Macbeth

Introduction

Macbeth is one of the most popular dramas of Shakespeare and also one of the shortest. It was the last of the four great tragedies of Shakespeare; the other three are Hamlet, Othello and King Lear. The drama was first performed in 1606 and tells the story of the war hero Macbeth, the witches' prophesies of three one day get that once he will be king of Scotland. In this term paper I want to show the influence of evil in Macbeth and be examined by the evil caused failure and how evil is presented as a perversion of human nature. First I will discuss some background information to give as some important life dates of William Shakespeare and the explanation of the Elizabethan world picture. Furthermore, I will give a brief introduction to the play Macbeth, making the reader with a definition of "evil" known (Brooke, pp. 57).

Order and hierarchy - The Elizabethan World Picture

The people who lived in Shakespeare's time believed that everything in the universe had its specific place, and that everything a strict order, called a frame of order, followed, and hierarchy. Also the superstition was among the people, especially under the "common people", very strong (Muller, pp. 5). Everything you could not explain or understand was attributed to natural phenomena. In the work underlying this House Drama Macbeth is quite clear how the confusion coming of the frame of order, so the cosmic order, nature, and human nature influences. Shakespeare's contemporaries believed that, if only one element of the cosmic order was leaving his place, everything else would fall well out of joint, which is described in Macbeth very clear. This "chain reaction" can be one of the most important imagery of the Elizabethan world view back: The chain of being. The entire universe is in this concept of the chain of being in a kind of scale divided. All beings are in this order so involved that each has its own place and the place of each being done by under-and order. "[...] in the earthly world [...] is at the lowest level of the mineral kingdom that only fundamental property of existence [...] is"(Frye, pp. 249). The next level demonstrates the essence of the Vegetable Kingdom, so the plants, in addition to the mere existence can still count the quality of life. Next is the Animal Kingdom, so the animals that feeling and movement have additional properties. The man who occupies the next higher level, in addition to everything else, evens the properties of the mind and the soul. The macro cosmos, not with the senses perceived the world, is composed of the seven planets Luna, Mercury, Venus, Sol, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, each having its own sphere and all of one angelic being, a heavenly intelligence , are drawn.

Macbeth's Development into a Tyrant

While it was the target of the murder of Duncan, to bring about a changed situation, the following actions are used to secure the position reached. So here is ...