They are alone, and therefore they stand alone, utterly independent. These malevolent forces are not the figment of someone else’s imagination because there is nobody else present to witness them. The objective presence of the supernatural is established from the outset with the entry of the three witches. Having set the scene in which the playwright settles down to write, let’s examine the gloomy fruits of his muse. In doing so, he was highlighting the difference between the Machiavellian anti-Catholicism of contemporary England and the virtuous Catholic kings of the “merrie” English past. Another stroke of satirical brilliance is provided by Shakespeare’s contrasting of the wicked Scottish king, Macbeth, with his great English contemporary and counterpart, St. Considering that Elizabeth had ordered the execution of James’ mother, Mary Stuart, the connection was a stroke of satirical genius on Shakespeare’s part. Furthermore, although Macbeth is a real historical figure, it is surely more than mere coincidence that Mac-Beth means “son of Beth,” a barely concealed suggestion that James is continuing in the tyrannous tradition of his predecessor, Elizabeth I.
It is, therefore, against this gloom-laden and doom-driven backdrop of intensified persecution that Shakespeare wrote this darkest of plays.Ĭonsidering that the latest wave of anti-Catholic persecution had been ushered in by the new Scottish king, James I, it is significant that Shakespeare should choose to write a play about a wicked Scottish king at this very time. In the same month, Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna was fined as a Catholic recusant.
WHO KILLS MACBETH TRIAL
The discussion of “equivocation” in the play would seem to be an allusion to the trial of the Jesuit, Henry Garnet, who was executed in May 1606 for his alleged complicity in the plot. The date of its composition is not certain but several clues within the text suggest strongly that it was first performed in 1606, shortly after the notorious Gunpowder Plot in November of the previous year. At only 2,107 lines it is barely half the length of Hamlet, with which it is often compared. Apart from The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, a tragedy of errors, is the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays.