Ambition
"Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself?" |
The
most obvious subject in Macbeth
is ambition and we see this with both
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They are tempted by the idea that Macbeth will become
king - Macbeth is not sure what to do but his wife is ruthless in getting what
she wants - she views her husband as a coward and appears ready to do anything.
Ambition leads to evil - it makes Macbeth
stronger and more determined, but then destroys his wife - she goes mad. And
ambition eventually kills him as well, because he becomes a tyrant and so loses
the support of his friends.
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Loyalty
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject |
Loyalty is also strong themes in Macbeth. Duncan clearly values loyalty - he
has the first Thane of Cawdor executed and rewards Macbeth by making him the
new Thane. Shakespeare cleverly uses loyalty as a dramatic device as well -
Duncan is in the middle of talking about 'absolute trust' when Macbeth walks in
- we know he's already thought killing Duncan, but for the moment he talks
about 'the loyalty I owe' and his 'duties' to Duncan.Macbeth,
however, has an odd idea of loyalty - he knows he is doing the wrong thing, but
he still goes ahead. Early on in the play perhaps it is his wife who is
manipulating him, but later on it is Macbeth who makes the decisions. And later
on he also starts to show he hates disloyalty, threatening his messengers and
servants.
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The Black Death
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return |
In
1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease. This particular
epidemic claimed between a quarter and a third of the total Elizabethan London
population. The Elizabethan City of London was filthy. It's
population was growing continuously with poor people moving from the country to
London in search of work. There was a total lack of a structured sewage system
in Elizabethan London. William
Shakespeare lived in the Elizabethan era when the plague, sometimes referred to
as the Black Death, was virulent. He was known to have a terrible fear of the
deadly disease and its consequences and this is hardly surprising as it touched
so many areas of his life including his life as an actor at the Globe Theater. There
were three very serious outbreaks of the disease which led to the closure of all
places of Elizabethan entertainment, including the Globe Theater.
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Religious Beliefs
Religious thinkers in the Elizabethan Era had upheld the idea of 'The
Great Chain of Being'. This was the belief that God had designed an ordered
system for both nature and humankind within which every creature and person had
an allotted place. It was considered an offence against God for anyone to try
to alter their station in life. After death, however, all would be raised in
the kingdom of heaven, if they respected God's will. Since royal rank was
bestowed by God, it was a sin to aspire to it. This doctrine was still widely held in Shakespeare's
day.
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