1. Plot Overview, themes & Literary Analysis

2. The following play contains scenes and events which may be disturbing for some students. Strong violence and supernatural themes throughout. Supervision is advised.

3. Macbeth is a tragedy! ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’
This play is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies – the full title is actually:
‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’
Tragedy (in Shakespeare’s time) = a type of drama / literature which involved the fall of a great man either through forces beyond his control or by his own error. The nature of the fall was what was considered tragic.
The main character in a tragedy, according to Aristotle (4th Century Greed philosopher) shouldn’t be too good nor entirely evil because then the audience would feel sympathy for the person – some form of human weakness or mistake should contribute to the fall.
Aristotle thought the best subjects for tragedies were ‘great men’ – kings and nobles.

4. In a nutshell…. Three Witches predict great things for Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan to get the throne.
Macbeth kills King Duncan and becomes King of Scotland.
Macbeth orders the murder of his best friend, Banquo.
Macbeth begins to think that he’s invincible.
Lady Macbeth commits suicide.
There is a battle and Macduff decapitates Macbeth.

5. But wait….there’s more…
Macbeth is the story of a man, Macbeth, whose ambition runs wild. To become King he first kills the current king, Duncan.

6. Then he kills the king's guards in an attempt to pin the murder on them.

7. He then plots to murder a nobleman, Banquo, and his son, Fleance, because three witches have predicted that Banquo's off-spring will become king. After Banquo is slain, Macbeth thinks he sees Banquo's ghost at a banquet.

8. Later he has the wife and children of a general, Macduff, slain after the three witches warn him to beware Macduff.

9. Before the play ends, Macbeth kills Siward, a supporter of Macduff, in battle.

10. Finally, in the last act, Macbeth battles Macduff who slays him and displays Macbeth's "cursed head" for all to see. This is the story of how one murder begets another and how one man's ambitions plague a nation.

11. Themes

12. Themes Ambition can subvert reason and corrupt human nature.
When supernatural powers represent evil, they should be ignored.
Appearances do not always reflect reality: Things are not what they seem: who is good? Who is evil? It’s often unclear. Who will win? Good? Evil? The play keeps the audience hanging throughout….
Despite prophecies of the future, people are responsible for their own actions.
Attempts to control the future by overturning the natural order of society are futile.
The relationship between gender and power, between cruelty and masculinity.
The virtues of a good ruler – political legitimacy – divine right of kings.
The natural order is disrupted by any upset in the proper order of human society.
Act I, Scene vii

13. Viewing Task: Roman Polanski’s Macbeth (1971)
Watch Act 1 Scenes i-iii
What evidence (events / language) suggest that Macbeth is neither all good or bad?
How does the audience know Macbeth is brave?
Can you identify any of the themes we’ve discussed in the first three scenes?
How are the themes developed in the scenes – think of language, events, and plot effects such as foreshadowing

14. Act 1 Scene i -
the play opens with the agents of evil - the witches who tell us – “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Act 1, Scene I, Line 10) - beautiful is ugly and vice versa
They plan to meet again – on the heath with Macbeth, after ‘the hurly-burly’, ‘the battle’
QUESTIONS:
What purpose do the witches first meeting here serve in the play?
Which themes are being developed in this scene through the witches’ meeting and plans?
In your opinion, are the witches represented here as desiring to cause evil? Are they all powerful and extremely dangerous? How do they plan to achieve their evil intentions?

15. Act 1, Scene ii
Reading
King
Malcolm
Captain
Lennox
Ross

16. Act 1, Scene ii: The Battlefield – Focus Questions
How is Macbeth presented in this scene? Find three quotes to support your opinion.
Who is the Thane of Cawdor? What is his role in the battle? What is to happen to him after the battle?
How is the King of Norway pardoned?
What is the purpose of this scene? Why is this effective after the witches? Do you realise we still haven’t met Macbeth yet?
What imagery has been used in this scene? How does this imagery position the readers?

17. Act 1, Scene iii Reading: First Witch Second Witch Third Witch Macbeth
Banquo
Ross
Angus

18. Act 1, Scene iii: The Witches’ Predictions
How are the witches introduced in this scene? What have they being doing between meetings? What does this suggest about witches?
Consider the repetition of the paradox ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’. How is the paradox used here?
What three greetings are presented to Macbeth and what does this suggest will happen to him in the future?
What predictions are given to Banquo – use evidence to support your understanding?
Ross enters and delivers news to Macbeth. How does this change his opinion of the witches’ predictions? How does his character begin to change after he hears Ross’ news? What does this suggest about the danger of ambition?

