WilliamShakespeare

and Macbeth
• William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor,
widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and
the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national
poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
• William shakespeare was born in Strandtford on AvOn In 1564 His
father, the city major, was sympathetic to the travelling theatre
companies,very unusual fact because actors were viewed as tramps
and associated with beggars,Drunkards, prostitutes, etc.
• They were supposed to be lacking of morality and,
• therefore, they were rejected.
• The most common plays those day were the morality plays, short
pieces,
• inherited from the medieval tradition,that talked about the
consequences of being
• guided by vices.
• (e,x:Greed),doomed from the very beginning
• While Shakespeare’s father wasa Protestant, Shakespeare is
supposed to be a
Catholic. However,as he had to write both for and Anglican and a
Catholic audience,he
tried to avoid compromising himself. In hisworks,therefore,there is
not much concern
about theological issues (eternity,salvation…), but the characters are
worried for world
issues (power,ambition…)
When Shakespeare moved to London, this was an unsafe,
overcrowded,
polluted, rat infested city, in which diseases easily spread
• Despite that,this was the
time and place where the first theatres since the time of the
Romans were built:
The Swan, the Theatre, the Rose, the Globe…
• Theatres were seen as places of low morality,so many
puritanswanted to close them
• In addition, the unhealthy conditions of these buildings made them a
proper,Place for diseases to spread.
• This provided the local authorities with a good excuse for
Closing them for long periods of time.
• In the performances, a lot of imagination was
required,for two main reasons: as
• the theatres had no roof,the natural conditions
sometimes made the representation a little bit
unnatural (e.X:too much light for a day scene)
• Shakespeare had three different ways of spelling
his name, which suggest that
• there was not a complete awareness of the sense
of author.
• However, there was aconstant competition of
writers (e.x: Christopher Marlowe, Edmund
Spencer…)
• In 1559, Shakespeare built the Globe.
Julius Caesar was the first play
performed
• In this theatre. Although it was a
tragedy that has a subject with which
not all the Audience would be
familiar with,it was a success
• It was followed by Hamlet.
• Another very important tragedy of
Shakespeare is Macbeth,in which a
prophecy of three witches and ambition
lead Macbeth and his wife, Lady
Macbeth, to kill the king and usurp his
Throne.
• Eventually, both Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth are killed by their own sense of
guilt
• The action is set in Scotland, at that time
seen as a barbarian,cold
• mysterious place, which makes it
appropriate for this play, in which
supernatural
• elements (e.x: the three witches) and
suspense-creating riddles (e.x: the forest
that moves) become very important.
• Among the most particular characteristics of
Shakespeare’s plays, there are two
• that should be underlined in order to
understand his success: his mix of “kings
andclowns”
• (he wrote not only about mighty, high
characters, but also about
tramps,Drunkards….)and his freedom when
choosing the outcome of the stories,which is
not Always predictablesticking to moral
standards