A.

All about William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare (1564-1616): Who was he?

Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences,

very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from

registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone.

Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and

suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.

• Date of Birth? (1564)

William was born in 1564. We know this from the earliest record we have of his life;

his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564. We don’t actually

know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similarly by

knowing the famous Bard's baptism date, we can guess that he was born three days

earlier on St. George’s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this.

• Brothers and Sisters.

William was the third child of John and Mary Shakespeare. The first two were

daughters and William was himself followed by Gilbert who died in 1612 and

Richard who died in 1613. Edmund (1580-1607), sixth in the line was baptized on

May the third, 1580 and William's oldest living sister was Joan who outlived her

famous playwright brother. Of William’s seven siblings, only Judith and four of his

brothers survived to adulthood.

• William's Father.
William's father was a John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a

local businessman who dabbled in tanning, leatherwork and whittawering which is

working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in

grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade.

• William's mother: Mary Arden.

William's mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The

youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and

farming estate when he died.

• Early Days on Henley Street...

Since we know Stratford's famous Bard lived with his father, John Shakespeare, we

can presume that he grew up in Henley Street, some one hundred miles northwest

of London.

• The Bard's Education.

Very little is known about literature’s most famous playwright. We know that the

King’s New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. William

attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no

definite proof. Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are

studied universally at Universities, never attended one himself!

• William marries an older woman. (1582)

A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen year

old William married the twenty-six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven
months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living

there her entire life.

• The Bard's children. (1583 & 1592)

Baptism records show that William’s first child, Susanna was baptized in Stratford

sometime in May, 1583. Baptism records again reveal that twins Hamnet and Judith

were born in February 1592. Hamnet, William's only son died in 1596, just eleven

years old. Hamnet and Judith were named after William’s close friends, Judith and

Hamnet Sadler. William's family was unusually small in a time when families had

many children to ensure parents were cared for in later years despite the very high

mortality rates of children and also their life expectancy in the 1500s.

• The Bard as a poet.

Evidence that the great Bard was also a poet comes from his entering his first

poem Venus and Adonis in the Stationers’ Registrar on the 18th of April, 1593. The

playwright registered his second poemThe Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of

May, 1594.

Easter event.

• The Bard's will and death.

Records reveal that the great Bard revised his will on March the 25th, 1616. Less

than a month later, he died on April the 23rd, 1616. Literature's famous Bard is

buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He infamously left his second-best

bed to his wife Anne Hathaway and little else, giving most of his estate to his eldest

daughter Susanna who has married a prominent and distinguished physician named
John Hall in June 1607. This was not as callous as it seems; the Bard's best bed was

for guests; his second-best bed was his marriage bed... His will also named actors

Richard Burbage, Henry Condell and John Hemminges, providing proof to academics

today that William was involved in theatre. The Bard's direct line of descendants

ended some 54 years later until Susanna’s daughter Elizabeth died in 1670.

• The Bard's last words...

Written upon William Shakespeare’s tombstone is an appeal that he be left to rest in

peace with a curse on those who would move his bones...

Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbeare

To digg the dust enclosed here!

Blest be ye man that spares thes stones

And curst be he that moues my bones.

Translated this reads as:

Good friend, for Jesus’ sake, forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here;

Blest be the man that spares these stones

And curst he that moves my bones.

• Evidence that the great Bard wrote his plays.

The earliest proof that William did indeed write 37 plays was Robert Greene’s

criticism of the Bard in his Groatsworth of Wit, Bought with a Million of

Repentance which attacked Shakespeare for having the nerve to compete with him

and other playwrights in 1592 . Robert Greene made this quite clear by calling
him "an upstart crow". This criticism was placed with the Stationers’ Registrar on

the 20th of September, 1592.

