When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606 James I had been King of England for three years. He was also the king of Scotland.

Macbeth is a tragedy.

Tragic hero = A person of importance; ie: king Has a fatal flaw—usually hubris Must make an important moral choice Moral choice leads to tragic hero’s destruction Destruction becomes widespread, affecting

those around the tragic hero

1. Meter refers to the pattern of syllables in a line of poetry

2. Pentameter is simply penta, which means 5, meters.

3. An unstressed/stressed foot is known as an iamb

4. In basic iambic pentameter, a line would have 5 feet of iambs, which is an unstressed and then a stressed syllable.

Example: if YOU | would PUT | the KEY | inSIDE | the LOCKda DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceiveOur bosom interest: go pronounce his death,

And with his former title greet Macbeth.

EXAMPLE:

A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

Example:Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience.

the audience is meant to realize that the character's speech is unheard by the other characters on stage.

from Latin: "talking by oneself" a device often used in drama whereby a

character speaks to himself or herself, relating his or her thoughts and feelings and sharing them with the audience.

Other characters are not aware of what is being said.

* The Earth was the centre of the universe and everything was arranged in an orderly fashion.

* Society reflected this order with its fixed classes from the highest to the lowest – kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants, and peasants

* The Elizabethans called this hierarchical structure The Great Chain of Being.

Scotland—around 1100 * height of the Viking era * clan system mixed with feudalism

(castles, kings, lords) * thane—Scottish title equivalent to a

lord or baron

The “real” Macbeth * died 15 August 1057 * probably not a tyrant * Shakespeare’s story based

on legend

• Strong belief in the supernatural—• ghosts, witches, prophecy

concept roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny

from the Old Norse for “fate, doom, fortunes”

“weird” related to it