The New Boundless Ambition In Macbeth

Introduction

Macbeth is considered to be Shakespeare’s one of the most outstanding tragedies. Scholars widely agree that Macbeth was written around the year 1606 and to support the idea ‘the strongest indication that Macbeth was composed in the summer of 1606 concerns its allusion to a ship named the “Tiger” which has sailed to the near east en route to Aleppo, an ancient trading city in Syria’(Feldman, 2011: 213). Shakespeare’s main source to write Macbeth was Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland written by Raphael Holinshed and originally published in 1577. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s ‘patrons were Queen Elizabeth and King James I’ (Brown, 1912:1); King James I was especially relevant to the composition of Macbeth as ‘the new

Correspondingly, the play examines supportive subject matters, such as: the supernatural soliciting, which is the source for the chaos in the play, fate against free will, tyranny Macbeth imposes and gender issues related to social constructs of femininity and masculinity. Moreover, the play uses patterns and symbols to reinforce the major theme. For instance, connected with the supernatural: ghost visions and hallucinations, predictions; violence, blood and sleep are can be identified as a consequence of the influence of supernatural in Macbeth turning him into a tyrant; the chaos and destruction of the play can be described through the elements of the

In order to reach this aim, the methodology proposed, in the first place, provides context for Witchcraft in Elizabethan period and Jacobean era. In the second place, an analysis of supernatural elements in Macbeth is conducted, that is: The Three Witches, the floating dagger, Banquo’s ghost and the prophetic apparitions. Furthermore, an analysis of the Macbeth character’s development is presented. To complete, an account of the conclusions of the paper are