Macbeth Context

Question 1

The Elizabethans believed in the Great Chain of being. What is it?

Answer 1

This was an order to the universe. They believed God would be at the top followed by the king.

Question 2

What is the Divine Right of Kings?

Answer 2

The king could do whatever he liked because he didn’t have to answer to anyone but God who was above him in this great chain of being.

Question 3

What does the Divine Right of Kings explain to us about the chaos in Macbeth?

Answer 3

It tells us why there was so much superstition (magic) around regicide and the killing of the king cause if something was to happen to the king hes only one below God so it will cause upset.

Question 4

What does Macbeth do to the chain of being?

Answer 4

Macbeth disrupts it and all of the chaos and the consequences that happen to him are a result of that.

Question 5

Superstitious beliefs

Answer 5

Superstition was common with the community they believed in everything and supernatural and witches were on everyones mind.

Question 6

What did Shakespeare write Macbeth at the same time as?

Answer 6

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth knowing that King James I (new king) was writing a book called demonology where he was studying and looking into all of the dark arts and things like that. So Shakespeare wrote something he knew the King would like.

Question 7

Fear of the Supernatural:

Answer 7

Elizabethans would have been terrified of witches and the supernatural, ghosts so for Shakespeare to kick the place of this way it sets the tone and Elizabethans would have been terrified.

Question 8

Patriarchal society:

Answer 8

Elizabethan times has a male dominated society and this meant women generally were expected to have domestic jobs and their primary focus was having kids and if they didn’t do this they were seen as outcasts and weird.

Question 9

What were women forbidden from doing in Elizabethan times?

Answer 9

Women were forbidden from many things like writing or performing on stage.

Question 10

How did Lady Madbeth overthrow these Gender Expectations?

Answer 10

Lady Macbeth would have ironically been played by a man so when she says “unsex me here” shes asking to be ungendered.

Question 11

What does Lady Macbeth show?

Answer 11

Lady Macbeth shows she us not the traditional woman, she is domineering over Macbeth

Question 12

What is Lady Macbeth afraid to admit?

Answer 12

She never admits what has happened has taken a toll on her and when women were considered weaker emotionally we see Lady Macbeth being the stronger of the 2. Macbeth is far more fragile

Question 13

When was Macbeth performed?

Answer 13

Macbeth was performed in the Early 1600s when James I has just come to the throne in England.

Question 14

Where was James I from?

Answer 14

Scotland

Question 15

Which countries was King James 1 the King of?

Answer 15

England and Scotland.

Question 16

Why were people concerned of King James I

Answer 16

People were concerned by the fact they had to share their king with Scotland. As people held prejudiced and racial sterotypes about Scottish people at the time and people disgareed with King James I religion.

Question 17

What did Catholics try do to King James I

Answer 17

Catholics tried to blow him up in the gunpowder plot.

Question 18

What is another reason people werent keen on King James I?

Answer 18

People didn’t know too much about his heritage. They hadnt seen him growing up in England and they werent sure about his ancestry because he was scottish.

Question 19

What does Shakespeare do in response to tension surrounding King James I?

Answer 19

In response Shakespeare writes a play on Scottish Kings. Shakes is presenting the Scottish Line of Ancestry as in tact as even though People like Macbeth tried to take over, Scottish Nobility didn’t let them.

Question 20

What does “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” relate to?

Answer 20

• Biblical reference Garden of Eden
• “Serpent” Satan

Question 21

What happened in 1563 and 1604?

Answer 21

In 1563, the Witchcraft Act was passed to criminalise witchcraft. James I was particularly suspicious of witchcraft - he passed another law against witchcraft in 1604 and published a book on demonology.

Question 22

What did Shakespeare think of James I succeeding Elizabeth

Answer 22

Shakespeare is trying to get on the good side of the new king, James I, who took over after Queen Elizabeth I. He might be doing this by making connections between strong women, like queens, and bad things happening. This could be a way to support having a male king again instead of a queen

Question 23

What does “blood” symbolise contextually?

Answer 23

The “blood’ symbolises the guilt she cannot shake. The idea of washing the blood from one’s hands and symbolically washing away responsibility dates back to the biblical story of Pontius Pilate, who, according to Matthew, washed his hands before condemning Jesus to death stating “I am innocent of this man’s blood”