Macbeth Viewing Guide (fill this out after the performance – not during)

Characters:

  • Duncan – King of Scotland, killed by Macbeth to fulfill the witches prophesy (regicide = purposeful killing of a king)
  • Malcolm – Duncan's eldest son
  • Donalbain – Duncan's youngest son
  • Macbeth – A general in the army of King Duncan, originally Thane of Glamis, then Thane of Cawdor and later King of Scotland (as predicted by the witches). The witches also said that no man born of woman can kill him, and he wouldn’t die until the Birnam woods moved to the castle (Macduff was born through a cesarean and his army camouflaged themselves with the branches from Birnam wood.)
  • Lady Macbeth – Macbeth's wife, and later Queen of Scotland, she dies at the end of the play (implied suicide). Be ready to compare her with Gertrude and Ophelia.
  • Banquo – Macbeth's friend and a general in the army of King Duncan; he is killed by Macbeth (then Banquo haunts him), the witches prophesy says his decendents will be kings of Scotland.
  • Fleance – Banquo's son, his later descendants gain the throne and begin the Stuart line of kings in England. James I, who was king during the writing of Macbeth, was, as legend had it, Fleance's descendant.
  • Macduff – The Thane of Fife, discovers that Macbeth killed King Duncan, is a moral foil for Macbeth’s perversion, ends up killing Macbeth.
  • Lady Macduff – Macduff's wife, killed by Macbeth’s men (along with Macduff’s young son), foil to Lady Macbeth.
  • Witches – called the weird (wyrd = fate) sisters, three supposedly androgynous, wild and hideous women who hang out in the Birnam woods (James I liked to study demonology and was intrigued by conquering spiritual evil).

Motifs: Watch for references to…

  • Witchcraft, superstition, curses, prophesy, hallucinations
  • Blood, darkness
  • Afterlife references, biblical allusions

Critical Approaches:

  • Feminist approach (Hamlet’s action/attitude toward Gertrude and Ophelia and their responses)

Themes:

  • Illusion vs. Reality (unnatural vs. natural)
  • Existentialism – does life have meaning? Is it worth living?
  • Order vs. disorder
  • The consequences of ambition and too much power

Homework Due Mon 4/11 or Tues 4/12:

You need to provide evidence that you did this assignment, absorbed the information and analysis.

Go to the following website

I would like you to start by clicking on this link:

  • Soliloquy Analysis: She should have died hereafter (5.5.17-28)

Read and take notes on the last soliloquy of Macbeth – we will compare it to the “to be” soliloquy in Hamlet. Make sure you explore the links in the soliloquy and continue to “soliloquy analysis” link below the soliloquy.

Click on at least three more links(after the one above ) on the main page and record information that you learn.

Be ready to discuss Hamlet and Macbeth (themes, characters, soliloquies) in a seminar on Mon 4/11 or Tues 4/12