Simile. A simile is a comparison using like or as. As you read scene 4, look for the simile in which Macbeth compares himself to an element of nature.
Climax and Crisis. The climax is the point of highest interest and suspense in a literary work. The crisis is that point in the development of the conflict at which a decisive event occurs that causes the main character’s situation to become better or worse. As you read act 3, identify the climax and the crisis.
Motif. A motif is any element that recurs in one or more works of literature or art. Motifs in Macbeth include ambition, deception, disturbances in nature, blood, madness, and sleep.
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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 listing examples of deception in the play.
When have you felt panic and been unable to think clearly?
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