19. Imagery – Ideas & Themes
Unnatural – (horrid image doth unfix my hair) (make my seated heart knock at my ribs)
supernatural (strange intelligence) (seemed corporal) (supernatural soliciting)
Nature (seeds of time) (insane root) (breath into the wind)
Weather (thunder & lightning)
Sleep
Sanity ((insane root) (reason is prisoner)
Night/Day
Darkness
Light (enkindle you to the crown)
Foul and fair
Female/Male
Appearance/Deception (nothing is as but what is not) (unclear weather – foggy/misty)
Death (strange images of death)
Fate (prophetic greeting) (chance may crown me)
Devil/Evil (instruments of darkness)
Religion/ Angels
Clothing (borrowed clothes) (strange garments cleave not to their mold)
Blood (drain him dry)
Good and evil

20. Figurative Language - Imagery
Shakespeare weaves a subtle pattern of imagery throughout the play. These images create atmosphere, help develop character and further the play’s themes and messages.
Imagery is connected with specific characters.
From the outset, imagery creates an atmosphere of horror and violence, brutality and heroism.
Certain scenes and acts use different types of imagery dependent on the action and the themes developed in the scene/act. For example, sleeplessness is brought in later in the play and is used with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Banquo.

21. Imagery – descriptions to form images
“The use of imagery in Macbeth is one of the finest examples of atmosphere ever created in drama”. Blanche Coles
Nature (chaos, growth and disease)
Animals and birds
Blood
Water
Violence (weapons)
Clothing (deception/disloyalty)
Mask imagery (appearance/truth)
Female and male
Heaven and Hell (good and evil)
Lightness and darkness (good and evil)
Sleeplessness (guilt, remorse)
Disease/sickness (personification of Scotland)
Nothing is but what is not (paradoxes)

22. Review: match the quotation to the imagery listed below
Review: match the quotation to the imagery listed below. How does the quotation further develop the play’s themes and characters?

23. Literary Devices – what to look for?
Allusions – an indirect reference to something
Act I, scene ii
The sergeant compares a bloody
scene of death on the battlefield to Golgotha which is the place of Christ's death in the New Testament.
Act II, Scene iii
One of the mythological allusions is Macduff's comparing the dead Duncan to a Gorgon of Greek mythology which could turn a person to stone because of the terror evoked.

24. Figurative Language Similes – flowers - disguise - time
Act I, Scene v – Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

25. Figurative Language Metaphors: - Planting imagery “Why do you dress me
“I have begun to plant thee, and will labour/ To make thee full of growing.” (King Duncan to Macbeth Act 1, iv)
Figurative Language
Metaphors: - Planting imagery
- Clothing imagery
“Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?” (Macbeth to Ross Act I,iii)

26. Figurative Language Personification:
LADY MACBETH                                     Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' th' adage? 
MACBETH                                     Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man; ( )
Macbeth (to himself) Act 1 Scene iii
Questions:
What themes can you identify in these quotes?
How does personification add to the atmosphere and tone of the drama in the play?

27. Visions / hallucinations
Alliteration
“But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears.” (III, iv)
Symbols
Blood
Sleep
Visions / hallucinations
Anaphora
When the hurlyburly’s done,  When the battle’s lost and won. ( )
FIRST WITCH  
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!  SECOND WITCH  
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 
Hyperbole
“Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (5.1.55)
Dramatic Irony  “This castle hath a pleasant seat..” (Duncan is unaware of what the audience knows: that death, not a pleasant sojourn, awaits him in the castle)

28. TASK In groups of three or four, act out the rest of Act I and Act II.
One person should take it in turns to take notes of significant quotes relating to use of language, development of character and symbols etc.
When you have finished, watch the movie until the end of Act II and see if you can hear any of the famous quotes in the dialogue.
How does the language add to the ominous atmosphere of the play and the development of characters? .

29. Thinking point…
In groups of two or three, discuss the following questions based on what you know so far about ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’:
Macbeth is violent, brutal, and horrifying. Why do you think we continue to read and watch performances of Macbeth?
What is the nature of evil — and good — in Macbeth? (ie. is it human? Or supernatural? Or both?)
Does the play have a moral or teach a lesson?  If so, what is it?
Does the play have any heroes?