Macbeth Review | morrisseysenglish

Uncovering Macbeth

Macbeth Review Packet

Type of Play

Macbeth is a tragedy in five acts. It is an atypical tragedy in that the protagonist of the play, Macbeth, is a villain. In most other Shakespeare tragedies the protagonists–though flawed in many ways–are not villainous.

THEMES:

Great ambition, or inordinate lust for power, ultimately brings ruin. For ignoring this ancient rule of living, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pay with their lives.
Evil wears a pretty cloak (or deceptive appearances). Early in the play, the three witches declare that “fair is foul,” a paradox suggesting that whatever appears good is really bad. For example, murdering Duncan appears to be a “fair” idea to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, for Macbeth would accede to the throne. But the Macbeths soon discover that only bad has come of their deed, and their very lives–and immortal souls–are in jeopardy.
Temptation can defeat even the strongest human beings. On the battlefield, Macbeth is a lion and a leader of men. But when the witches tempt him by prophesying that he will become king of Scotland, he succumbs to the lure of power. When his resolve weakens, Lady Macbeth fortifies it with strong words.
Guilt haunts the evildoer. Whether from prick of conscience or fear of discovery, Macbeth’s guilt begins to manifest itself immediately after he murders Duncan and the guards (Act II, Scene II). “This is a sorry sight” (2. 2. 29), he tells Lady Macbeth, looking at the blood on his hands. When he speaks further of the guilt he feels, Lady Macbeth–foreshadowing her descent into insanity–says, “These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad” (2. 2. 44-45). Macbeth then says he thought he heard a voice saying, “Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep” (2. 2. 46-47). When they hear knocking moments later at the castle door, it is the sound of their guilt as much as the sound of the knocker, Macduff.

Elements of a Shakespearean Tragedy:

Tragic Hero with a tragic flaw
Revenge
Supernatural
Chance Happening

Reoccurring words:

The words blood and night (or forms of them, such as bloody and tonight) occur more than 40 times each in Macbeth. Other commonly occurring words that help maintain the mood of the play are terrible, horrible, black, devil, and evil.

IMAGERY: visually descriptive or figurative language especially in a literary work

Imagery: Darkness

Shakespeare casts a pall of darkness over the play to call attention to the evil deeds unfolding and the foul atmosphere in which they are taking place. At the very beginning of the play, Shakespeare introduces an image of dark clouds suggested in the words spoken by the First Witch:

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain? (1. 1. 3-4)

Near the end of the third scene in Act I, Banquo foreshadows the terrible events to come with an allusion to the witches as “instruments of darkness” that sometimes speak the truth in order to bring their listeners to ruin. Banquo says that “oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s [betray us]
In deepest consequence. (1. 3. 133-137)

Lady Macbeth later entreats blackest night to cloak her when she takes part in the murder of Duncan, saying:

Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
.Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark. (1. 5. 43-46)

Imagery: Blood

Shakespeare frequently presents images of blood in Macbeth. Sometimes it is the hot blood of the Macbeths as they plot murder; sometimes it is the spilled, innocent blood of their victims. It is also blood of guilt that does not wash away and the blood of kinship that drives enemies of Macbeth to action. In general, the images of blood–like the images of darkness–bathe the play in a macabre, netherworldly atmosphere.

Imagery: Ambition

Raging ambition drives Macbeth to murder. After the witches play to his ambition with a prophecy that he will become king, he cannot keep this desire under control. He realizes that Duncan is a good king–humble, noble, virtuous. But he rationalizes that a terrible evil grips him that he cannot overcome.

WITCHCRAFT IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME:
.
.......In Shakespeare's time, many people believed in the power of witches. One was King James I. In 1591, when he was King of Scotland during the reign of Elizabeth I, a group of witches and sorcerers attempted to murder him. Their trial and testimony convinced him that they were agents of evil. Thereafter, he studied the occult and wrote a book called Daemonologie (Demonology), published in 1597. This book–and an earlier one called Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer, 1486), describing the demonic rites of witches–helped inflame people against practitioners of sorcery.
.......Shakespeare, good businessman that he was, well knew that a play featuring witches would attract theatergoers and put a jingle in his pocket. Moreover, such a play would ingratiate him with James, who became King of England in 1603. So, about two years after James acceded to the English throne, Shakespeare began working on Macbeth..

The Real Macbeth:

Macbeth was an 11th Century Scot who took the throne in 1040 after killing King Duncan I, his cousin, in a battle near Elgin in the Moray district of Scotland. Of his reign, Fitzroy MacLean has written the following: "Macbeth appears, contrary to popular belief, to have been a wise monarch and to have ruled Scotland successfully and well for seventeen prosperous years. In 1050 we hear that he went on a pilgrimage to Rome and there [lavished money to the poor]." (Work cited: MacLean, Fitzroy. A Concise History of Scotland. New York: Beekman House, 1970, Page 23.) In 1057, Duncan's oldest son, Malcolm, ended Macbeth's reign by killing him in battle and later assuming the throne as Malcolm III.

The Real Banquo:

In Holinshed's Chronicles, the historical work on which Shakespeare based his play, the real Banquo is depicted as a conniver who took part in the plot to assassinate King Duncan. Why did Shakespeare portray Banquo as one of Macbeth's innocent victims? Perhaps because James I, the King of England when the play debuted, was a descendant of Banquo. It would not do to suggest that His Royal Majesty's ancestor was a murderer.

What Was a Castle?

.......Many of the scenes in Macbeth are set in a castle. A castle was a walled fortress of a king or lord. The word castle is derived from the Latin castellum, meaning a fortified place. Generally, a castle was situated on an eminence (a piece of high ground) that had formed naturally or was constructed by laborers. High ground constructed by laborers was called a motte (French for mound); the motte may have been 100 to 200 feet wide and 40 to 80 feet high. The area inside the castle wall was called the bailey. Some castles had several walls, with smaller circles within a larger circle or smaller squares within a larger square. The outer wall of a castle was usually topped with a battlement, a protective barrier with spaced openings through which defenders could shoot arrows at attackers. This wall sometimes was surrounded by a water-filled ditch called a moat, a defensive barrier to prevent the advance of soldiers, horses and war machines. At the main entrance was a drawbridge, which could be raised to prevent entry. Behind the drawbridge was a portcullis [port KUL is], or iron gate, which could be lowered to further secure the castle. Within the castle was a tower, or keep, to which castle residents could withdraw if an enemy breached the portcullis and other defenses. Over the entrance of many castles was a projecting gallery with machicolations [muh CHIK uh LAY shuns], openings in the floor through which defenders could drop hot liquids or stones on attackers. In the living quarters of a castle, the king and his family dined in a great hall on an elevated platform called a dais [DAY is], and they slept in a chamber called a solar. The age of castles ended after the development of gunpowder and artillery fire enabled armies to breach thick castle walls instead of climbing over them.