2. Overview
Who was he?
Why is he so famous?
Life
Works
Tragedy
Comedy
History
Poetry
Chronology
Elements of drama
Dramatic technique
Poetic technique
Elizabethan theatre
Sonnet XVIII
Macbeth
3. Introduction
Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest
tragedy, Macbeth tells the story of a brave Scottish
general (Macbeth) who receives a prophecy from a
trio of sinister witches that one day he will become
King of Scotland. Consumed with ambitious thoughts
and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders
King Duncan and seizes the throne for himself. He
begins his reign racked with guilt and fear and soon
becomes a tyrannical ruler, as he is forced to commit
more and more murders to protect himself from
enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath swiftly propels
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to
arrogance, madness, and death.
3
4. Introduction (cont.)
Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most
complex play, but it is certainly one of
his most powerful and emotionally
intense. Whereas Shakespeare’s other
major tragedies, such as Hamlet and
Othello, fastidiously explore the
intellectual predicaments faced by their
subjects and the fine nuances of their
subjects’ characters, Macbeth tumbles
madly from its opening to its conclusion.
It is a sharp, jagged sketch of theme
and character; as such, it has shocked
and fascinated audiences for nearly four
hundred years.
4
5. Language
Used over 20,000 words in his works
The average writer uses 7,500
The English Dictionary of his time only had 500
words.
He’s credited with creating 3,000 words in the
English Oxford Dictionary
He was by far the most important individual
influence on the development of the modern
English
He invented lots of words that we use in our
daily speech
6. Typical 16th century theatre
The Globe Theatre
Building:
3 stories Levels 1 & 2,
Backstage: dressing and storage areas Level 3, Upper Stage: could
represent balcony, walls of a castle, bridge of a ship
Resembled courtyard of an inn
9. The Globe Theatre
Trap doors: entrances and exits of ghosts;
area under stage called Hell
2 large doors at back: actors made entrances
and exits in full view of audience
Inner stage: a recess with balcony area
above
Floor: ash mixed with hazelnut shells from
snacks audience ate during performance
Effect on performance: plays held in afternoon
No roof
No artificial lighting
No scenery
10. Key Facts
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Full Title:
Major Conflicts: The
Climax: Macbeth’s
struggle within Macbeth between
his ambition and his sense of right and wrong; the
struggle between the murderous evil represented
by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and the best
interests of the nation, represented by Malcolm
and Macduff
murder of Duncan in Act 2 represents
the point of no return, after which Macbeth is forced to
continue butchering his subjects to avoid the
consequences of his crime.
10
11. Characters
Duncan
– King of Scotland
Malcolm – Duncan's eldest son
Donalbain – Duncan's youngest son
Macbeth
– A general in the army of King
Duncan, originally Thane of Glamis, then
Thane of Cawdor and later King of Scotland
Lady Macbeth– Macbeth's wife, and later Queen of Scotland
Banquo
– Macbeth's friend, a general in the
army of King Duncan
Fleance – Banquo's son
Macduff
– The Thane of Fife
Hecate – Chief witch/Goddess of Witchcraft
Three Witches
11
12. Themes
The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition
The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity
(gender)
The Difference Between Kingship and Tyranny (king vs.
tyrant)
12
15. Quotes
1.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair. (witches)
2.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which
will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate. (Banquo)
3.
Look like the innocent flower, but be the
serpent under it. (Lady Macbeth)
15
16. Quotes (2)
4.
Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me
here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top
full
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose. (Lady Macbeth)
5.
If chance will have me king, why, chance
may crown me. (Macbeth)
16
17. Quotes (3)
6.
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,
To cry, 'Hold, hold!‘ (Macbeth)
7.
False face must hide what the false
heart doth know. (Macbeth)
17
18. Quotes (4)
8.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
(Macbeth)
9.
The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us. (Lady Macbeth)
18
19. Quotes (5)
10.
Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!" the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast. (Macbeth)
11.
Glamis hath murdered sleep, and there Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no
more! (Macbeth)
19
20. Quotes (6)
12.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this
blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will
rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. (Macbeth)
13.
A little water clears us of this deed. (Lady
Macbeth)
14.
Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised; and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't . (Banquo)
20
21. Quotes (7)
15.
Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what's done
is done. (Lady Macbeth)
16.
There 's daggers in men's smiles.
(Donalbain)
17.
Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence! (Macbeth)
18.
Blood will have blood. (Macbeth)
21
22. Quotes (8)
19.
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er. (Macbeth)
20.
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth. (Hecate)
21.
When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors. (Lady Macduff)
22
23. Quotes (9)
22.
Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a
poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the
stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by
an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
(Macbeth)
23.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One: two:
why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my
lord,
Fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who
Knows it, when none can call our power accompt?
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had
so much blood in him? (Lady Macbeth)
23
24. Quotes (10)
24.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief
candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (Macbeth)
24
25. Elements of drama
5-part dramatic structure corresponds to a play’s
5 acts
Exposition (introduction)
Establishes tone, setting, main characters, main
conflict
Fills in events previous to play
Rising action
Series of complications for the protagonist (main
character)
flowing from the main conflict
26. Elements of drama
Crisis or Climax
Moment of choice for protagonist
Turning point in story
Forces of conflict come together
Falling action
Results of protagonist’s decision
Maintains suspense
Resolution or Denouement
Conclusion of play
Unraveling of plot
May include characters’ deaths
27. Dramatic technique
Pun: play on words involving
Word with more than one meaning
Words with similar sounds
Soliloquy
Speech of moderate to long length
Spoken by one actor alone on stage (or not heard by
other actors)
Aside
Direct address by actor to audience
Not
supposed to be overheard by other characters
28. Poetic technique
Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
5 units of rhythm per line
primary rhythm is iambic ( U / )
“Shal Ì compàre Thée to a sùmmer’s dày”
29. References:
aeolianangel. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/aeolianangel/shakespearesmacbeth-8551793
Jacobs, C. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/christopherdjacobs9/introductionto-william-shakespeare?qid=76a4ef32-2f4d-4b88-ad94bb152de38529&v=qf1&b=&from_search=26
janeryu. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/janeryu/macbeth-presentation933457?qid=d3920a43-c16d-4714-8ae74d4420f07760&v=qf1&b=&from_search=20
Ciaffaroni, M. T. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/ciaffaroni/william-shakespeare-mt
29
