Macbeth Coursework

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Macbeth Coursework

 This countries most famous script writer composed many plays which fall into three categories; comedies, histories and tragedies. For a number of his plays including Macbeth he turned to a historian (Raphael Holinshed) for information.

  Shakespeare’s main source for Macbeth was ‘the Chronicles of Scotland’, which was written by Holinshed in 1577. This gave Shakespeare an outline of Macbeth’s career, from the meeting of the witches, until his death to the hands of Macduff. The idea of the murder of King Duncan was from what was written of an earlier King in ‘the Chronicles of Scotland’, who was killed by a trusted subject.

 It is important to remember that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, who gave the first version of a tragic hero’s description and characteristics. He gave five qualities of a tragic hero- is of noble birth, committed great acts, is held in high esteem, is in some ways isolated from others, and has a flaw in his character. Macbeth is also written around key themes, they are- power, corruption, ambition, trust, deception, passion and the supernatural (witches).

  During Elizabethan times people were fascinated by the thought of witchcraft and wizardry. This was believed by many people throughout the reign of Elizabeth I. Prosecution reached terrifying proportions. Between 1560 and 1603 hundreds of people (nearly all women) were convicted as witches and executed. Shakespeare used this fascination of witches in Macbeth to get the audience’s beliefs and fears of witches to create tension within the theatre. By having witches in his play Shakespeare could reinforce the belief of witches in the audiences’ minds’.

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  In scene 1 the third witch mentions Macbeth’s name. This makes the audience think about why the witches are saying his name so early on in the play. Also the witches talk about meeting Macbeth ‘upon the heath’. The witches are set in a battle field with thunder and lightning. The weather also makes the scene seem supernatural and as if the words that the witches speak are some sort of spell which is affecting the weather. Also the way in which the witches speak is in rhyme which makes them seem strange and isolated as nobody in the ...

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