Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue

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There's a play so powerful that an old superstition says its name should never even be uttered in a theater.
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A play that begins with witchcraft and ends with a bloody severed head.
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A play filled with riddles, prophecies, nightmare visions, and lots of brutal murder.
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A play by William Shakespeare, sometimes referred to as The Scottish Play, or The Tragedy of Macbeth.
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First performed at the Globe Theater in London in 1606, Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.
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It is also one of his most action-packed.
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In five acts, it recounts the story of a Scottish nobleman who steals the throne, presides over a reign of terror, and then meets a bloody end.
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Along the way, it asks important questions about ambition, power, and violence that spoke directly to the politics of Shakespeare's time.
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And continue to echo in our own.
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England in the early 17th century.
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Was politically precarious.
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Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 without producing an heir.
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And in a surprise move, her advisors passed the crown to James Stewart, King of Scotland.
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Two years later, James was subject to an assassination attempt.
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Called the gunpowder plot.
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Questions of what made for a legitimate king were on everyone's lips.
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So Shakespeare must have known he had potent material when he conflated and adapted the stories of a murderous 11th century Scottish king, named Macbeth.
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And those of several other Scottish nobles.
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He found their annals in Holinshed's Chronicles, a popular 16th century history of Britain and Ireland.
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Shakespeare would also have known he needed to tell his story in a way that would immediately grab the attention of his diverse and rowdy audience.
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The Globe welcomed all sections of society.
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Wealthier patrons watched the stage from covered balconies.
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While poorer people paid a penny to take in the show from an open air section called the pit.
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Talking, jeering, and cheering was common during performances.
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There are even accounts of audiences throwing furniture when plays were flops.
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So Macbeth opens with a literal bang.
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Thunder cracks and three witches appear.
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They announce they're searching for a Scottish nobleman and war hero named Macbeth.
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Then fly off while chanting a curse that predicts a world gone mad.
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Fair is foul and foul is fair.
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Hover through the fog and filthy air.
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A scene later they find Macbeth and his fellow nobleman Banquo.
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All hail Macbeth, they prophesized.
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That shalt be king hereafter.
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King, Macbeth wonders.
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Just what would he have to do to gain the crown?
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Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, soon chart a course of murder, lies, and betrayal.
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In the ensuing blood bath, Shakespeare provides viewers with some of the most memorable passages in English literature.
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Out, damn spot, out, I say.
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Lady Macbeth cries when she believes she can't wipe her victim's blood off her hands.
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Her obsession with guilt is one of many themes that runs through the play.
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Along with the universal tendency to abuse power, the endless cycles of violence and betrayal that define political conflict.
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As is typical with Shakespeare's language, a number of phrases that got their start in the play.
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Have been repeated so many times that they now feel commonplace.
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They include the milk of human kindness, what's done is done, and the famous witches spell.
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Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.
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But Shakespeare saves the juiciest bit of all.
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For Macbeth himself.
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Towards the end of the play, Macbeth reflects on the universality of death and the futility of life.
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Out, out, brief candle.
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He laments.
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Life's but a walking shadow.
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A poor player that's struts and frets his hour upon the stage.
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And then is heard no more.
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It is a tale told by an idiot.
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Full of sound and fury.
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Signifying nothing.
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Life may be a tale told by an idiot.
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But Macbeth is not.
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Shakespeare's language and characters have entered our cultural consciousness to a rare extent.
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Directors often use the story to shed light on abuses of power, ranging from the American mafia to dictators across the globe.
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The play has been adapted to film many times.
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Including Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, which takes place in feudal Japan, and a modernized version called Scotland PA.
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In which Macbeth and his rivals are managers of competing fast food restaurants.
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No matter the presentation, questions of morality, politics, and power are still relevant today.
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And so, it seems, is Shakespeare's Macbeth.
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Did you enjoy this lesson?
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If so, please consider supporting our non-profit mission.
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By visiting patreon.com/teded.

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