REN - The Elizabethan Drama: Tragedy and Macbeth Lesson

The rebirth of art and culture appearing during the Renaissance was not limited to art and poetry. Plays during the Renaissance remain comparable to the movies of today. Drama served as an important source of entertainment, and the nobility sponsored the production of the plays.

Various troupes traveled the countryside and performed plays onstage for a wide range of people during the Renaissance. Members of the troupes were all males because laws prevented females from appearing onstage. One of the most famous theatres in London was The Globe theatre—which William Shakespeare partly owned and where his troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, performed his plays.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is perhaps one of the most famous writers of all time, yet scholars do not know much about his life aside from basic biographical facts. Shakespeare was born during 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, married Anne Hathaway when he was 18, and had three children. He was an actor, writer, and part-owner of a company of actors named the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Shakespeare is famous for his poetry and plays that he wrote during the Renaissance. From the previous lesson, students should be familiar with Shakespeare's famous sonnet form and the sonnet sequence he wrote. Similarly, his plays serve as some of the best works ever produced. Shakespeare's plays consisted of comedies, histories, and tragedies; some of the plays satirized society during this time period, and some of the plays highlighted history and various themes of the Renaissance, such as focusing on the self. Comedies typically ended happily with a marriage, histories detailed the issues happening during the reign of certain rulers, and tragedies mostly ended sadly with death and destruction.

The Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of drama that deals with a serious theme involving a great person who experiences a downfall due to a character flaw or conflict with an overpowering force. The genre of dramatic tragedy dates back 2500 years to the theatres of Ancient Greece. The Greeks wrote several tragedies, and Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, studied tragedies.

4 Basic Principles of Tragedies

Tragedies include the following basic principles:

1. The protagonist, or tragic
   character, is of high ranking
   and/or socially important.
2. The protagonist has a tragic
   flaw (hamartia), or a flaw that
   leads to his or her downfall.
3. The protagonist recognizes his
   or her flaw and the downfall (anagnorisis)
4. The protagonist suffers a
   reversal of fortune or a fall
   from grace (peripetela).

Aristotle

Aristotle's analysis of a tragedy is much more complex and provides depth as to what a serves as a true classical tragedy. View the presentation on Aristotle's analysis based on Aristotle's Poetics of a classical tragedy in order to gain a deep understanding of the tragedy genre:

 

Background of Macbeth

Shakespeare often consulted Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which was a large book covering the history of Britain, in order to find inspiration for his plays. Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies based loosely on information from Holinshed's Chronicles. Written in 1605, the play tells the story of a man, Macbeth, who destroys himself and a kingdom due to focusing solely on himself, his ambition, and his desire for power.

Although Shakespeare wrote Macbeth based on Holinshed's Chronicles, several historical inaccuracies exist in the play:

• Shakespeare sets the battle between Duncan and Macbeth in 1040 at Birnam Hill in Perthshire, rather than near Elgin where it actually took place
• In the play, Macbeth dies at Dunsinane, but in reality, Macbeth dies at Lumphanan where he was defeated and killed in 1057
• Shakespeare's play takes place over a year, but in reality, Macbeth ruled for 17 years
• In the play, Shakespeare paints Duncan as a strong, wise and elderly king when actually he was a young, weak, and ineffective ruler
• Shakespeare's Macbeth has no claim to the throne, but the real Macbeth had a claim through his mother's side
• Shakespeare gives Macbeth the title 'Thane of Glamis' but that title did not exist in the 11^th Century
• In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth's friend Banquo appears as a noble and loyal man, but in Holinshed's Chronicles, Banquo is an accomplice in Macbeth's murder of Duncan
• There is a debate as to whether or not Banquo actually existed at all in history
• In the Macbeth of Holinshed's Chronicles, the wife of Macbeth is hardly mentioned, and the witches are quite different, as well

Regardless, Shakespeare was able to take history and make contemporary connections during his time period. In order to understand the plot of Macbeth, read through the summary of the tragedy for background knowledge before beginning the play.

A Summary of Macbeth Links to an external site.