Macbeth Background Information
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most intense plays and one his most complex psychological
studies. It is also a play about which there is a great deal of historical background that reveals
Shakespeare's creative process. Once you know something of the complex historical background, a
very curious fact emerges about this bloody, violent drama: the story of this psychotic killer and his
fiendlike wife was actually written as a tribute to Shakespeare's royal patron, King James I of England,
who was also king of Scotland. Of all of his plays, this is a powerful suspense thriller. We may know
who the killer is, but we're fascinated to see if Macbeth gets away with it and to see how he convinces
himself to commit the multiple homicides.
The historical background is necessary to help you understand why Shakespeare wrote the play the
way he did, and how he used and twisted history to make a better play and to address the political
agenda of King James. Shakespeare and his audience did not consider history to be a science, in
which the goal was accuracy; rather history was an art, related to storytelling. The purpose of history
was to make a moral point about the present society. You looked to the past to find or create parallels
with the present age that would help you explain how people should behave right now. Therefore
history was often manipulated to support some political agenda.
Macbeth is an openly political play based on the events in the life of a real historical figure, but it is
categorized as a powerful tragedy instead of a history play. The historical Macbeth had become king
in the year 1040 when he killed the previous king, Duncan, in battle. Now the fact that Macbeth killed
the previous king was not a big deal. Of the eight Scottish kings who ruled during this time, seven
had died unnatural deaths. This violent record was largely the result of how Scottish kings came to
power. There was no fixed process of succession from one king to the next. In effect, when an old
king died every male who was related to the royal family had an equal chance for the throne. It was a
kind of royal free-for-all with the last man standing getting to be the king until he was done in by the
next ambitious claimant.
Shakespeare pays tribute to James and his political agenda. England and Scotland had been historic
enemies, but now they were governed by the same monarch, and he wanted to unite them into a
single kingdom. In several plays written before 1603, Shakespeare used the Scots as convenient ethnic
targets. After 1603 it became politically incorrect to criticize the Scots. Although James wanted a
United Kingdom, it would take over 100 years for England and Scotland to merge into a single
political entity. To advance the king's agenda, Shakespeare wrote the play in a certain way to create
and emphasize commonality between the two kingdoms.
The play is the shortest of the tragedies and the focus is on the psychological effect of the crimes upon
Macbeth and the nature of the relationship between Macbeth and his wife. People involved in
staging this play have shared with me two important insights. At the end of the play everyone on
stage cheers the death of the tyrant Macbeth; if the production has been successful, the audience
doesn't cheer (they sympathize with Macbeth). The second insight is about the relationship between
Macbeth and his wife. They are a lot like other famous criminal couples: Each one of these people
alone is incapable of committing real evil, but together they form a symbiotic relationship in which
each supplies psychologically what the other lacked becoming a deadly combination.
For most audiences the witches are the most spectacular element of the play, along with the ghost of
Banquo. The witches in Macbeth were apparently very authentic, based on the folklore of witchcraft
Shakespeare learned about growing up in Stratford. Over the years a very powerful superstition
arose about Macbeth in the theater: strange things happened whenever you performed the play, so
that in the English theater in particular you were forbidden to use the name of the play within the
theater. Actors would refer to it as "the Scottish tragedy."
Macbeth Anticipation Guide
Answer each question honestly. Please explain your answer whenever possible
1. Have you ever given in to temptation?
2. Do you believe in prophecies? (A prediction that something will occur in the future)
3. How do you decide what is good and what is evil?
5. What is the difference between greed and ambition?
6. Do you believe the adage, "You reap what you sow?" (aka - "You harvest what you plant?")
7. Do you believe that fate directs our lives or that our actions alone determine our circumstances?
8. You probably would not break your moral code for a stranger, but what about for a loved one?
9. If someone prophesied you would become someone of importance (what you dream of being)
would you wait for it to happen or would you try to make it happen? Explain.
10. Do you listen to your conscience?
11. Have you ever experienced the feeling of guilt? What did you do about it?