Macbeth - William Shakespeare

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LM is equally ambitious as her husband but is unable to take action herself – perhaps becos of social constraints of the time—therefore cajoles her husband to act on her behalf

Masculinity is defined in the play by ambition and power – two qualities LM possesses in abundance

By constructing her in this way, Shakespeare challenges our preconceived views of masculinity and femininity

What was Shakespeare suggesting? On one hand it was a radical idea to present a dominant female character, on the other she is presented negatively

- Imagery – strong pictures or ideas created in audience minds

The play has lots of references to darkness, sleep, disease and blood

Often describes one thing in terms of another and there are 3 main ways this happens:

- Metaphors—one thing called something else

When Macbeth wants to defend his lands against others, he uses metaphors from medicine - he wants to find the 'disease' in Scotland, to restore it to 'health' and to use a 'drug' against others

- Personification— where something is described as if it is human, the "Dark night strangles the travelling lamp".

- Similes – direct comparison is made (with 'as', 'than' or 'like'), Banquo says that the witches "look not like the inhabitants o'the'earth" or Macbeth says "moves like a ghost".

- Soliloquies—speeches heard only by the audience

Tell us directly about a character's thoughts and feelings and are important becos audience can understand what’s going through a character's mind

Famous line in Act 2, Scene 1, which starts: "Is this a dagger I see before me", w/out this soliloquy, wouldn’t have no idea how confused Macbeth is

Wrote w/ poetic diction using eloquent words and phrase; uses irony and drama to create and sustain suspense through the play; uses much figurative language and imagery

While play was performed and spoken, Shakespeare wrote the dialogue in a formal poetic manner

He often includes metaphors and imagery in his dialogues however poetic speech often seems forced and difficult to understand

While not being as flowery as poems, it’s too flowery for everyday speech and often difficult to understand

His words and subject matter are sometimes lewd and intended for an audience of commoners

The vocabulary and writing style suggests and Shakespeare was highly educated in the English language

Words are carefully placed to fit an iambic pentameter rhythm

Tone throughout play is usually serious

At certain points, Shakespeare seems to laugh at the mistakes and misfortunes of the characters through the witches

Constant mood of dreariness and bleakness throughout the play

This feeling is brought about especially becos of the witches, which start the play off w/ some equivocal yet ominous predictions

Context

Key to the main theme of the play, which is that excessive ambition, will have terrible consequences. Shakespeare was writing for the theatre during the reigns of two monarchs (political) Queen Elizabeth I and King James I

Religion

Religious thinkers in the Middle Ages had upheld the idea of 'The Great Chain of Being'

Belief that God had designed an ordered system for both nature and humankind w/in which every creature and person had an allotted place

Considered an offence against God for anyone to try to alter his or her path in life

After death, all would be raised in the kingdom of heaven if they respected God's will

Since God bestowed royal rank, it was a sin to aspire to it— this doctrine, a convenient one for King James was widely held in Shakespeare's era

“Tell Tale Heart”—Edgar Allan Poe, 1843[pic 1]

Abandoned isolated setting: "Amid the dreadful silence of that old house"

An abandoned setting is frequently used as a setting in the Gothic Horror genre

Easy to use this setting to create an atmosphere of danger, fear and concern

The Victorians are reflected in this convention, as they were feeling abandoned and isolated after their beliefs and religion had been purposely ripped to shreds by science proving them wrong

High emotion: "Very, very dreadfully nervous" –narrator here is very nervous showing audience his high emotions w/in the story and giving an atmosphere of fear—audience can perceive from the mood created in the story what’s going on in the mind of the narrator

Told in 1st person, readers—affected by nervousness of the main character and in story it creates an atmosphere of fear, nervousness and anxiousness

Dangerous omens: "All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked him with his black shadow before him..."—can feel a sense of someone being hunted/stalked

It would be the man being hunted down by death and taken from the world

Atmospherically it would create fear and paranoia, as the feeling of getting pursued by an unknown person or being would be chilling and uncanny

Guilt: “The Tell-Tale Heart” is conventionally read as a moralising story about guilt and innocence; audience interpreted the sound of the beating heart as the narrator’s guilty conscious reminding him of his deed

The narrator finally confesses his crime becos his guilt grows so great that he can no longer hold it in

However, his confession is incongruous

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