Macbeth - overview
Shakespearean Tragic Drama
• Based on Greek Tragedy
• Confusion → Evil → Forces of good prevail
• Heroes are real people subject to temptation (noble criminals)
Tragic Hero
• Can they resist or not? Conflict and suspense
• Tragic fall: causes, operation and results
• Expectation of happiness leads to misery and disaster
• Acquisition of self-knowledge through suffering
• Well-being → misfortune
• Suffer for evil until acts are expiated
• Serious error of judgement
• Macbeth’s tragic flaw – ambition
• Contributes actively to his own downfall – but strong temptation from external forces
Themes
• Isolation
• Appearance versus reality
• Kingship
• Ambition
• Good versus evil
• Nature
• Fate
Motifs
• Blood
• The elements (weather)
• Clothing (kingly robes)
• Sleep and death
• Light and dark
• Animals (esp. Birds)
Shakespearean Devices
• Soliloquy: a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself, or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. Leads to dramatic irony.
• The Greek chorus: a group of minor actors in tragic drama, filling in background details and representing the feelings of the common man. Audience is swayed towards their way of judging action on stage.
• Based on Greek Tragedy
• Confusion → Evil → Forces of good prevail
• Heroes are real people subject to temptation (noble criminals)
Tragic Hero
• Can they resist or not? Conflict and suspense
• Tragic fall: causes, operation and results
• Expectation of happiness leads to misery and disaster
• Acquisition of self-knowledge through suffering
• Well-being → misfortune
• Suffer for evil until acts are expiated
• Serious error of judgement
• Macbeth’s tragic flaw – ambition
• Contributes actively to his own downfall – but strong temptation from external forces
Themes
• Isolation
• Appearance versus reality
• Kingship
• Ambition
• Good versus evil
• Nature
• Fate
Motifs
• Blood
• The elements (weather)
• Clothing (kingly robes)
• Sleep and death
• Light and dark
• Animals (esp. Birds)
Shakespearean Devices
• Soliloquy: a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself, or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. Leads to dramatic irony.
• The Greek chorus: a group of minor actors in tragic drama, filling in background details and representing the feelings of the common man. Audience is swayed towards their way of judging action on stage.