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    Shakespeare's Macbeth
    Shakespeare's Macbeth
    Shakespeare's Macbeth
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Shakespeare's Macbeth

    By Leland Ryken

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    About this ebook

    Weve all heard about the classics and assume theyre great. Some of us have even read them on our own. But for those of us who remain a bit intimidated or simply want to get more out of our reading, Crossways Christian Guides to the Classics are here to help.

    In these short guidebooks, popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken takes you through some of the greatest literature in history while answering your questions along the way.

    Each book:

    • Includes an introduction to the author and work
    • Explains the cultural context
    • Incorporates published criticism
    • Contains discussion questions at the end of each unit of the text
    • Defines key literary terms
    • Lists resources for further study
    • Evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview

    This particular guide opens up the last of Shakespeares magnificent tragedies, Macbeth, and explores the themes of temptation, sin, and guilt, as well as the keys to virtuous behavior.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossway Books
    Release dateFeb 28, 2013
    ISBN9781433526152
    Shakespeare's Macbeth
    Author

    Leland Ryken

    Leland Ryken (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of more than one hundred published articles and essays, and he has written, edited or contributed to more than twenty-five books. His books include The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation (Crossway), The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing (Shaw), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (InterVarsity Press), The Discerning Reader: Christian Perspectives on Literature and Theory (Baker) and A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible (Zondervan).

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      Book preview

      Shakespeare's Macbeth - Leland Ryken

      published.

      Macbeth: The Play at a Glance

      Author. William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

      Nationality. English

      Date of composition. 1606

      Approximate number of pages. 100 in a paperback edition

      Available editions. Numerous, including Pelican, Arden, Ignatius, Dover Thrift, Signet, Norton, Oxford University Press

      Genres. Drama; tragedy; murder story

      Setting for the story. Scotland in the eleventh century

      Main characters. Macbeth, who aspires to be king of Scotland and commits a murder to obtain the throne; Lady Macbeth, who shares her husband’s political ambitions; King Duncan, murdered by Macbeth; Banquo, Macbeth’s military companion whom Macbeth murders in his ascent to the throne; Macduff, who brings Macbeth to justice

      Plot summary. As the story begins, Macbeth is a loyal servant of King Duncan of Scotland, fighting in support of the king to put down a rebellion. As Macbeth is returning to Duncan’s castle, he has his ambitions for the kingship fueled by prophecies from three witches. When King Duncan later visits Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth murder him and thereby secure the throne. But the Macbeths are guilt-haunted by their evil actions and begin to unravel psychologically. Lady Macbeth becomes dysfunctional, and Macbeth becomes more and more violent in his paranoia over imagined rivals to the throne. A resistance to Macbeth gains momentum under the leadership of Macduff, whose forces defeat Macbeth in open battle. At the end of the play, Duncan’s son Malcolm, rightful heir to the throne, is established as king. The main plotline is a story of crime and punishment.

      Structure. (1) The usual three-phase pattern of a story of crime and punishment: the antecedents of the crime (what led up to it), the occurrence of the crime, the consequences of the crime. (2) The six-phase pattern that tragedies follow (see page 13 for details). (3) A prolonged conflict between good and evil, with evil seemingly unconquerable in the first half of the play but then gradually being defeated by forces of good. (4) A design known as the well-made plot: exposition (background information, showing Macbeth’s noble character and position in relation to the king); inciting moment (Macbeth’s meeting with the witches); rising action (Macbeth’s resolving the conflict between his moral conscience and his political ambition in the wrong direction); turning point (our hearing about an army being mustered to defeat Macbeth); further complication (Macbeth fights a losing battle against guilt and the opposing army); climax (Macbeth’s defeat on the battlefield); denouement (tying up of loose ends, with Malcolm being installed as king of England).

      Cultural context. Shakespeare is a Renaissance writer, and as such he is indebted to two great intellectual and cultural movements from the past. One is the classical tradition, to which it is common to attach the term humanism. Two principles of classical humanism are especially important in Macbeth: (1) the key to virtuous behavior is to have one’s reason control the appetites and emotions; (2) the entire universe constitutes a great chain of being ruled by God; the well-being of all people and kingdoms consists of maintaining this divinely ordained order (e.g., citizens need to submit to their rulers, wives to their husbands, emotions and appetites to reason). The Reformation went hand in hand with the Renaissance. We can see its presence in Macbeth in an abundance of biblical references, in the assumption of a Christian worldview, in its ethical system (its system of virtues and vices), and in its doctrinal viewpoints (e.g., Christian ideas about sin, damnation, heaven, hell, good, and evil are embodied in the

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