The Renaissance and William Shakespeare’s, Macbeth Macbeth Introduction.
L I N S T O L I T E R A T U R E Macbeth
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Macbeth by William Shakespeare PRESTWICK HOUSE, INC. L EAD - I NS TO L ITERATURE 2
Transcript of L I N S T O L I T E R A T U R E Macbeth
Macbethby William Shakespeare
PRESTWICK HOUSE, INC.
L E A D - I N S T O L I T E R A T U R E
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Table of ContentsIntroduction 5BackgroundSource of Macbeth: Holinshed’s Chronicles Elizabethan/Jacobean Period
Theater & Audience 22Shakespeare’s TheatersThe Groundlings
Dramatic Conventions 34AsidesSoliloquies
Narrative Conventions 49WitchesGhostsMessengers
Shakespeare’s Language 62PunctuationInverted and Elliptical SentencesPoetryProse
ProductionsBiography
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Literary Techniques 77Metaphor and SimileAllusionPun
Themes 92Free Will vs. FateDisrupting the Natural Order
What Becomes A Man?Unbridled Ambition
Characters 97WitchesMacbethLady MacbethDuncanBanquo
End Notes 123
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Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
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MacbethI N T R O D U C T I O N
Source of Macbeth:Holinshed’s Chronicles
Elizabethan/Jacobean Period
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Background
by Wi!iam ShakespeareacbethM In feudal Scotland, a semi-barbaric
country of rival clans and chieftains, treacherous murders lead to more and more bloody violence.
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Written during the reign of King James I, who ruled England from 1603–1625, Macbeth speaks to
the corrupting nature of power
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the ability of humans to choose their own destinies
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the effects of guilt on human behavior
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