Macbeth

Macbeth

1. theme

   • ambition
     • "i have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition"
       • act 1 scene 7
     • "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise."
       • act 1  scene 3 
     • "Let not light see my black and deep desires."
       • Macbeth said this act 1 scene 4 
     • "For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er. "
       • macbeth he is doing it for his own good act 3 scene 4
   • masculinity
     • "You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so"
       • Banquo talking about how  much power the witches have because in those time women were like second class citizens. act one scene 3
     • lady macbeth emasculates macbeth by calling him a "caword" and macbeth says "I dare do all that may become a man "
     • "unsex me here " lady macbeth
   • Guilt
     • " out dammed spot "- lady macbeth
     • "will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand ? No" - Macbeth
       • He will never get of the guilt
     • "terrible dreams that shake us nightly"
       • cant escape it even when they are asleep

2. context

   • between 1590- 1680 4,400 witches were executed. women were killed mostly
   • James the 1 st was very interest in the supernatural he even wrote a book
   • shakespeare had to write nicely about the king because he paied a grant for the threate
   • Political
     • James's reign, such as Macbeth and Hamlet, are darker and more cynical, reflecting the insecurities of the Jacobean period. Macbeth was written the year after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
     • Queen Elizbeth had no kids so James who was a distant cousin became king (Macbeth wasnt meant to be king like James )
     • James was a Protestant whereas Elizabeth was Catholic which majority of people were.
       • he wasn't really liked
         • The gun powder plot happened to try and kill him
           • The people who did it was killed so harshly to show that James had power similar to Macbeth how he killed