Jon Finch and Francesca Annis in The Tragedy of Macbeth by Roman Polanski, 1971.

Macbeth Performer Heritage

Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2016
 Macbeth

1. Main characteristics
• The shortest of
Shakespeare’s tragedies.

• Complex psychological
analysis of what takes place
in the mind of the criminal.

James Heath, I have done the deed, 1888.

Kansas City, Carbonell-Weinglass Collection.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

1. Main characteristics
• No villain pitted against the hero.

• Macbeth begins as a brave

warrior but, led by ambition, Parable of the
he chooses evil and becomes tragic hero
a murderous tyrant.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure
Symmetrical development

Climax

Rising action Falling action

Introduction Conclusion

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure
Climax

Symmetrical development Rising action Falling action

Introduction Conclusion

Introduction

The first two scenes: the

appearance of the three witches
and the news of Macbeth’s
bravery in battle.
The three witches in Macbeth by John Barnes, 1964.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure
Climax

Symmetrical development
Rising action Falling action

Introduction Conclusion

Rising action

Macbeth meets the three witches:

their prophecy begins to work on his
ambition. He kills Duncan.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure
Climax

Symmetrical development Rising action Falling action

Introduction Conclusion

Climax

Banquo’s murder
(Act III, Scene 3)

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure Climax

Rising action Falling action

Symmetrical development
Introduction Conclusion

Falling action

Fleance’s escape

the banquet scene

arousing of Macduff

Macbeth retreats to Dunsinane Thèodore Chassèriau (1819-1856),

Castle Macbeth seeing the ghost of Banquo, 1854,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

2. Dramatic structure
Climax

Symmetrical development Rising action Falling action

Introduction Conclusion

Conclusion

Final fall and death of Lady

Macbeth and Macbeth

Henry Fuseli, Lady Macbeth

sleepwalking, 1798, Musée
du Louvre.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

3. The setting
• Set in Scotland in the 11th century.

• The weather is characterised by fog

and thunderstorms.

• The action takes place first at Macbeth’s

castle in Inverness and later at the palace
in Dunsinane.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

3. The setting
• There is a contrast between the moors,
where the witches appear, and the castles.

The moors  The castles 

meeting place of the apparently safe but
witches and evil but unnatural
natural foul
fair dangerous
safe

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

4. Features of a tragic hero

• Nobility of birth or wisdom.

• A flaw, either a mistake in the character’s actions

or in his personality, that leads to his downfall.

• A reversal of fortune caused by his flaw.

• The realisation that the reversal was brought about

by the hero’s own actions.

• The audience has to feel pity and fear (catharsis)

for the character.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

5. The characters

Macbeth
• a brave general, leader of Duncan’s army
together with Banquo;
• urged into action by his wife;
• lacks moral courage;
• ambitious and superstitious;
• becomes cruel and unscrupulous.

Jon Finch in The Tragedy of Macbeth

by Roman Polanski, 1971.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

5. The characters

Lady Macbeth
• suppresses her natural instincts
to plan the murder;
• strong-willed, supports Macbeth
in his weakness;
• devoted to her husband, she
ends up in madness.

John Singer Sargent, Ellen Terry

as Lady Macbeth, 1889 , Tate
Gallery, London.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

5. The characters

King Duncan
• peaceful and refined;
• shows poor judgement of human
nature.

Banquo
• a contrast to Macbeth in his modesty;
• does not follow temptation like Macbeth.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

5. The characters

Macduff
• becomes important after
Banquo’s murder;
• noble, loyal, patriotic;
• kills Macbeth at the end.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

6. Themes

a. Regicide, as an act against

nature, brings chaos.

b. Reversal of values:
‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’.
(The three witches)

Henry Fuseli, Macbeth, Banquo

and the three witches, 1793.
Petworth House, National Trust.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

6. Themes
c. Supernatural
• The three witches and their prophecies lead Macbeth
to success.
• The chaos of nature on the night of Duncan’s murder.
• Banquo’s ghost.

Henry Fuseli, The three witches,

1788, Zurich, Kunsthaus.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

6. Themes

d. Equivocation and false

appearance

chain of metaphors
connected with clothing.

e. Future time

cluster of imagery
concerned with growth:
babies, seeds, plants,
Gabriele Lavia
trees. in Macbeth, 2009.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

7. Style
• Use of blank verse.

Blank verse is basically unrhymed iambic

pentameter:

Macbeth does murther Sleep, - the innocent Sleep;

Sleep, that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care
(Act II, Scene 2)

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

7. Style
• If one character ends his speech
without finishing his line verse,
the following speaker completes
that line.

• Inclusion, within the verbal structure

of verse, of metrical space for other,
non-verbal signs.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

7. Style

• A striking use of imagery:

- similes
The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures
(Act II, Scene 2)

- metaphors
Life’s but a walking shadow
(Act V, Scene 5)

- symbols
the innocent Sleep
A little water clears us of this deed
(Act II, Scene 2)

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

7. Style

• Clusters of imagery:
- Blood  the most frequent word in the play.

- The animal world  night and disgusting animals

are used to convey Macbeth’s troubled mind.

- Images connected with growth, babies, seeds

and plants  linked to the theme of the future.

- Images of clothing  linked to the theme of false

appearances.

Performer Heritage
 Macbeth

7. Style

• Use of dramatic irony:

Duncan’s appreciation of the beauty of Macbeth’s castle

This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses
(Act I, Scene 6)

Performer Heritage