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As a class, we all discussed whether or not we believe ourselves to be superstitious. Some people said no while other explained their superstitions. One person brought up the difference between religion and superstition and overall we had a great discussion full of multiple opinions and points of view.
Shakespeare
Today we prepared ourselves for our reading of Macbeth by gaining a little bit of background knowledge on Shakespeare.
He was born in 1563 in England and he actually began his career as an actor. Despite this, he’s written 36-38 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 long narrative poems. Shakespeare was terrified that someone would steal his work so he did not distribute original copies and the actors were only given their lines. Everything we have today was written down by the audience who was watching the play. None of Shakespeare’s plays were officially published throughout his life and he passed away on April 23, 1616.
It is believed that Shakespeare’s remains are cursed. According to some, he was afraid that his remains would be stolen and he placed a curse on himself. This curse was quite effective for his remains have not been touched since he was buried.
Below is a photograph of Shakespeare's grave.
Discussion
After gaining some insight into who Shakespeare was, the class discussed our impressions of him. Some said they find him quite peculiar while others pointed out how paranoid he was. Overall, we all got a similar impression of him, and after this discussion, we proceeded with our lesson.
Macbeth
After the discussion, we gained some more insight into Macbeth, both the play and the king. We discussed the important figures in the play, including Macbeth. We learn that Macbeth was written for King James I, and it was Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. Throughout the play we see the common belief of witches and daemons. King James was quite superstitious and believed that witches and daemons were sent by God to test mankind. In fact, King James was the nation's leading witch hunter! After catching some witches who sunk his ship, King James wrote the “bible” of witch-hunters. Witches were believed to be women who had supernatural powers. They were accused of anything from souring milk to killing cattle and they were blamed for bad crops and poor weather.
The Curse of Macbeth
It is believed that the play Macbeth was cursed by witches who were upset that their secrets were being shown on stage. They placed and eternal curse on the play and to this day, the play remains cursed. Some examples of the curse include the boy who played Lady Macbeth suddenly died from sickness and William Shakespeare had to play Lady Macbeth himself, and actor playing Macbeth substituted the blunt dagger for a real one and killed his co-actor, in 1849, 31 people were trampled to death during a riot that broke out, and in 1934, a British actor turned mute on stage and his replacement got extremely ill and had to be hospitalized.
The Play
In the play only men were allowed to perform as women were believed to be too weak in emotion to act and instead, boys and effeminate men played the women. Costumes were the company’s most valuable asset and they were often bought in London or donated by courtiers.
The Globe Theater
The Globe Theater was an open air theater that no internal lighting so plays had to be performed during the day. The upper class could buy seated tickets while the lower class bought cheap standing tickets. Many playwrights had nowhere to perform their plays and so they turned a barn into a theatre, and then the Puritans burned it down, and then the Globe was build but it also burned down and it was rebuilt and then it burned yet again.
Expectations
Following our discussions about the globe, we got some expectations for Macbeth. These include supernatural occurrences, tyranny and cruelty, and unchecked ambition.
Macbeth Referenced in Modern Media
Finally, we discussed common references of Macbeth in modern media. My favorite example was from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble”
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