Macbeth Context

Macbeth Context

1. Elements of shakespearean tragedy

   • a tragic hero
   • The fatal flaw: Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are all fundamentally flawed. It is this weakness that ultimately results in their downfall.​
   • The Shakespeare tragedies often focus on the fall of a nobleman. By presenting the audience with a man with excessive wealth or power, his eventual downfall fall is all the more tragic.
   • External pressure: Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often fall victim to external pressures. Fate, evil spirits, and manipulative characters all play a hand in the hero’s downfall.
   • A dichotomy (two entirely opposed ideas) of good and evil
   • a tragic waste.
   • Hamartia (the hero’s tragic flaw)
   • Issues of fate or fortune
   • Greed
   • Foul revenge
   • Foul revenge
   • Supernatural elements
   • Internal and external pressures
   • The paradox of life

2. The Divine Right of Kings

   • Divine right of kings, in European history, a political doctrine in defense of monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament.
   • medieval conception

3. The Great Chain of Being

   • The great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain begins with God and descends through angels, humans, animals, and plants, to minerals.

4. King James I

   • James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union.

5. Jacobean Attitudes towards Witchcraft

   • In Shakespeare’s time people believed in witches. They were people who had made a pact with the Devil in exchange for supernatural powers. If your cow was ill, it was easy to decide it had been cursed.Witches might have a familiar – a pet, or a toad, or a bird – which was supposed to be a demon advisor. People accused of being witches tended to be old, poor, single women.

6. The Gunpowder Plot

   • The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up England's King James I (1566-1625) and the Parliament on November 5, 1605. ... 1572-1605) in an effort to end the persecution of Roman Catholics by the English government. Catesby and others hoped to replace the country's Protestant government with Catholic leadership.

7. Jacobean Attitudes towards Women

   • Women were considered to be subordinate to men. They had little or no rights at all. They could not even own a property in their name. A woman was supposed to obey her husband and help him in earning money for the survival of the family.
   • Girls were also giving education along with their brothers. However, for many, education meant only being able to read and write. The real education that they were supposed to master was the art of maintaining the house.
   • Their marriage was arranged by the parents