Macbeth
context
It tells the tale of ambition and strive to achieve, supressing the consequences and committing whatever crime it takes to get what they want; thus being murder and treason. the witches represented the evil force of nature , influencing Macbeth and poring evil into his ear.
this was written in the Jacobean era in which people believed in black magic, and witch craft.
James the 1st , who was reigning at the time, had a love for ghost story's and witchery ; he would attend many witch trials which women, primarily wrongly accused of being witches whom the public believed would use their black magic to commit treason, would be burned at the stake.
Macbeth is loosely based on true events of a real life king of Scotland in the 11th century.
This Macbeth was born around 1005 and in August 1040 he killed the then reigning king Duncan in a battle near the area Elgin, Morayshire. He then became king and his marriage to Gruoch , Kenneth III's granddaughter made the chance of him becoming king thicker. in 1045, Macbeth defeated Duncan's father Crinan at Dunkeld. 14 years since his coronation, it is said he ruled with fairness knuckled down on law and order and encouraged Christian values. it is speculated that he was a brave and courageous leader, making many successful forays over the boarder of Northumbria, England. In 1054, Macbeth was challenged to duel with Siward, The earl of Northumbria, who tried to return his nephew Malcom Canmore, who was Duncan's son, to the throne. In August 1057, 17 years after Macbeth's triumph, Macbeth was defeated in the battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire by Malcolm Canmore , [then] Malcolm III.
Mythology and biblical Allusions added to make Shakespeare's adaption of the story of the Scottish king.
Its is referred to as the morality play as the main theme of Morality and evil which recur throughout the play. Morality is the sense of good and evil and differing between the two. There is moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil can be Murder because you know what is wrong and what is right but morally know what you are doing is wrong. Natural evil can be defined as such as earthquakes and anything bad caused by something that isn't conducted by anything human. So the question of morality within the play argues whether Macbeth morally wanted to kill Duncan himself for his own ambition or whether he was swayed by his manipulative/overbearing wife or the presence of evil (the witches recurring throughout the play / the recurring theme). Obviously, he did play his part but the witches foresaw that he will inevitably become king, and it cannot be undone so no matter if Macbeth had tried to prevent the prophesy it would happen without a doubt .
Duncan also represents a Christ like figure. He quotes a line of ," I will plant thee, and will labour/ to make thee full of growing,". The idea of planting men and letting them flourish is evident in the, "Old Testament". However since Macbeth killed Duncan he also killed the "roots" of good that had been planted. This practically means that the evil is so powerful and because Duncan represented all that is good and when his death comes it kills all things good in the world thereafter.
My characters
Witch three - The witches are the most significant because they somewhat narrate the play. They are always current at the most pivotal points, i.e.; the prophesy predicting Macbeth's crowning of king, and Macbeth enquiring what shall happen to his future in his reign (the apparition scene) Whenever the theme of morality and ambition evokes, they seem to be the ones present. They are the underlying forces in which they prepare the actions but its up to the characters to carry them out.
In terms of what we imagined them to look like; we chose capes for the witches to wear so they look sinister and seem to then be hiding their true identity - no one knows where they came from and why. We decided that they first enter from the audience, so they seem like they are watching the prophesies they dish out unfold and watching from the shadows they chaos they have caused. They play apart of the audience really because they watch the combination of their prophesies and Macbeth/Lady Macbeth's ambition and morality take its toll. Their main objective is to appear shady and cause underlying chaos without being forward or explicit.
The dying captain - Although, only on stage for a minute or so, the captain can be seen as quite pivotal. He gives an insight on the battle Macbeth just had victory in; how it didn't look that much in the early stages of the duel, but Macbeth's resilience and strategy pulled through and that he won. this will show how courageous and brave Macbeth was and that how rewarded Macbeth must be for his accomplishment. The wounded captain is essentially feeding Macbeth's ego to Malcolm and Duncan, which is the very roots for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's growing ambition. Seen as the captain is dying, he makes sure, if this be his last breath, he puts praise and good words in for Macbeth as he now idolises him for his great show during battle. This would seem pivotal as he wasn't much worried by the fact he could be dying but he was so awestruck by the fact Macbeth triumphed that he had to tell Duncan and Malcolm, if it was the last thing he did . Because he praised him so much that was why Duncan considered him so much for the thane of Cawdor. we had a bloody shirt for the captain to wear as we wanted to convey to the audience that he was injured.
