Symbol. A symbol is a thing that stands for or represents both itself and something else. As you read, try to figure out what the blood on his hands symbolizes to Macbeth.
Hyperbole. A hyperbole is an exaggeration made for rhetorical effect. As you read, try to find an example of hyperbole in scene 2.
Verbal Irony. Verbal irony occurs when a statement is made that implies its opposite. As you read, try to find an example of verbal irony in scene 3.
Mood. Mood, or atmosphere, is the emotion created in the reader by part or all of a literary work.
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Sources. A tragedy is a drama that tells the story of the fall of a person of high status. Along with Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear, Macbeth is considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. Shakespeare used Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the major source for his story. The Chronicles tell of the reign of a bloodthirsty, twelfth-century Scottish king named Macbeth. They also tell of the murder of the Scottish king Duff by Donwald. Shakespeare combined these two tales to create the storyline of his play for performance before King James I of England, who was descended from one of the characters in the play, Banquo. Shakespeare’s dark tale of a man’s ambition and treachery, written in 1605–1606, strikes a frighteningly familiar chord today, almost four centuries later.
Reading the Play. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a history, a chilling ghost story, and a psychological thriller. Few plays have ever matched it for sheer spectacle and suspense. As you read the play, remember that the script for a play is like a score for a piece of music. It comes alive when performed. To appreciate fully the experience of reading a play, you should visualize the scenes in your mind as they might appear on stage. Allow yourself to be drawn into the play’s dark, disturbing atmosphere. Thrill to its many witches, ghosts, and other apparitions. Follow the murky descent of the central character into a horror of his own making.
Try not to be overwhelmed by Shakespeare’s use of Elizabethan English. Read each scene through quickly to get the gist of it. Concentrate on seeing the scene in your mind and not on the details of the language. Then go back and read the scene carefully, using the footnotes. Soon you will find that you have grown accustomed to Shakespeare’s English and can appreciate its sometimes spine-tingling, sometimes noble beauty.
One technique that will help you to grasp the themes, or main ideas, of the play is to look for and think about recurring elements, or motifs. These include references to ambition; to equivocation, or double-talk; to blood; to madness; to sickness; to foul weather; to manliness (or lack thereof); and to disturbances in the natural order. As you read the play, note these elements, and think about how they are related to one another. Also bear in mind that James I, for whom the play was performed by Shakespeare’s company, The King’s Men, was a staunch believer in demons and witches (about which he wrote a book) and in the Divine Right of Kings (the idea that kings gain their authority directly from God and, therefore, rule absolutely). To James, the overthrow or murder of a king would be an attack on the natural order of the universe.
As you read, make a cluster chart to list details from act 2 that create a horrific atmosphere. One example has been done for you.
Describe a time when you felt guilty. Was it for something you had done, or for something you had failed to do?
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