Macbeth context

Macbeth context

1. Honour

   • The skills and bravery of a solider were highly valued and a sign of nobility

2. Tragedy genre

   • Macbeth is a tragedy, and an important feature of a tragedy is that the main character has a fatal flaw. Macbeth's fatal, flaw could be said to be his ambition(that is lead by his wife and the witches).

3. Religion and the afterlife

   • Shakespeare's audience would all have attended church and would have understood the seriousness of Macbeth's inability to "pronounce 'Amen'" in act 2 , scene 2. He is damned.

4. Ideas about kingship

   • In Shakespeare's time, a king would have been expected to be holy and moral, so Macbeth's behaviour is shocking.

5. Beliefs about madness

   • Jacobeans believed that people could be driven mad by grief, trauma, overwork, shock or religious torment p. In a number of shakepeares plays, it is mad characters who reveal truths and are most insightful.

6. Impressing James I

   • James I ascended the throne in 1603 just two years before the first performance of Macbeth. Shakespeare would have wanted to flatter the new monarch and explores Duncan- a naive king-and Macbeth-and evil king-as contrast to James I

7. The supernatural

   • Witches were considered real and terrifying. They would be in league with the devil. James I, king at the time of writing, wrote a book condemning witchcraft. Shakespeare's audience would have understood that Macbeth is an unholy king because he associates with witches.

8. Masculinity and ideas about women

   • The Jacobeans had strict ideas about what it meant to be a man-dominant, leaders, protectors- and what it meant to be a women- subservient, maternal, obedient. Macbeth and lady Macbeth both defy these expectations at different points in the play.

9. Divine rights of king

   • Even speaking against the king was treason; regicide was the worst kind of sin because of the belief in the divine right of kings- the king was to put on throne by god. Macbeth and lady Macbeth are tormented by their guilt because they have killed god's chosen king.