Macbeth
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
William Shakespeare creates powerful women only to punish them. Discuss this comment with reference to Lady Macbeth and the weird sisters!
Macbeth was one of four tragic plays written by William Shakespeare. The other three being “Hamlet”, “King Lear” and “Othello”. Believed to have been written in the early 1600’s, “Macbeth” was thought to have been written for James VI. James VI was very much interested in witchcraft and in Scotland, and that’s two things that the play definitely contains. It’s set in Scotland and it’s witchcraft that sets up the plot of the play. The Play also follows the plot of murder, power, deception, and regicide. The most important theme though is power. Its power that most of the main characters want to obtain and they’ll go to extreme lengths to get it. Nonetheless it’s the guilt and grief of the power that makes the characters come crashing down. Despite the fact that “Macbeth” is all about gaining power, the strange thing is, is that it’s the women who seem to have the most power, and in the day and age the play was written that would have been a very weird scenario.
As a result of James VI been very interested in witchcraft, “Macbeth” would have been very much appreciated by the king, who believed that he was god’s representative on earth, and if that was so he said that the devil would have to have a representative too which he believed were witches. Witches were supposed to be women who had sold their soles to the devil in exchange for committing evil deeds. It was in theory that witches killed children, were able to fly, make people ill, cause shipwrecks and were said to have the power to conjure a storm. Clearly Shakespeare knew this and used the ideas to attract a larger audience.
A short summary of the play is this. Macbeth is a Scottish General who at first is loyal to the king of the country, Duncan. The weird sister’s predict that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor for serving...
View Full Essay
