THE TRAGEDY OF

by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The tragedy of Macbeth is a play written between 1605 and 1608 by William Shakespeare. It was staged the first time in 1611 and published with the First Folio in 1623

Macbeth

Macbeth is the protagonist of the play. He is in the beginning the thane of Glamis but, during the first act, becomes also thane of Cawdor and, after killing King Duncan, finally becomes King of Scotland. In origin he is a brave warrior and a devout subject but, with the influences of the power and his wife, become more and more cruel. At the end he dies, killed by Macduff.

CHARACTERS

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is the wife of Macbeth, with who is probably the most important character of the play. In fact without her, Macbeth would never kill King Duncan, and nothing would have happened. In the beginning she has a very strong personality and a great ambition, but in the end of the play, she becomes crazy for the remors and commits the suicide.

Macbeth VS Lady Macbeth (before)Both characters are ambitious. However, in the beginning, Lady Macbeth is the one in control. She plans out the murder of King Duncan, pushing his husband to become the murder. He contented his wife. After the murder of the king, Macbeth shows guilt for his crime. It is Lady Macbeth who takescontrol once again, taking the bloody daggers from him and placing them by the dead guards to set them up as the killers.

From this point on, Macbeth slowly takes control of his actions. He planse to kill Banquo and his son Fleance (without results) without Lady Macbeth knowledge. She no longer takes parts in the killings. The roles revers: infact Lady Macbeth becomes so ridden with guilt thet goes crazy and kill herself; Macbeth instead starts to do anything to remain king.Macbeth VS Lady Macbeth (after)

Banquo is the thane of Lochaber and hes also touched by the witches prophecy,But he dont translate his ambitious thoughts into action.Macbeth orders some murderers to kill him and his son Fleance, because of the witches prophecy. Fleance escapes and from him, according to the legend, will spring the dinasty of James I.

Banquo

DuncanDuncan is the king of Scotland. He is a good king. He is so grateful to Macbeth that nominates him thane of Cawdor. He is betrayed by Macbeth, who kills him when he's his guest.

Donalbain Donalbain is the Dancans youngest son. He run away in Ireland when Macbeth kills his father.Malcolm is Duncans oldest son. When his father is killed by Macbeth, he escapes in England. In the middle of the play, Mcduff refuges to him, when flees from Scotland. When Macbeth died, he became king.Malcolm

He is the thame of Fife. In the plot he is the first character who doubts Macbeth and sides with Duncans sons. For this, Macbeth orders the brutal

Macduff

murder of all his family, but at the end is Macduff that kills the usurper king in battle.

Three witchesThe witches are three sisters, and they are comanded by Ecate (Greek goddess of the moon). Their role in the play is very important also if they are in the scene just for few time: of course without their prophecy there wouldn't be any story.They awake the ambition in Macbeth.When the three witches come, alwaysappeard the fog.

and theirThe three witches represent thesupernatural element of the play,because they make prophecy: they tellMacbeth that he will become the king of Scotland, and tell Banquo that he is the progenitor of a dinasty of kings.Their prophecies are very misterious and for this reason the characters have a lot of incomprenscions.

prophecies

Third Witch: A drum, a drum!
Macbeth doth come.
ALL: The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! the charm's wound up.Enter MACBETH and BANQUOMACBETH: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO: How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question?You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH:Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch: All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO: Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch: Hail!
Second Witch: Hail!
Third Witch: Hail!
First Witch: Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch: Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch: Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch: Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

AMBITIONThe principal theme of Macbeth is the ambition. In part both Macbeth and lady Macbeth are ambitious. In the beginning the ambition of Macbeth is different to his wife: he has in fact ambition, but he wouldnt do vile arts to obtain power. His wife, instead, is more determinated and doesnt hesitate to persuade his husband to kill king Duncan while he is sleeping guest in their house. With Duncans death they reach their ambition, but they cant enjoy it because the terrible act that they made has really bad consequences on them: in fact Lady Macbeth become crazy for the sense of guilt. Macbeth instead become a monster obsessed by power.

LADY MACBETH: The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!

P O W E R

Power is an important theme in the play. There are differences between the power exercised by Duncan and the one exercised by Macbeth: Duncan, king by right, is a good, honest and brave king. Macbeth, who gains his power with the betrayal, governs as a tyrant and thinks only about himself.

POLITICAL MURDERThe political power is an important theme of the tragedy.There are two kinds of Political murder in the plot:one is the kill of Duncan, performed to take power in Scotland. This murder is premediteded, sneaky, in fact Macbeth doubts a lot before doing it. Banquo's murder is of this kind.We find the other type when he orders the murder of Macduffs family: its moved by hate, fear and violence. We can consider also the murder of Macbeth as a political one because with it is restored the justice in Scotland.

The effect of Lady Macbeths death on MacbethWhen Macbeth knows the news about the death of his wife, he has a very uncommon creation: he doesnt seem touched from that and he considers it like something that must be happened. In fact he is so consumed by his ambition, that drives him to the foolishness, that doesn't prove anything anymore for the other people, but is worried only for himself and for mantaining the power.

MACBETH: She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, fullof sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

GOOD

VS

EVIL

In macbeth there is a lot of irony, because Shakespeare used it to buil and mantain suspence and a sence of fear.All witches prophecies are very ironical, for example, when they announce that Macbeth will be king, it seems a good prediction that will take the protagonist to the deserved power and happiness, but instead it take him to the madness and the complete ruin.Also when the witches tell Macbeth not to fear any man born of woman, he thinks that nobody can defeat him, that hes invincible. Infact hi killer, Macduff, was born with the cesarean section.

TRAGIC IRONY

MACBETH: Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF: Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.
MACBETH: Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
MACDUFF: hen yield thee, coward,
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time:
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted on a pole, and underwrit,
'Here may you see the tyrant.'

MACBETH: will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

Metaphores

Characters

Macbeth

Banquo

Macduff

Duncan

Three Witches

Bad Ambition

Good Ambition

Loyalty

God on Earth

Sovrannatural Power

Other Elements

Blood

Guilt

Sleepwalking

Madness

LANGUAGEFor the prophecies of the witches, the author uses therhymes.In this play Shakespeare uses words not merely to create atmosphere and mood, but to reveal the innermost tought of his characters. The playwright can suggest that the character is in turmoil by what he or she says and does.We can say this in the dialogue between Macbeth and his wife immediatly after the murder of King Duncan.Macbeth is written in blank verse or iambic pentameter (not rhyme).Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter to move his verse.

Cinematografics productions Macbeth, by Orson Welles (1948)

Macbeth, by Roman Polansky (1971)

Macbeth, by Geoffrey Wright (2006)

Macbeth, by Bela Tarr (1982)

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Justin Kurzel's

M A C B E T H

2015

AGNESE SPINELLISOFIA CAVALLI LUCA MARTUSCELLIFILIPPO MACCARONE

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