Download Background to Macbeth 2

“All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter.”
Shakespeare’s England
Shakespeare grew up during the Renaissance (rebirth),
an era during which art, theatre, and literature thrived.
Because only the nobility kept accounts of their lives,
few details are known about the lives of commoners
such as Shakespeare.
What we do know about
William Shakespeare
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Born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, third in a
family of eight children
His mother, Mary Arden came from a wealthy family
His father, John Shakespeare, was a respected glove maker
and as a prosperous tradesman, also took part in local
government
Educated at the local grammar school (never went to
university)
Married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway, age 26 and had three
children, Susanna, and twins, Hamnet and Judith
Moved to London shortly after his children were born, leaving
his wife and family behind in Stratford
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Acted with several companies, including the Chamberlain’s
Men (later called the King’s Men) who provided entertainment
for the Royal Court
Wrote 37 plays, many of them for his own acting company
Partner in several theatrical ventures, including the famous
Globe Theatre
Retired to Stratford-upon-Avon where he had enough money
to live in Stratford’s largest house and elevated his family
name from commoner to the rank of gentleman
Died in 1616 on the day of his birth and was buried in Holy
Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon
Witches in Shakespeare’s Time
In Shakespeare’s time, people
not only believed in witches,
but feared their power so
intensely that anybody
accused and found guilty
of witchcraft was
immediately executed.
Between 1560 and 1603, an estimated 16 000
people (most of them women) were burned
at the stake for allegedly practicing witchcraft.
Today it is thought that more than half of the
so-called witches who were executed were
persons suffering from psychiatric disorders.
Witches were believed to do the
devil’s work on earth. People thought they had the
power to:
 raise evil spirits
 induce nightmares
 bring on sterility
 curse enemies with fatal diseases
 predict the future
 fly
 cause bad weather
 bring on night when it was day
King James IV, King of Scotland
[King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to 1513 (until his death)]
King James was convinced
the cruel events of his life
were caused by a conspiracy
of witches.
King James IV Cruel Events…
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kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of rivals
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at 20, he witnessed the brutal execution of his
mother, Mary Queen of Scots.
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in 1590, a group of witches tried to kill him, and he
began a serious investigation of “witch incidents”
in Scotland
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he wrote a book on the subject entitled
Demonology.
Life of a Warrior
in 11th Century Scotland
Scotland in the 11th
century was a violent
and troubled society.
Families and clans
were involved in
constant feuding as
they fought to keep
their own territories.
Raids from marauding
Vikings and Norsemen
were a continual threat.
Revenge killings and
murder for political
reasons were common.
Battle was a way of life.
They sang, danced and
drummed their way into
battle, as if anticipating a
great and dangerous
game.
Killing was justified in
war; murder was seen
both as a tool and as
pleasure. It is in this
bloody, violent era that
the play Macbeth
takes place.
Social Structure in Macbeth
Since the play is set in 11th Century Scotland,
the society and government were quite different
from our society today. The most important
societal structure that you need to understand is
a concept called “The Great Chain of Being”.
The Great Chain of Being
The Great Chain of Being
God
Human Beings
Animate Creation
Inanimate Creation
Being all spirit, God was at the top
of the Chain.
Then came human beings.
Then animate creation such as
animals,
Followed by inanimate creation
such as trees, stones, and earth.
Hierarchies within the Chain
Human Beings
King
Royal Family
Noblemen
Commoners
Women
Within each level, more specific
hierarchies also existed. For
example, the King would be at the
top of the human level, being
considered God’s representative on
earth, followed by successively
lower status human beings;women
being considered at the bottom of
the human hierarchy.
Inanimate Creation
Another example:
Trees would be considered
higher than flowers because
trees were longer lived and
more substantial, while flowers
were higher than stones, because
they would be perceived to have
more obvious “spirit” and so on.
Trees
Flowers
Stones
earth
If the order of the Great Chain of Being was
followed, a stable society was believed to be
the result. If the Great Chain of Being became
disordered, then instability resulted. Since
scientific knowledge was limited, events such
as earthquakes and eclipses were considered to
be signs that something was unbalanced in the
Great Chain.
Since God was totally “spirit” and could never
be blamed, any disorder had to be initiated on
the human level.
People were expected to know and accept
“their proper place” in society in order to
maintain a stable society.
Audiences in Shakespeare’s time would view
the events of the play, Macbeth, through this
common view of their societal structure.
Roots of the play
In 1606, King James 1
of England commissioned
Shakespeare to write a new
play in honour of a visit
from his brother-in-law,
King Christian of Denmark.
The result was Macbeth.
Shakespeare’s source for the story was The
Chronicles of Holinshed, a history book
which provided the material for most of his
history plays.
The plot of Macbeth is loosely based on
Holinshed’s account of a real King Macbeth
who reigned in 11th Century Scotland for
17 years from 1040 to 1057.
It is believed that Shakespeare selected this
particular story because James I was Scottish
born and also because he was said to be
descended from Banquo (a real person and
also a character in the play).
However, Shakespeare made some crucial
changes to the historical facts in Holinshed’s
Chronicles in order to please King James, so
his account of Macbeth’s life has been
fictionalized.
The Study of Macbeth
The study of Macbeth requires an awareness
of three different time periods in order to
maximize your understanding of the play.
The Three Time Periods
11th. Century
in which the play
is set
1600's
when the
play was written
21st. Century
from which we
study the play
Each time period becomes a window through which the play
can be glimpsed, and the three historical parallels allow a
thorough appreciation of its universality.
The Curse of “Macbeth”
Theatre tradition has it that Macbeth is cursed.
Just mentioning the play’s name is considered
bad luck among actors so that they never call
the play by name, but refer to it as “the Scottish
play”.
It is believed that the trouble stems from the
witches’ scenes in the play. Apparently,
Shakespeare used a genuine witches’ curse and
its effect has brought bad luck to any production
of the play.
The Curse of “The Scottish Play”
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During play’s first performance, on
Aug.7, 1606, Hal Berridge, the
boy who played Lady Macbeth
died backstage
In 1849 , the rivalry between
American actor Edwin Forrest and
British actor John Macready
ended in a riot in which 31 people
were killed in front of the theatre
where Macready was playing
Macbeth
In 1934, at the Old Vic Theatre in
London, in one week, a production
of Macbeth went through 4
different Macbeths, each of the
first three having been felled by
some misfortune
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In 1938, the Stratford Festival’s
production of Macbeth had one of
its actors suffer two broken legs
when he was hit by his own car in
the parking lot; Lady Macbeth ran
her car into a store window;
Macduff fell off his horse and had
to be replaced by his understudy
In a 1942 production, the actors
playing King Duncan and 2 of the
witches died; one right on stage
In Orson Welles’ production of
Macbeth, the well-known critic,
Percy Hammond, who gave it a
bad review, died some days later,
of pneumonia, it was said
In a Bermuda production in the
50’s, the flames around Macbeth’s
castle roared out of control and
nearly roasted the audience
There are many more strange and sometimes fatal
events associated with various productions of
Macbeth over the centuries, but the play, in all its
glory, lives on, because of the compelling nature
of its story, the beauty of its language, and the
universality of its themes. Despite the superstitions
surrounding the play, it has remained one of
Shakespeare’s most popular plays.