Macbeth
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,Poetry
Macbeth Details
Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, and is considered one of his darkest and most powerful works. Set in Scotland, the play dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil is chosen as a way to fulfil the ambition for power.The play is believed to have been written between 1599 and 1606, and is most commonly dated 1606. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is the Summer of 1606, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book. It was most likely written during the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shakespeare's acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James's reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with the sovereign.Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, and tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, and he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler as he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of arrogance, madness, and death.Shakespeare's source for the tragedy is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. In recent scholarship, the events of the tragedy are usually associated more closely with the execution of Henry Garnett for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as "the Scottish play". Over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comic books, and other media.
Reviews
I wish I could give this book more then 5 stars. I purchased this book about 8 months ago completely satisfied with the product, however I have noticed that not many people were satisfied with this product, but none of them gave good reasons why, I will explain to you what the formatting and organizational tools of this book looks like, so you can decide whether it's what you want or not.The way all of this content is organized is one of the reasons I love this book. It has all of the plays organized in the table of contents by each of the subjects (comedies, tradgedys, and histories) with links you can click on. When you click on one of the links of one of the plays, for example: If you click on Romeo and Juliet, you become redirected to another table of contents that organize the all the scenes in all the different kind of acts.Now the formatting is the best you can get for being displayed on the kindle. It shows the name of the person speaking and then under the name, and indented is what they say. This kind of formatting is my favorite kind of formatting I've seen so far. It makes reading a play so much easier.But what I really like is that I have all of shakespeares sonnets and plays, all on one small electric device, Instead of having it in one massive textbook.In all honesty, I wouldn't mind paying $10-20 on a collection this organized.Overall I think this is my favorite purchase so far.Please let me know if this review helped you :)
