Download Blank Verse: Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter

Blank Verse:
Unrhymed
Iambic Pentameter
 A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting
of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one
long (or stressed) syllable
 A common meter in poetry consisting of an
unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot
containing an unaccented syllable and an accented
syllable
Macbeth
William Shakespeare
Unit Objectives
 Trace the development of the characters
 Analyze the characters and their relationships to
each other
 Discuss the dramatic development of the play
 Identify and analyze Shakespeare’s use of
language and techniques, as well as the the
importance of literary elements on the
development of the play
Why did
Shakespeare
write Macbeth?
 Only play set in
Scotland
 One of
Shakespeare’s
shortest plays
 WHY?
• Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603,
no heir to the throne
• Closest relative was King James
VI of Scotland—became King
James I of England
• In 1606, King James was
anticipating a visit from his
brother-in-law, King Christian of
Denmark
• Shakespeare to write Macbeth for
the royal celebration (and to flatter
the new monarch)
A play for King James
 Set in Scotland
 James was a descendant of Banquo and indirectly
of Duncan
 James believed in witchcraft and ghosts
 James was proud of his ancestry
 Macbeth took characters and plotlines from
Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland (1587) (Shakespeare took
poetic license though)
History of Macbeth
 Macbeth ruled Scotland for 17 years
 Duncan’s exiled sons plotting to invade Scotland
and overthrow Macbeth (for the death of their
father)
 Lady Macbeth was the granddaughter of a Scottish
king (whose family was a rival family to Duncan’s)
 King James (VI of Scotland) (I of England) was a
descendant of the Stuart dynasty—ancestry traced
back to Duncan I (maternal) and Banquo (paternal)
Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
a Tragedy
• Tragedy began in Ancient Greece—to teach a lesson
• Tragic Hero: someone we admire who suffers a great
downfall
“Because, says Aristotle, that’s how tragedy gets you to change—by forcing you
to watch the destruction of someone you feel for—by making you feel horror and
pity—the two key ingredients to any tragic conclusion. Those emotions, says
Aristotle, are what cause us to check our own behavior; we have to relate to the
hero, or we won’t see ourselves in him, and in his error, and we won’t learn to
avoid that error ourselves.
So a hero is also a martyr. He’s someone with a bad quality or two—but it’s a
bad quality that he shares with all of us. And unlike us, he pays for that bad
quality. He falls into a situation where, if we were in his shoes, we would do the
same thing, and then we’re forced to watch as this guy suffers crushing agony in
order to teach us a lesson.”
Macbeth
• Themes
 Ambition & Power
 Motifs
 Hallucinations
 Cruelty & Masculinity
(Gender)
 Fate & Free Will
 Violence
 Prophecy
o
Symbols
o Blood
o Weather
Figurative
Language
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Hyperbole
Understatement
Motif
Dramatic
Conventions and
Techniques
Soliloquy/Aside
Foil
Allusion
Use of Supernatural
Madness
Conflict (Internal)