• Here are the complete lists of his plays:

COMEDIES HISTORIES TRAGEDIES

All's Well That Ends Well Cymbeline Antony and Cleopatra

As You Like It Henry IV, Part I Coriolanus

Comedy of Errors Henry IV, Part II Hamlet

Love's Labour's Lost Henry V Julius Caesar

Measure for Measure Henry VI, Part I King Lear

Merchant of Venice Henry VI, Part II Macbeth

Merry Wives of Windsor Henry VI, Part III Othello

Midsummer Night's Dream Henry VIII Romeo and Juliet

Much Ado about Nothing King John Timon of Athens

Taming of the Shrew Pericles Titus Andronicus

Tempest Richard II Troilus and Cressida

Twelfth Night Richard III

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Winter's Tale

Proof that William was an actor comes from his own performances before Queen

Elizabeth herself in 1594 and evidence of William's interest in theatre comes from

the Bard's name being listed in 1594 and 1595 as a shareholder (part owner) of the

Lord Chamberlain’s Company, a theatre company.

William's theatre presence is again confirmed by his name being recorded as one of

the owners of the Globe theatre in 1599 and on May the 19th, 1603, he received a

patent, titling him as one of the King’s Men (previously called the Chamberlain’s

men) and a Groom of the Chamber by James I, the then King of England. This
honour made William a favorite for all court performances, earned each King’s man

extra money (30 pounds each for a performance in 1603 alone) and made the

Bard's name one rather above reproach. Macbeth which celebrates King James I

ancestor Malcolm, is considered to have been written in part as appreciation for the

King’s patronage. And as a potent form of royalist propaganda (it warned of the

dangers of killing a King appointed like James, by God).

B. Title of the Play: Macbeth

C. Synopsis

T HE 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 Macdonald, 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 prophesy that Macbeth will be made thane (a rank of

Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also prophesy

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 and to tell 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.
D. Theme of the Story

The main theme of Macbeth—the destruction wrought when ambition goes

unchecked by moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play’s

two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally

inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He

kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia.

Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness.

Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet

she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of

Shakespeare’s most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband

mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath, but

she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated

bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition—helped, of course, by the

malign prophecies of the witches—is what drives the couple to ever more terrible

atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence

to further one’s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential

threats to the throne—Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—and it is always tempting to use

violent means to dispose of them.

Characters inMacbethfrequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth

manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could

be “unsexed,” and does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her

should give birth only to boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her

husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by

questioning their manhood. Such acts show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about

manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of manhood allows the

political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.

At the same time, however, the audience cannot help noticing that women are also

sources of violence and evil. The witches’ prophecies spark Macbeth’s ambitions

and then encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the

will behind her husband’s plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate,

the goddess of witchcraft. Arguably, Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to

women, which has led some critics to argue that this is Shakespeare’s most

misogynistic play. While the male characters are just as violent and prone to evil as

the women, the aggression of the female characters is more striking because it

goes against prevailing expectations of how women ought to behave. Lady

Macbeth’s behavior certainly shows that women can be as ambitious and cruel as

men. Whether because of the constraints of her society or because she is not

fearless enough to kill, Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation rather

than violence to achieve her ends.

Ultimately, the play does put forth a revised and less destructive definition of

manhood. In the scene where Macduff learns of the murders of his wife and child,

Malcolm consoles him by encouraging him to take the news in “manly” fashion, by

seeking revenge upon Macbeth. Macduff shows the young heir apparent that he has

a mistaken understanding of masculinity. To Malcolm’s suggestion, “Dispute it like a

man,” Macduff replies, “I shall do so. But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.221–

223). At the end of the play, Siward receives news of his son’s death rather

complacently. Malcolm responds: “He’s worth more sorrow [than you have
expressed] / And that I’ll spend for him” (5.11.16–17). Malcolm’s comment shows

that he has learned the lesson Macduff gave him on the sentient nature of true

masculinity. It also suggests that, with Malcolm’s coronation, order will be restored

to the Kingdom of Scotland.

E. Character: Lady Macbeth

F. Character Analysis

Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and

position. Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female

characters. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she

is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully

aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing

murder. At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it

herself. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady

Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a

female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence.

Shakespeare, however, seems to use her, and the witches, to undercut Macbeth’s

idea that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (1.7.73–74).

These crafty women use female methods of achieving power—that is, manipulation

—to further their supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can be as

ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue

these ambitions on their own.

Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding

all his objections; when he hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his
manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady

Macbeth’s remarkable strength of will persists through the murder of the king—it is

she who steadies her husband’s nerves immediately after the crime has been

perpetrated. Afterward, however, she begins a slow slide into madness—just as

ambition affects her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt

plague her more strongly afterward. By the close of the play, she has been reduced

to sleepwalking through the castle, desperately trying to wash away an invisible

bloodstain. Once the sense of guilt comes home to roost, Lady Macbeth’s sensitivity

becomes a weakness, and she is unable to cope. Significantly, she (apparently) kills

herself, signaling her total inability to deal with the legacy of their crimes.

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.

1. Birth date: 30-40 years of age

2. Birthplace: Scotland
3. Childhood memories, happy and sad: It was never mentioned.
4. Education: I am very wise woman who know want I want and how can I obtain
those desires.
5. Economic circumstances in childhood: I belong to the upper class.
6. Economic circumstances now: I still belong to the higher class.
7. Other members of the family: My husband – Macbeth
8. Marital status: Married
9. Pets in childhood: None. It was never mentioned.
10. Pets now: None
11. Cultural interest: She desires the kingship for her husband and wants him to
murder Duncan in order to obtain it.
12. Major influences in life:
  When I convinced my husband to kill Duncan for him to be the next king.
 When I used strong my strong personality in a rude way to impose beliefs on
my husband.
 When I realized my faults.
 GUILT
 When I committed a suicide
13. Favourite sports, as player or spectator: none
14. Favourite books: none
15. Favourite movies or play: none
16. Clothing style: Queen’s like dress
17. Home furnishings: I live in the palace now.
18. What you were doing immediately before you entered: Reading a letter
19. Your objective in the play:
 To convince my husband to commit a murder
 To be the next Queen
20. The obstacles to your objective:
 At first, my husband
 Banquo
 Fleance
 GUILT
21. Setting of the play: At the palace
22. Time period of the play: all time play
23. Music that might have been playing before the action of the play begins:
Something with a strong melody and grief.
24. Health: Very stable
25. Voice quality: a kind of whisper voice but with eagerness
26. Posture and Movement: Queenly movement, very slow yet robust
27. Occupation or profession:
 Queen
28. Religious or ethical values: Still believes in fate
29. Your relationship to the other characters: Wife
30. Your position in the community: Princess
31. Your fate after the action of the play is over: I died, I committed suicide because
of GUILT.

G. Why did I choose this play?

I choose the play because it has established an aptitude and potency of being a

woman. It has presented that the convincing power of a woman can bring forth to

something else, in the vein of the story because of Lady Macbeth her husband

committed an unacceptable transgression.

Of course after reading the whole play some may conclude and have the stereotype

that women are basically the root of all evil as how Shakespeare depicted the

character of Lady Macbeth. But in the latter is the enormous line of attack of how

the author and how we actually grasp the weakness of being a woman and that is -

GUILT!

H. Why did I choose the character?

I choose the character because of it has a fervent and strapping effect on me. Lady

Macbeth is so sturdy and powerful. Though I am not as violent like her we are in

common in the sense that after committing something so out of the box or

something has done because of ravenousness of power and position, we have the

same thought of how we actually realized errors in our lives and we come to a point

of facing its consequence.

I. Monologue

LADY MACBETH
 Give him tending;

He brings great news.

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!

Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!

Thy letters have transported me beyond

 This ignorant present, and I feel now

The future in the instant.

Duncan comes here to-night?

And when goes hence?

To-morrow?

O, never

Shall sun that morrow see!

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. To beguile the time,

Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under't. He that's coming

Must be provided for: and you shall put

This night's great business into my dispatch;

Which shall to all our nights and days to come

Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

Only look up clear;

To alter favour ever is to fear:

Leave all the rest to me.

J. Sources:

http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/biography/shakespeare_biography.htm

© 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Silliman University
Speech and Theatre Arts Department
 In-depth Study on
William Shakespeare
and his Play
“Macbeth”

Character: Lady Macbeth

Submitted by:
Vanessa S. Acosta

Submitted to:
Prof. Nora A. Ravello