SHAKESPEARE'S CONSTRUCTION AND CONTEXT

AO3

This play was written for King James I of England and Scotland. He was the first king of both England and Scotland.

The play is written in 1606, a year after the Gunpowder Plot

Shakespeare is flattering the King by naming his direct ascendant - Banquo - as a good character. The witches' prophecy that Banquo would file a line of kings is a nod to James

Great Chain of Being meant kings were believed to be chosen by God and were very important

Regicide = act of killing a king

Witches

Witches were a real fear of much of the population of the British Isles in Shakespeare's time so the play would've been seen as truly scary / horrific.

James I wrote the book Daemonologie - he was the king so this was very influential

Tragic Hero

a noble person, suffering from a fatal flaw who makes a serious mistake which ruins their future

hamartia - the flaw or defect in the character that leads to their downfall

Hubris: arrogance of the kind that invites ruin

Macbeth

Verse and Prose and Rhyme

the witches speak in a four-beat rhythm (tetrameter) which is appopriate for spells, incantations and the supernatural

Prose was used to signify characters' madness or low status like Lady Macbeth in act 5

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

this rhyming couplet tells us that Macbeth has firmly decided to kill the King, while also reminding us of the language of the witches

only a century before Macbeth was written, England had suffered under the massive disorder of the Wars of the Roses. Civil disorder was now seen as the ultimate disaster and also an ungodly state