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Shakespeare
Introduction
Plot
Characters
Themes
Key
Scenes/Lines
Shakespeare
Introduction
•Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy
• Written in early 15th century
•Play believed to be cursed
•Covers regicide and the natural order of the
world
•Play focuses on “blind ambition”
•Shakespeare uses madness of character and
emotions to propel plot
Shakespeare
Plot
PLOT OUTLINE
•Scotland is in middle of a war
•Macbeth and Banquo are war heroes
•Macbeth meets spiritual forces that both
predict his future and make him ambitious,
(three prophecies: Thane of Glamis, Thane of
Cawdor, King of Scotland)
•Macbeth and his wife both become
ambitious to the point where they will stop
at nothing to meet their goals
•Macbeth goes on a killing spree to maintain
his lies
Shakespeare
Plot
•Ghosts and spirits become intermingled
with guilt and angst for both Macbeth and
his wife
•Macbeth given three more prophecies:
Beware MacDuff, none of woman born shall
harm Macbeth and never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
shall come against him.
•Macbeth murders wives and children to
make statements
Shakespeare
Plot
•Lady Macbeth wracked with guilt and
eventually dies. Suicide is suspected but
never confirmed
•Noblemen in Scotland defect from the king
and begin to stage a revolt
•Army forms to fight Macbeth using
branches from Birnam Wood as a disguise
•Macbeth fights but is cocky because of the
witch’s prophecy about not being able to be
killed by a child born from a woman
•Macbeth killed
•New rightful king seated
Shakespeare
Plot
...STRUCTURE OF SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY...
ACT
ACT
ACT
ACT
ACT
I: Exposition, Exciting Force, Rising Action
II: Rising Action
III: Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action
IV: Falling Action
V: Falling Action, Catastrophe
Shakespeare
Characters
...CAST OF CHARACTERS...
Three Witches – The “Weird Sisters”
Duncan, King of Scotland – The true king
Malcolm – Elder son of Duncan
Ross – Nobleman and friend of Duncan
Macbeth – Scottish Lord and later, King
Banquo – Scottish Lord and friend of Macbeth
Lady Macbeth – Wife of Macbeth
Fleance – Son of Banquo
MacDuff – Scottish Lord and friend of Duncan
Other characters, children and castle people
Shakespeare
Themes
TRAGEDY OF CHARACTER
Following ambition, guilt, motives, outside of the order of things
TRAGEDY OF MORAL ORDER
Changes to moral order by death of king, Great Chain of Being,
Lady Macbeth calling the shots,
WITCHCRAFT AND EVIL
Three witches, darkness, chaos, conflict, ghosts
Shakespeare
Key Scenes/Lines
Act/Scene
Line
Importance
I.i
“Fair is foul”
-The first scene, foreboding
I.iii
“All hail, Macbeth...”
-First prophecies
I.iii
“Two truths are told”
-Macbeth’s first soliloquy
I.vii
“Vaulting ambition”
-Macbeth’s second soliloquy
I.vii
“screw your courage”
-Lady Macbeth swasys Macbeth
II.i
“Is this a dagger...”
-Macbeth’s third soliloquy
III.i
“To be thus is nothing”
-Macbeth’s fourth soliloquy
III.iii
“Fly, good Fleance”
-Murder of Banquo
IV.i
“something wicked”
-Second set of prophecies
V.i
“hell is murky”
-Madness of Lady Macbeth
V.v
“a tale told by an idiot”
-Macbeth’s final soliloquy