Macbeth - Literary & Cultural Context Flashcards
What can Macbeth be classified as?
A tragedy.
What are tragedies?
Tragedies are plays that tell stores about people who make an error and suffer. Most of the time main characters die. This happens to Macbeth & Lady Macbeth.
Explain Macbeth’s downfall.
Macbeth is viewed as a hero at the start, receiving praise from his comrades because he brutally killed their enemies. He’s a hero for killing the enemies of the king.
Later on, he begins to kill people for his own selfish needs, benefiting no one but himself and causing tragedy for other people and their families.
What are the common causes of a tragedy?
Fate
Villains
Tragic characters with flaws
Them self
Explain fate causing tragedy.
Sometimes fate causes tragedy. In this play, fate and prophecy cause a lot of tragedy - if the witches hadn’t revealed the prophecies, would the murder have happened?
It’s because Macbeth’s fate is revealed to him that he becomes obsessed with achieving it.
If Macbeth hadn’t know his fate, would it still have been his fate?
Explain villains causing tragedy.
Sometimes it’s villains who cause tragedy.
Macbeth & Lady Macbeth are the villains.
After the witches reveal their prophecies, Macbeth can see a way to seize power and decides to act on it, no matter the consequences.
Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to murder King Duncan - she wants power and doesn’t care how she gets it.
King Duncan trusts Macbeth as a friend. Macbeth sneaks up on King Duncan while he’s sleeping and defenceless, then murders him.
When Macbeth is named King, he begins to crave more power.
He worries Banquo and his sons will someday seize power, so he hires men to murder them.
Fearing that Macduff will cause problems for him, he sends men to Macduff’s castle to murder him and his family - Macduff isn’t there, so murders kill his wife and son.
Macbeth is responsible for the murders of his friends, innocent women, and children, and the King.
Explain how tragic characters with flaws causing tragedy.
Often, tragic characters bring their own downfall. They have a flaw in the character, such as ambition or immorality, which makes them make mistakes of judgement.
Do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth bring their own downfall?
Their decisions to chase power and ambition lead to them murdering many people.
The guilt from these murders then leads to Lady Macbeth to commit suicide.
Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s family leads to his own death.
Explain how Macbeth & Lady Macbeth themselves caused all the tragedy.
Macbeth & Lady Macbeth suffer because of their own greed and bad judgements.
Macbeth’s chase for power means that he loses his own wife, and also that, other people then try to stop him because he keeps killing anyone he feels threatened by. Ultimately, he causes his own downfall.
What is the supernatural?
Supernatural events are things that happen which can’t be explained. For example, in Macbeth there’s ghosts, a floating dagger and powerful witches who make prophecies.
Explain witches in the 17th century.
In the 17th century, people were fearful of witchcraft and supernatural, especially the king himself, James I.
Witchcraft was seen as responsible for everything bad that happened in life. (e.g If crops didn’t grow, or outbreak of disease)
The belief was that people who gained these supernatural powers had made a pact with the Devil.
Explain James I and witches.
James I himself was especially superstitious and fearful of witches - he was known as a witch hunter and saw hundreds of people burnt at the stake for witchcraft whilst he was King of Scotland.
He called witchcraft “high treason against God”.
When he took the throne of England, James I insisted on hanging witches - even people who were just accused of the crime or just had a strange mark on their body.
What were mean and women seen in Jacobean times?
In Jacobean times (Time when James I was in power), women were expected to be subordinate to their husbands.
What does women being subordinate mean?
This means women were supposed to obey their husbands.
If the women argued, they could be beaten. Parents raised women to believe that men were more important than they were.
It was definitely not expected that a man would treat his wife as equal.
Explain powerful women in Shakespeare.
Shakespeare made lots of his leading women strong characters - this may have been a reflecting of having Elizabeth I on the throne before James I.
In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth seems to be a very powerful character - she encourages her husband to murder King Duncan, and pressures him by implying he’s a worthless coward if he doesn’t.
Ultimately, he develops a hunger for power which overtakes hi care for his wife.
Explain the expectations of men.
Men with status in society were expected to behave in an honourable way and show qualities like loyalty and bravery.
Macbeth begins the play by being brave and honourable, risking his life to fight for king and country.
However, he soon dishonours himself by being disloyal t o King Duncan and his other comrades.
