Macbeth: Context

Created by: Karina181
Created on: 13-06-17 13:12

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Context
- Belief in witchcraft
  - Witch trials
    - Banquo's distrust
  - James I wrote a book on 'Demonology'
  - Religious element
    - "Instruments of darkness"
  - Unquestioning belief
    - Macbeth
    - Opening scene
      - Shakespeare starts the play with them
- James I was the FIRST king of England and Scotland
  - Settling the differences
    - Malcolm is supported by England
  - Believed he was connected to Banquo
    - Row of kings in Macbeth's vision
  - Gunpowder plot
    - Treachery and reason
    - Consequences of murdering a king
      - Death and suffering
- The divine right of king's
  - It was believed that the king was chosen by God
    - Duncan is a bountiful king
      - 'Grow'
  - An act against a king was an act against God
    - Nature goes wild when Duncan is killed
      - His horses eat themselves
      - Storms
  - Killing a king- was blasphemous, sin and a direct path to hell
    - Macbeth cannot sleep after the murder
- Tragedy
  - Hero dies
    - Macbeth dies
- Religion was the bedrock of people's lives
  - Everything in society revolved around a Christian religion
    - Macbeth cannot say 'Amen'
      - He loses his religion
    - Heaven and hell
    - Shakespeare's language
    - Damned
- Patriarchal Society
  - Women were expected to be subservient
    - Do as they are told
    - Lady Macbeth breaks all of these expectations
      - Equal to her husband
      - Strong and powerful
      - No children
      - Intelligent and educated
      - Dies because of it
    - Weren't meant to own property
      - "My battlements"
    - Elizabethan ideal
      - Lady Macduff
        Stays loyal till the end
        
        Dies for her family
  - Society ruled by men

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Macbeth: Context

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