macbeth context

Question 1

gender roles

Answer 1

5-10% of women were literate
most couldn’t own property

Question 2

kingship - god

Answer 2

divine right of kings
- belief that the king was chosen by god
- any act against the king was against god

Question 3

kingship - importance

Answer 3

great chain of being
- god was highest authority then the king
- macbeth goes against the chain

Question 4

kingship - how m became king

Answer 4

tannestry
- scottish law that the king can be chosen and is not necessarily the heir

Question 5

witches - prophecies

Answer 5

gun powder plot
- used equivocation - conspirators didn’t reveal whole truth - gov saw this as lying and thought it was evil

Question 6

witches - evil

Answer 6

were seen as evil and killed
- king james wrote ‘Daemonology’ and had fascination with witches

Question 7

king james

Answer 7

wrote daemonology- fascination with witches
king james named his friends earls like Malcom

Question 8

holinsheds chronicles

Answer 8

• the story was based on these
• in this macbeth was said to rule well for many years

Question 9

religion in elizabethan times

Answer 9

• monarch was leader of church - important - god chose king
• protestant country
• biblical references

Question 10

shakespearean tragedy

Answer 10

• dramatised stories characterised by death and disaster
• macbeth is the tragic hero said to be fated to doom and suffering - had a fatal flaw(his ambition)
• stems from greek tragedy