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Transcript
Macbeth By William Shakespeare Shakespearean Tragedy • Based on Aristotle’s Poetics (Renaissance…rebirth…) – Tragic Hero: noble stature and greatness, embodies virtue; while he is great, he is not perfect, he is accessible, like us – Downfall is partially his fault, not by accident or fate alone • Triggered by error in judgment or a flaw – Hamartia = Tragic Flaw (ambition) Hamartia: Ambition • I, v, 14- 17: “Thou wouldst be great;/Art not without ambition, but without/The illness should attend it.” Lady Macbeth • I, vii, 25 - 28: “I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/And falls on the other.” Macbeth 1 Historical Basis • According to Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland…Macbeth was an 11th century king of Scotland • What does Shakespeare gain by making play compact? – Killed the legitimate king, Duncan, in 1040 – Ruled for 17 years – Overthrown by Duncan’s son Malcolm and Siward – Action takes place quickly – Language itself is compressed – Shortest of his tragedies – Adds intensity “Let every man be master of his time…” III, i, 41 Shakespeare’s Tragedies • Macbeth was the last of the four great tragedies – Hamlet, Othello, King Lear… – Included only in first folio • Different from traditional tragedies because of fascination with supernatural, absence of extreme undeserved suffering • Atmosphere created mostly by use of motifs, imagery, metaphorical language Imagery: broad term including all forms of poetic language – metaphors, similes, symbols, passages of heightened natural descriptions, through which a writer expands and deepens the literary meaning • Shakespeare’s mastery is in moving easily from one image to the next, or deepening one image by extension – “Two truths are told/As happy prologues to the swelling act/Of the imperial theme.” I, 3, 127-129 • Motifs refer to clusters of images 2 Imagery • Shakespeare continually creates responses from any sense: sight, hearing, touch, smell & taste • IV, i, 64- 67: “Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten/Her nine farrow, grease that’s sweaten/From the murderer’s gibbet throw into the flame.” Motifs • Clothes: not whether they are too large or too small for Macbeth, simply that they are not his clothes – I, iii, 106-107 “The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me/In borrowed robes?” – II, iv, 38 “Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!” – V, ii, 15-16 “He cannot buckle his distempered cause/Within the belt of rule.” – V, ii, 20 – 22 “…now does he feel his title/Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe/Upon a dwarfish thief.” • Pathetic Fallacy: nature’s response to mankind’s actions…nature acting with human force…disapproval with break in Chain of Being • Nature and the Unnatural: nature can refer to human nature (play is about Macbeth’s fall into unnaturalness…kills his king, friend, innocent woman and her children…he is destroyed when nature itself becomes unnatural – trees walk, killed by man not born of woman Motifs • Appearance v. reality: fair appearances hide foul realities • Blood: starts in second scene when news of Macbeth’s valor is told by bloody man • Hands: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both transfixed by their hands • Light/Darkness: most of the play takes place in the dark, they both ask darkness or night to cover their crimes • Manhood: Shakespeare repeatedly questions what it is to be a man 3 Motifs • Sleep: Duncan is murdered in his sleep, Macbeth murders sleep, chestnuts, Lady Macbeth • Babies and children: many references • Birds: mostly omens (pathetic fallacy) • Kingship: true king (healing…) v/ false king (tyranny…) • Heaven/Hell: Inverness = Hell, Banquo references Heaven • Disease: Scotland, Lady Macbeth, king’s healing, medicine Shakespeare’s Structure • Exposition: Hero becomes engaged in crucial conflict • Rising Action: Complications arise, counterforces are set in motion • Crisis: Turning point • Resolution: Counterforces play out • Catastrophe: Hero’s downfall Iambic Pentameter • 5 stressed beats per line, starting with an unstressed syllable and alternating, puff bang – Blank verse if it is unrhymed – Heroic couplets (to end scenes) • “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage…” 4