Download Macbeth Power Point Notes Name: Hour: Slide 1: Have you ever

Macbeth Power Point Notes
Name:__________________________________
Hour: __________________________________
Slide 1:
Have you ever given in to temptation? _________________
Do you believe in prophecies?_________________________
How do you personally decide what is good and what is
evil?______________________________________________
What is the difference between greed and
ambition?__________________________________________
Do you believe “you reap what you sow”?
________________________________________________________
Do you believe our lives are lead by fate or our actions
alone?_____________________________________________________
Themes in Macbeth:
Slide 2: Rate each statement on a scale of 1-10.
1 =disagree completely to 10 = agree wholeheartedly
Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
1. People who are striving to get ahead often step on other people.___
2. Being powerful usually is the same thing as being happy.____
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3. One mistake can often lead to another.____
4. Everyone is capable of murder under the right circumstances.____
5. People who are involved in criminal activities can still feel love, fear, and concern for other
people. _____
Slide 3: Macbeth: The Summary
Macbeth is a dark, relentless tale of a good and brave Scottish general who, encouraged by the
_______________ of three evil witches and by his own wife, murders__________, king of
Scotland. ____________ then becomes king and brings about his own destruction.
Shakespeare wrote the play for _____________ new king, who had been king of Scotland. To
please ________, Shakespeare set the play in Scotland, used many characters who were James'
ancestors, and included_________, a subject that James had written about. The play is
Shakespeare's shortest_________, probably because King James often fell asleep during
performances.
Shakespeare's source for the story of Macbeth was The History and Chronicles of Scotland (1526),
written by Hector Boece, a Scottish historian and humanist. (Many scholars question the factual
reliability of Boece's work, and point out that Shakespeare took liberties with Macbeth's history
for dramatic purposes.)
Slide 4: Macbeth: The Historical Background
The King of England in 1606 was ______________.
There was no ______ successor to the throne of ______. Therefore, Elizabeth I chose
________________ to succeed her. After her death in 1603, James VI of Scotland became
James I of England.
Elizabeth I had been instrumental in the death of her cousin,
_____________________________, who was beheaded.
On her deathbed, ____________ wanted to ease her way into Heaven, so she chose
Mary’s son James to become the next King of England.
The appointment of _______ was a good political move, unifying England and Scotland
under one King.
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Macbeth: a tribute to King James I
Shakespeare wrote __________ in 1606, during King James’ reign.
__________ was a devout advocate of the “Divine Right of Kings.”
The setting is __________, King James’ homeland.
____________was an ancestor of James and is shown in the play to be a virtuous person.
James believed himself to be an expert on ____________.
James had an interest in ______________.
Macbeth: an appeal to Elizabethan people’s interests
Shakespeare demonstrated the ___________ belief that the country is stable only if the
King is good and virtuous.
Elizabethans believed that _____ occurs in ______, which is a recurring theme in
Macbeth.
Shakespeare included a lot of ____________, which the Elizabethans expected to see in a
play.
The play was considered _______ – a threat to an anointed King and the perceived evil
behind the threat
History & Macbeth
Macdonwald’s rebellion & the invasion of Sweno took place at different times—
Shakespeare combined them
Duncan is supposed to have been killed by ____________—Shakespeare has _________
commit the murder
History represents _____as equal in guilt with Macbeth—Shakespeare whitewashes
Banquo’s character as a compliment to King James
History makes no mention of _________________—her character is almost wholly the
creation of Shakespeare
In history, Macbeth fled before __________—Shakespeare shows Macbeth bravely
fighting
Before the Curtain Opens
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When the play begins, there are two wars in progress:
1. _________- King Duncan vs. Macdonwald’s rebels
2. _____________ - Scotland, led by King Duncan, against invading Norway, led by King
Sweno
Setting
King Duncan is the King of ____________.
Edward the Confessor is the King of _____________.
The time period is the __________ century (____________).
Shakespeare used __________________ to bend some of the historical information.
Introduction to Macbeth
Macbeth is another one of Shakespeare’s great __________, based on Holinshed’s Chronicles
of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was written around ______but was not published in the
first Folio until _____. It tells about the fall of the ambitious couple,
_________________________. Macbeth is the ___________, a character who has a fatal
(tragic)flaw within himself that he cannot change. He is not a bad person; he is just too
___________. Macbeth is a story about the murder of a king by his cousin, the revenge of a
son (__________), three witches who plot against Macbeth, and Macbeth’s rise and fall.
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