Macbeth
Major Themes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
How To Analyze A Drama…
Here Are The Essential Elements of the
Story:
Theme: main idea—what the work adds up to
Plot: Relationship and patterns of events
Characters: people the author creates
Including the narrator of a story or the speaker of a poem
Setting: when and where the action happens
Point of View: perspective or attitude of the narrator or
speaker
What Is The Theme?
The theme is the main idea or underlying meaning of the
literary work.
What the author wants the reader to understand about
the subject matter.
Sometimes this may also be the moral of the story.
So, What Are The Main Themes In Macbeth?
Ambition and the devastation which follows when
ambition oversteps moral boundaries.
Some related scenes:
• Act 1 Scene 5: Lady Macbeth receives Macbeth's letter,
analyses his character, and invokes the forces of evil.
• Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth reflects on what is needed to
achieve his ambition and Lady Macbeth taunts him to
'screw your courage to the sticking place.'
• Act 3 Scene 1: Macbeth determines to kill Banquo in
order to prevent his children succeeding to Scotland's
throne.
Macbeth is often read as a cautionary tale about the kind of
destruction ambition can cause. Macbeth is a man that at
first seems content to defend his king and country against
treason and rebellion and yet, his desire for power plays a
major role in the way he commits the most heinous acts
(with the help of his ambitious wife, of course). Once
Macbeth has had a taste of power, he seems unable and
unwilling to stop killing (men, women, and children alike)
in order to secure his position on the throne. Selfishly,
Macbeth puts his own desires before the good of his
country until he is reduced to a mere shell of a human
being.
Kingship and the difference between appropriate use of
power and tyranny.
Some related scenes:
• Act 1 Scene 7: Macbeth reflects on Duncan's qualities as
king.
• Act 3 Scene 6: Lennox and another lord discuss life
under Macbeth's rule.
• Act 4 Scene 3: Malcolm and Macduff compare tyranny
to honorable kingship.
Macbeth is interested in exploring the qualities that
distinguish a good ruler from a tyrant (what Macbeth
clearly becomes by the play's end). It also dramatizes the
unnaturalness of regicide (killing a king) but walks a fine
line by portraying the killing of King Macbeth. Although
the play is set in 11th century Scotland (a time when kings
were frequently murdered), Macbeth has a great deal of
contemporary relevance. In 1603, King James VI of
Scotland was crowned King James I of England, becoming
England's first Stuart monarch. The play alludes to an
unsuccessful Catholic plot (the Gunpowder Plot of 1605)
to blow up Parliament and King James. Shakespeare also
pays homage to the Stuart political myth by portraying
Banquo as King James's noble ancestor.
Fate and free will and the extent to which we control our
own destinies.
Some related scenes:
• Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth and Banquo encounter the
witches on the heath. Macbeth reflects on their
prophecies.
• Act 2 Scene 1: Macbeth talks with Banquo about their
encounter with the witches, sees a visionary dagger and
makes his decision to kill Duncan.
• Act 6 Scene 1: Macbeth visits the witches who offer him
further prophecies.
Macbeth takes seriously the question of whether or not fate
(destiny) or human will (choice) determines a man's future.
Shakespeare seems, ultimately, to be interested in what it is that
causes a seemingly decent man (Macbeth) to commit evil acts.
On the one hand, the play is set in motion by the weird sisters'
prophesy that Macbeth will be king, which turns out to be true.
It also often seems that outside forces (related to the weird
sisters, who are in many ways associated with the three fates)
control Macbeth's actions. On the other hand, the play goes out
of its way to dramatize how Macbeth deliberates before taking
action, which suggests that he alone controls the outcome of his
own future. Alternatively, some critics suggest that Macbeth's
fate may be set in stone but his choices determine the specific
circumstances by which he arrives at or fulfills his destiny. In the
end, the play leaves the question unanswered.
Appearance and reality, and how people and events are
often not as they seem.
Some related scenes:
• Act 1 Scenes 1 and 2: The witches invoke confusion
('Fair is foul, and foul is fair').
• Act 1 Scene 4: Duncan reflects on the traitorous Thane
of Cawdor and ironically rewards Macbeth with this title,
saying, 'I have begun to plant thee, and will labour/To
make thee full of growing.'
• Act 1 Scene 6: Duncan remarks on the Macbeths' castle
having 'a pleasant seat’ as the Macbeths plot his murder.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair." That's what the witches chant
in unison in the play's opening scene and the mantra
echoes throughout the play. In Macbeth, appearances, like
people, are frequently deceptive. What's more, many of the
play's most resonant images are ones that may not actually
exist. Macbeth's bloody "dagger of the mind," the
questionable appearance of Banquo's ghost, and the blood
that cannot be washed from Lady Macbeth's hands all blur
the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined.
This theme, of course, is closely related to the
"Supernatural."
Task #1
Working in pairs read the following
dialogue from Macbeth between
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Translate it into a dialect of your
choice
(Californian/Cowboy/Jamaican/Str
eet/African American Slang…)
Act I Scene VII
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this
business:
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have
bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon. 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 valour
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' the adage?
Task #2
Examine two major themes in
Macbeth and relate them to current
events.