,Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy (probably because the only text we have was a performance adaptation cut by Thomas Heywood), and it’s at a breakneck speed that Macbeth’s ambition turns into pure evil, as his paranoia mounts and one murder spawns many more. It was probably written around 1604, to celebrate the newly-coronated King James I of England, who was descended from one of Macbeth’s noble victims, Banquo.
Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his ambition, and lust for power, though it’s his wife who shows the most cutthroat opportunism, egging Macbeth on to murder the King, and feeling no ostensible remorse— she eventually breaks down spectacularly, in the fifth act, delivering the famous “Out, damned spot!” speech.
Often referred to as “the Scottish play,” due to the supposed bad luck its name brings to those who say it, Macbeth is indeed a play of ill fortune, stemming from the the trickery of the witches and ending with Macbeth trying to slaughter everyone around him: it is a bloody and blunt affair.
Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his ambition, and lust for power, though it’s his wife who shows the most cutthroat opportunism, egging Macbeth on to murder the King, and feeling no ostensible remorse— she eventually breaks down spectacularly, in the fifth act, delivering the famous “Out, damned spot!” speech.
Often referred to as “the Scottish play,” due to the supposed bad luck its name brings to those who say it, Macbeth is indeed a play of ill fortune, stemming from the the trickery of the witches and ending with Macbeth trying to slaughter everyone around him: it is a bloody and blunt affair.