Context Flashcards
What is the Divine Right of Kings?
When the play was written, it was believed that a monarch was chosen by God so to go against the monarch was to go against God, which was an unforgivable crime.
How does the Divine Right of Kings link to Macbeth?
Macbeth goes against the king, and therefore God, on several occasions, such as when he kills Duncan. A Jacobean audience would be shocked and appalled by this blatant ignorance of God in a time when religion was so prevalent
Also, Macbeth is not chosen by God to be king and he doesn’t last very long so it could be a warning to the audience not to go against God and the king.
What were the roles of men and women when the play was written?
Very traditional and stereotypical:
Men were expected to work the land, do physical labour and be the head of a family.
Women were expected to be submissive, obedient, to stay at home, maintain the house care for the rest of the family and raise children.
How does Shakespeare challenge gender roles at the time?
Lady Macbeth is a strong willed and independent character who has a lot of influence over male characters in the play. This would shock a Jacobean audience who lived in a patriarchal society.
What did people at the time believe about witches and what was the king’s view on it?
People believed that when something went wrong at the time such as a storm or a bad harvest that it was the fault of witches who were servants of the Devil.
King James I was extremely frightened by witches and the supernatural and even published a book about it called ‘Demonology’.
Why is the supernatural such a major theme throughout the play?
People were genuinely scared of witches and evil so Shakespeare would have wanted to portray the supernatural as bad to show to the king and his audience that he supported their views to make himself and his plays popular.
What is the Great Chain of Being?
An ideological hierarchy which portrayed the distribution of power in the universe in Jacobean times. God was at the top of the hierarchy and stones and minerals were at the bottom.
How does the Great Chain of Being link to Macbeth
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go against the Great Chain by killing the king, someone higher up on the ladder than them and bad things happen to both of them. This could be a warning to the audience not to step out of place because bad things will happen to you.
This would have pleased king James and made him more fond of Shakespeare, probably why he included it in the play
