convicted as witches and executed.
The most popular method of execution?
King James was as fascinated by witchcraft as were his subjects. There is a story that in 1590, a group of witches tried to kill James (before he was king). Their plot was discovered, and they were brought to trial. One of the "witches", Agnes Sampson, claimed that she had collected toad venom to poison the king, christened a cat, tied parts of a dead man's body to it (we don't know which parts), sailed out to sea in a "sieve" and had thrown cat and body-bits overboard in order to raise a storm that would sink James' ship. A bit elaborate . . .
King James personally interrogated one of the three accused witches, "Doctor Fian" - a male. The doctor was tortured during the interrogation: "his nails upon all his fingers were riven and pulled off his legs were crushed and beaten together as small as might be, and the bones and flesh so bruised that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great abundance". Yuck.
So. . . all fired up by his witchy experience, King James personally investigated other cases, and in 1597 he wrote and published "Demonology", a book on witchcraft. When he became king of England in 1603, he ordered its immediate printing in London.
Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches

14. Witches and Witchcraft
4/15/2019
Witches and Witchcraft
Witches were said to have “diabolical” powers. They could:
predict the future
bring on night in the daytime
cause fogs and tempests
kill animals
curse enemies with fatal, wasting diseases
cause nightmares and sterility
take demonic possession of any individual
raise evil spirits by concocting a brew
It was believed that witches allowed the devil to suck their blood. Accused witches were examined for the “Devil’s Mark” - a red mark on their body from which the devil had sucked blood.
So here's some of the stuff Elizabethans and Renaissance people thought about witches . . .

15. Witches and Witchcraft - Misogyny?
4/15/2019
Witches and Witchcraft - Misogyny?
Between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people, nearly all of them women, were convicted as witches and executed
In 1604 an official Act of Parliament decreed that anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft should be executed
Those who confessed to being witches did so under torture or because they were in the grip of delusions recognized today as psychiatric disorders.
You would think that these "witches" would be pretty powerful people . . .
. . . but it was mostly single, old women who kept cats that were in danger of being accused of witchcraft. Remember, in 1604 an Act of Parliament decreed that if you were convicted, you were to be executed - and with the methods of "information extraction" used by the interrogators, people were likely to "spill their guts" (literally - know where that term comes from?)..
CHECK - does the group want to get into women's rights in the Seventeenth Century?
. . . here's another idea for your project: maybe you could examine Shakespeare's portrayal of women in Macbeth - very interesting topic . . .

16. The Three Witches
Their character is modeled after Norse mythology- the Norns (three Fates)
the name Urðr (Wyrd, Weird) means "fate" or simply "future",
The norns- by Arthur Rackham

17. The Three Fates of Greek/Roman Mythology
They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death .
The names of the three Parcae (Roman Fates) were:
Nona - spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Greek equivalent was Clotho;
Decima - measured the thread of life with her rod. Her Greek equivalent was Lachesis;
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. Her Greek equivalent was Atropos.

18. The Cursed Play
There are many superstitions centered on the belief that the play is somehow “cursed”.
Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in his text, purportedly angering the witches and causing them to curse the play.
Struggling theaters would put on the play and then be shut down
A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth (or by actors who had uttered the name).
Many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play".

19. The Cursed play
Beginning with its first performance, in 1606, Dear Will himself was forced to play Lady Macbeth when Hal Berridge, the boy designated to play the lady with a peculiar notion of hospitality, became inexplicably feverish and died. Moreover, the bloody play so displeased King James I that he banned it for five years.
When performed in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the blunted stage one and with it killed Duncan in full view of the entranced audience.
As Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons was nearly ravaged by a disapproving audience in 1775; Sybil Thorndike was almost strangled by a burly actor in 1926; Diana Wynyard sleepwalked off the rostrum in 1948, falling down 15 feet.
During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, a riot broke out in which 31 people were trampled to death.

20. The Cursed play
In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute onstage, and his replacement, Alister Sim, like Hal Berridge before him, developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized.
In 1937, when Laurence Olivier took on the role of Macbeth, a 25 pound stage weight crashed within an inch of him, and his sword which broke onstage flew into the audience and hit a man who later suffered a heart attack.
In the 1942 Macbeth production headed by John Gielgud, three actors -- Duncan and two witches -- died, and the costume and set designer committed suicide amidst his devilish Macbeth creations.
The indestructible Charlton Heston, in an outdoor production in Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.

21. The Cursed play
An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's 1970 production in New York City; two fires and seven robberies plagued the 1971 version starring David Leary; in the production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth Campbell, who played Macduff, was mugged soon after the play's opening.
Even brave and talented actors like Glenda Jackson to Ian McKellen don’t refer to this haunted play by name, but instead call it “That Scottish Play” or simply “That Play”; everyone, it seems, will get the message, in a flash.

22. How to break the Curse?
Several methods exist to dispel the curse, depending on the actor.
One is to immediately leave the building the stage is in with the person who uttered the name, walk around it three times, spit over their left shoulders, say an obscenity 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.
Yet another is to recite one of Shylock's monologues from The Merchant of Venice.

23. What You’re Responsible for
Reading
Writing
You have to volunteer to read twice for the entire play.
Assigned roles at the beginning of an act, will keep that role for the entire act.
May read more than twice for extra credit.
Reading will be worth 40 points.
For each act you’re responsible for a quote chart.
Quote charts will be completed in class and turned in at the end of every act.
Each chart is worth 35 points.

24. Reading – Act 1 Larger Medium Small Duncan Malcolm Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
First Witch
Second Witch
Third Witch
Banquo
Captain
Lennox
Ross
Angus

25. Act 1 Quote Chart
Act/Scene
Quote (line number)
Speaker
Paraphrase
Significance
1. 1
“write the actual quote here” (line #)
Who said it?
What does it mean?
Why is it important?
Character
Theme
Plot
Foreshad-owing
Imagery
Use the worksheet provided to fill in your quotes for each act. Must have 7 quotes per act.
Look out for the following images:
Natural/unnatural
Sleep/sleeplessness
Blood/disease
Darkness

26. Act 2 – Reading Roles Large Medium Small Macbeth Lady Macbeth Banquo
Porter
Macduff
Old Man
Ross
Lennox
Fleance

27. Act 2 Quote Chart
Act/Scene
Quote (line number)
Speaker
Paraphrase
Significance
2. 1
“write the actual quote here” (line #)
Who said it?
What does it mean?
Why is it important?
Character
Theme
Plot
Foreshad-owing
Imagery
Use the worksheet provided to fill in your quotes for each act. Must have 5 quotes per act.
Look out for the following images:
Natural/unnatural
Sleep/sleeplessness
Blood/disease
Darkness