Explore the portrayal of Macbeth within act 1 of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth commenting on how the audience respond to him.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Explore the portrayal of Macbeth within act 1 of Shakespeare's play Macbeth commenting on how the audience respond to him.

The task that I have been set is to explore the portrayal of Macbeth within Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth' commenting on how the audience responds to him. To fully understand the nature of Macbeth you have to understand the times in which Shakespeare wrote the play. Macbeth was written in 1606, late into Shakespeare's life, at was a time of great political and social unrest. There was a vast conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants and in 1603 the Queen of England, Elizabeth 1st the first had died, unmarried and with no children. She was a Protestant. James I took over England as King, but he was also the King of Scotland, so this did not make him very popular with the English. We know this because some English Catholics tried to blow him up in what is now known as 'the Gunpowder plot'. James was also not very popular with witches, as he was a great witch hunter and burner. The story of Macbeth is closely linked with this real life situation and it was very brave of Shakespeare