Instructions and Quick-Write

Pick up the two handouts from the front table
and take out a sheet or 2 of notebook paper.

In a paragraph of 5 or more sentences
respond to the prompt:

Can too much ambition drive people to do terrible
things? Try to use a historical example to support
your point.
Macbeth Background
and Literary Terms
English IV
DRAMA AND TRAGEDY
Drama
A narrative that is
meant to be
performed by actors
in front of an
audience. The plot
and characters are
developed through
dialogue and action.
Tragedy
A drama that presents the downfall
of a dignified character or
characters who are involved in
historically or socially significant
events. A tragedy ends in
catastrophe – usually death – for
the main character(s).
Examples:
Hamlet, Macbeth, American
Beauty, Death of a Salesman
Tragic Hero
The protagonist of a
tragedy; usually a
dignified individual of
historical or societal
significance who fails or
dies because of a
character flaw or a cruel
twist of fate. This
character will often show
strength while facing his
or her destiny.
Tragic Flaw
An error in judgment on the part of a tragic hero
that sets the events of a tragic plot into
motion.
DRAMATIC
CONVENTIONS
DIVISIONS
Act
A larger division of a dramatic text that
indicates a shift in location or the passage of
time.
Scene
A smaller division of a dramatic text that
indicates a shift in location or the passage of
time.
Shakespeare’s tragedies typically follow this
pattern:
Act I: Exposition
Act II: Rising Action
Act III: Crisis/Turning Point – The characters
make a choice the determine the direction of
the rest of the play.
Act IV: Falling Action
Act V: Resolution
**Debate exists as to where the Climax falls.
Some argue that it falls in Act III, others
argue for Act V. We will decide for ourselves.
Stage Directions
Directions in the text of a drama that allow actors and
directors to stage the drama and readers to “see” the
action. They are typically italicized and will often explain
how characters should look, speak, move, and behave.
Example:
BENEATHA Haylo… (Disappointed) Yes, he is. (She
tosses the phone to WALTER, who barely catches it)
It’s Willie Harris again. (from A Raisin in the Sun)
Dramatic Irony
The audience is aware of something that the
characters onstage are not aware of; works
to build suspense in a text or drama.
Comic Relief
A humorous scene, incident
or speech that relieves the
overall emotional intensity.
By providing contrast,
comic relief serves to
heighten the seriousness
of the main action while
helping audiences to
absorb earlier events in
the plot and get ready for
the ones to come.
Dialogue
A conversation between two or more people.
Any portion of a staged drama, that is neither
a monologue nor a soliloquy, is a dialogue.
SINGLE-PERSON SPEECHES
Monologue
A long speech by one person to an
audience of any number of people.
Has an intended audience (talking to
another character)
Soliloquy
A long speech in which a character who is
onstage alone expresses his or her
thoughts and feelings aloud.
Has no intended audience (talking to
oneself)
Aside
Words spoken by a character in a play to the
audience or to another character that are not
supposed to be heard by the others onstage.
Apostrophe
A figure of speech in which one directly
addresses an absent or imaginary person, or
some abstraction. This is often used when
emotions become most intense.
Example:
"Hello darkness, my old friend… I've come to
talk with you again…” – Paul Simon
OTHER LITERARY
TERMS
Blank Verse
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter;
“blank” means the poetry is not rhymed; this
is the major form of verse in Shakespeare’s
plays.
Character Foil
A character who is used to contrast another
character
Paradox
An apparently contradictory statement that actually reveals some
truth.
Examples:
“Everyone is completely unique, just like everyone else”
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Each new power won by man is a power over man as well. Each
advance leaves him weaker as well as stronger.-C. S. Lewis
Exception Paradox: "If there is an exception to every rule, then
every rule must have at least one exception, the exception to this
one being that it has no exception;”
Petronius’ Paradox: "Practice moderation in all things. Including
moderation."
Oxymoron
A concise paradox that brings together two
contradictory terms.
Examples:
“jumbo shrimp,” “act naturally,” “found missing,”
“genuine imitation,” “good grief”
Pun
A play on the multiple meanings of a word or on
two words that sound alike but have different
meanings.
Example:
What has four wheels and flies? A garbage
truck! (pun on the word flies)
William Shakespeare
1564-1616
“All the world 's a stage, /
And all the men and
women merely players.”



