Context in Macbeth.pptx

Lesson on King James I (VI) and references to Scotland and witches in the play

1. Context in Macbeth: James I (1603-1625)

2. James I succeeded Elizabeth I. His time is called Jacobean. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Elizabethan England This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Jacobean England This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

3. James I became King of England in 1603. Macbeth was first performed in 1606. King James I was patron of Shakespeare's acting company - The King's Men. The King's Men was the acting company to which William Shakespeare (1564–1616) belonged for most of his career. Formerly known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, they became the King's Men in 1603 when King James I ascended the throne and became the company's patron.

4. James’s mother was Mary, Queen of Scots. James became James VI, King of Scotland, as a baby. In 1603, he joined the two crowns together. The Union of the Crowns was symbolised in James's personal royal heraldic badge after 1603, the Tudor rose dimidiated with the Scottish thistle ensigned by the royal crown.

5. Shakespeare wanted to please the Scottish king, so he included many references to Scotland in Macbeth The play is set in Scotland: A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. The witches in Macbeth are important because King James hated witches and organized witch hunts. The play ends with the English forces restoring the rightful heir to the throne – Prince Malcolm.

6. Shakespeare wanted to please the Scottish king, so he included many references to Scotland in Macbeth The play is set in Scotland: scene 1, act 1 shows the witches, scene 2, act 1 shows Duncan, King of Scotland, receiving the news about Macbeth’s bravery

7. Shakespeare wanted to please the Scottish king, so he included many references to Scotland in Macbeth The witches in Macbeth are important because King James hated witches and organized witch hunts. James became concerned with the threat posed by witches and wrote Daemonologie in 1597, a book against witchcraft. It provided background material for Shakespeare's Macbeth .

8. Shakespeare wanted to please the Scottish king, so he included many references to Scotland in Macbeth The play ends with the English forces restoring the rightful heir to the throne – Prince Malcolm. Thus, the ending of Macbeth is very much about England helping Scotland.

9. Mentions of Scotland in Act 4, scene 3: MACDUFF    Stands Scotland where it did? ROSS    Alas, poor country, Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot  Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing  But who knows nothing is once seen to smile;  Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air  Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems A modern ecstasy. The dead man’s knell  Is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives  Expire before the flowers in their caps,  Dying or ere they sicken.

10. Remember, remember, the 5 th of November – The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland – a Scottish king in the 11 th century - in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

11. Painful memories for King James I: The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought to restore the Catholic monarchy to England after decades of persecution against Catholics.

12. Summary: In what way James I and Scotland are an important context in Macbeth?

13. How to use context in your essay: Macbeth Macbeth is portrayed as a brave but immoral character from the start, as he takes advice from the witches. King James hated witches; he wrote a book against witchcraft called Demonology in 1597. Shakespeare uses witches to refer to the king’s interests, but also to show the immoral grounds of Macbeth’s actions. Lady Macbeth A strong female character can be a negative reference to Queen Elizabeth I, whom King James I succeeded. Elizabeth I ordered to execute Mary, Queen of Scots – King James’s mother, and so the image of murderous queen could have pleased King James as a tribute to his mother’s memory.