William Shakespeare

About Poet - William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, widely regarded as both the
greatest writer in English language and world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's
national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard").

His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other
poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more
often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born (in 1564) and raised in Stafford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married
Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful
career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stafford around
1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there
has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and
whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were
mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the
end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet,
King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last
phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and
in 1623 two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his
dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to
its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed
Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshiped Shakespeare with a reverence that
George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly
adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain
highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and
political contexts throughout the world.

Famous tragedies by Shakespeare-

 Hamlet (the smallest tragedy- credulousness)
 King Lear (the greatest tragedy- arrogance)
 Macbeth (the shortest tragedy- overlapping ambition)
 Othello (the best tragedy- inconsistency)
 Julius Caesar
 Antony and Cleopatra
 Romeo and Juliet

Famous comedies by Shakespeare-

 All's Well That Ends Well.
  As You Like It.
 The Tempest
 Twelfth Night
 The Comedy of Errors.
 Measure for Measure.
 The Merchant of Venice.
 Two Gentlemen of Verona
 The Merry Wives of Windsor.
 A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Macbeth - Dramatic Personae

1. The Three Witches

Three “black and midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells,
and prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of
Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality. The play leaves the
witches’ true identity unclear—aside from the fact that they are servants of Hecate, we
know little about their place in the cosmos. In some ways, they resemble the mythological
Fates, who impersonally weave the threads of human destiny. They clearly take a perverse
delight in using their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings.
2. Hecate
The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the three witches work their mischief on Macbeth.
3. Macbeth
Macbeth is a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the
prophecies of the three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane
of Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not a
virtuous one. He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and
once he commits his first crime and is crowned King of Scotland, he embarks on further
atrocities with increasing ease. Ultimately, Macbeth proves himself better suited to the
battlefield than to political intrigue, because he lacks the skills necessary to rule without
being a tyrant. His response to every problem is violence and murder. Unlike Shakespeare’s
great villains, such as Iago in Othello and Richard III in Richard III, Macbeth is never
comfortable in his role as a criminal. He is unable to bear the psychological consequences of
his atrocities.
4. Lady Macbeth
Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position. Early in the
play, she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two, as she urges her husband
to kill Duncan and seize the crown. After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls
victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband. Her conscience
affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide. Interestingly, she and
Macbeth are presented as being deeply in love, and many of Lady Macbeth’s speeches imply
that her influence over her husband is primarily sexual. Their joint alienation from the
world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the attachment that
they feel to each another.
5. Banquo
The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit
the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not
 translate those thoughts into action. In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to
Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition
need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not
Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing
Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the
witches’ prophecy.
6. King Duncan
The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan
is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler. His death symbolizes the
destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s line, in the
person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.
7. Malcolm
The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order
following Macbeth’s reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with
Macduff’s aid (and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of
his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder.
8. Donalbain
Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother.
9. Macduff
A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a
leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king,
Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of
Macduff’s wife and young son.
10. Lady Macduff
Macduff’s wife. The scene in her castle provides our only glimpse of a domestic realm other
than that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She and her home serve as contrasts to Lady
Macbeth and the hellish world of Inverness.
11. Fleance
Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him. At the end of the play,
Fleance’s whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling
the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish throne.
12. Lennox & Ross
Scottish noblemen
13. The Murderers
A group of ruffians conscripted by Macbeth to murder Banquo, Fleance (whom they fail to
kill), and Macduff’s wife and children.
14. Porter
The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle.

Macbeth - Brief Summary

The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches and then moves to a military
camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo,
have defeated two separate invading armies—one from Ireland, led by the rebel Macdonwald,
and one from Norway. Following their pitched battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and
Banquo encounter the witches as they cross a moor. The witches prophecy that Macbeth will
be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They
also prophecy that Macbeth’s companion, Banquo, will beget a line of Scottish kings, although
Banquo will never be king himself.

The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo treat their prophecies skeptically until some of
King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle. He informs that
Duncan had declared Malcolm successor of his heir and told Macbeth that he has indeed been
named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians
and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that the
remainder of the witches’ prophecy—that he will be crowned king—might be true, but he is
uncertain what to expect. He visits with King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at
Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling
her all that has happened.

Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband’s uncertainty. She desires the kingship for him and
wants him to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she
overrides all of her husband’s objections and persuades him to kill the king that very night. He
and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan’s two chamberlains drunk so they will black out; the next
morning they will blame the murder on the chamberlains, who will be defenseless, as they will
remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a
number of supernatural portents, including a vision of a bloody dagger. When Duncan’s death
is discovered the next morning, Macbeth kills the chamberlains—ostensibly out of rage at their
crime—and easily assumes the kingship. Duncan’s sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England
and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well.

Fearful of the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne, Macbeth hires a
group of murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. They ambush Banquo on his way to a
royal feast, but they fail to kill Fleance, who escapes into the night. Macbeth becomes furious:
as long as Fleance is alive, he fears that his power remains insecure. At the feast that night,
Banquo’s ghost visits Macbeth. When he sees the ghost, Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his
guests, who include most of the great Scottish nobility. Lady Macbeth tries to neutralize the
damage, but Macbeth’s kingship incites increasing resistance from his nobles and subjects.

Frightened, Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence
of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a
Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth’s accession to the throne; he is incapable of being
harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to
Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure, because he knows that all men are born
of women and that forests cannot move. When he learns that Macduff has fled to England to
join Malcolm, Macbeth orders that Macduff’s castle be seized and, most cruelly, that Lady
Macduff and her children be murdered.

When news of his family’s execution reaches Macduff in England, he is stricken with grief and
vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan’s son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and
Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth’s forces. The invasion has the
support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth’s tyrannical and
murderous behavior. Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, becomes plagued with fits of sleepwalking in
which she bemoans what she believes to be bloodstains on her hands. Before Macbeth’s
opponents arrive, Macbeth receives news that she has killed herself, causing him to sink into a
deep and pessimistic despair. Nevertheless, he awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane, to
which he seems to have withdrawn in order to defend himself, certain that the witches’
prophecies guarantee his invincibility. He is struck numb with fear, however, when he learns
that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood.
Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane, fulfilling half of the witches’ prophecy.

In the battle, Macbeth hews violently, but the English forces gradually overwhelm his army and
castle. On the battlefield, Macbeth encounters the vengeful Macduff, who declares that he was
not “of woman born” but was instead “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (what we
now call birth by cesarean section). Though he realizes that he is doomed, Macbeth continues
to fight until Macduff kills and beheads him. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his
benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.