Born in Stratford
The 3rd of 8 kids
Married at age 18
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(his wife was 26)
Worked as an actor
Eighteen plays printed
small books called
quartos
First folio in 1623
The Globe Theater 1599
Burned in 1613
The New Globe Theater
The Plays

The Tragedies
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Othello
King Lear

Macbeth


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Comedies
Tragedies
Histories

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Characters: Macbeth
Characters:
Duncan – King of Scotland
Malcolm – heir to the throne
Macbeth – general of the king’s army
Banquo – general of the king’s army
Macduff – Macbeth’s foil
Lady Macbeth – wife of Macbeth
Themes: Macbeth
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Appearances can be deceiving.
Violence resulting when social order is
tampered with
Qualities of good and evil combined in a
single individual
Seduction of power and ambition turns noble
people into tyrants
Internal desires versus external realities
What is good and what is bad is not always
black and white
Historical Context
Witchcraft, Treason, and the
Great Chain of Being
WITCHCRAFT
Elizabethan Belief in Witches

Ghosts, malevolent spirits, witches, and other supernatural elements
were common belief

Queen Elizabeth I passed the 1562 Elizabethan Witchcraft Act
forbidding “conjuration, enchantments, and witchcrafts”

Belief in witches inspired violent behavior in Shakespearean times

Historians cite that 16,000 women were killed due to witchcraft
accusations

King James wrote a book on the subject Daemonology
(Shakespeare incorporated this aspect of the king’s character when
creating the role of Macbeth)
TREASON
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605

The seeds of discontent were
sown in the late 1520s during
the reign of Henry VIII when he
parted from the Roman
Catholic Church

subsequent monarchs decided
the fates of the nation’s
believers

Elizabeth became fearful of an
encroaching Catholic Europe
so she began to repress and
persecute Catholics
"Remember, remember the
fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why
Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."

Three British Catholic
gentlemen met in secret
(Catesby, Wintour, and Wright)

King James promises a
relaxation in the anti-Catholic
laws, but it now appeared that
he would be even more severe
in their persecution than his
predecessor had been

The plan was to blow up the
King and the House of Lords at
the next Opening of Parliament
by renting a cellar right under
the House of Lords

they would then seize the royal
children and return Catholicism
to the land

Guy Fawkes was able to fill the
underground storehouse with
some thirty-six barrels of
gunpowder

Everything was set in place: all
the conspirators had to do now
was wait.

The plan was foiled when a
letter was sent to Lord
Monteagle telling of the plot

All the conspirators except for
one were executed for their
crimes

To commemorate the
discovery of the Plot, King
James had a medal created
picturing a serpent hiding
amongst flowers

“Look like the innocent flower,
but be the serpent under’t”

The Shakespearean audience
would have understood the
context and allusion
THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING
The Great Chain of Being

Based on the Greek philosopher
Aristotle’s concept of the universe

Everything in the world had its position
fixed by God

The Earth was the center of the universe
and the stars moved around it

In Heaven, God ruled over the archangels
and angels

On Earth, society reflected this order with
its fixed classes from the highest to the
lowest – kings, churchmen, nobles,
merchants, and peasants

The animals had their own degrees too,
the lion being the “king”

Among the trees, the most superior was
the oak; among flowers, it was the rose.
Among the minerals, gold was the most
superior.
Any attempt to break the chain of
being would upset the established
order and bring about universal
disorder.
The king held a God-ordained
position which is known as the
divine right of kings. Therefore, if
the king’s position was violated,
such as rebellion or assassination,
it would bring strife and chaos to
the world, simply because it
amounted to rebellion against God.
It was a sin committed against God
and must be punished.