The porter - The porter scene is a comic relief, Duncan has just been murdered and to let the audience somewhat recover from misery Shakespeare added the comedic scene so it relieves the tension that had just happened at that point within the play and calms audience down with laughter. He is extremely stocious due to heavy drinking. He is strange and quite quirky. He is an underlying metaphor because he is pretending to be the gatekeeper for hell (Duncan had just been murdered). He transitions from the supernatural story to a more dramatic side to the story. He evokes imagery that since Duncan was killed that castle is now the gates of hell. Shakespeare views the castle as,"the castle of death and corruption", due to Macbeth/lady Macbeth's murderous acts.
Murderer three - The murderer scenes are very pivotal because Macbeth is now slaughtering those whom he feels may try and get their hands on the throne. My main scene as the murderer is in the scene where Banquo is killed. We had a special man come in and run and run a workshop with us -teaching us fighting skills. for our groups production, we had to look like we were beating Banquo to death. it was very fun to do and it came across professional and felt like we were real hit men when performing as them. for this I wore my parker which seemed very military like.
attendant - this is the scene where Lady Macbeth is blurting out that she killed someone, not specifying whom, but this is when she is properly breaking down and going mad. The attendant along with the doctor notice how she "rubs her hands", (which the audience knows that she thinks her hands are coated in Duncan's blood), and she says quite a lot of things that don't make sense, yet she is fast asleep. She has gone so mad she is sleep walking, which spooks the doctor and the attendant.
In terms of what we imagined them to look like; we chose capes for the witches to wear so they look sinister and seem to then be hiding their true identity - no one knows where they came from and why. We decided that they first enter from the audience, so they seem like they are watching the prophesies they dish out unfold and watching from the shadows they chaos they have caused. They play apart of the audience really because they watch the combination of their prophesies and Macbeth/Lady Macbeth's ambition and morality take its toll. Their main objective is to appear shady and cause underlying chaos without being forward or explicit.
The dying captain - Although, only on stage for a minute or so, the captain can be seen as quite pivotal. He gives an insight on the battle Macbeth just had victory in; how it didn't look that much in the early stages of the duel, but Macbeth's resilience and strategy pulled through and that he won. this will show how courageous and brave Macbeth was and that how rewarded Macbeth must be for his accomplishment. The wounded captain is essentially feeding Macbeth's ego to Malcolm and Duncan, which is the very roots for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's growing ambition. Seen as the captain is dying, he makes sure, if this be his last breath, he puts praise and good words in for Macbeth as he now idolises him for his great show during battle. This would seem pivotal as he wasn't much worried by the fact he could be dying but he was so awestruck by the fact Macbeth triumphed that he had to tell Duncan and Malcolm, if it was the last thing he did . Because he praised him so much that was why Duncan considered him so much for the thane of Cawdor. we had a bloody shirt for the captain to wear as we wanted to convey to the audience that he was injured.
The porter - The porter scene is a comic relief, Duncan has just been murdered and to let the audience somewhat recover from misery Shakespeare added the comedic scene so it relieves the tension that had just happened at that point within the play and calms audience down with laughter. He is extremely stocious due to heavy drinking. He is strange and quite quirky. He is an underlying metaphor because he is pretending to be the gatekeeper for hell (Duncan had just been murdered). He transitions from the supernatural story to a more dramatic side to the story. He evokes imagery that since Duncan was killed that castle is now the gates of hell. Shakespeare views the castle as,"the castle of death and corruption", due to Macbeth/lady Macbeth's murderous acts.
Murderer three - The murderer scenes are very pivotal because Macbeth is now slaughtering those whom he feels may try and get their hands on the throne. My main scene as the murderer is in the scene where Banquo is killed. We had a special man come in and run and run a workshop with us -teaching us fighting skills. for our groups production, we had to look like we were beating Banquo to death. it was very fun to do and it came across professional and felt like we were real hit men when performing as them. for this I wore my parker which seemed very military like.
attendant - this is the scene where Lady Macbeth is blurting out that she killed someone, not specifying whom, but this is when she is properly breaking down and going mad. The attendant along with the doctor notice how she "rubs her hands", (which the audience knows that she thinks her hands are coated in Duncan's blood), and she says quite a lot of things that don't make sense, yet she is fast asleep. She has gone so mad she is sleep walking, which spooks the doctor and the attendant.
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