ABSTRACT

This chapter examines Macbeth in part because research is necessary to understanding this dense, complex play. Secondary reading comes in two modes: knowledge and opinions. Shakespeare's plays are often reduced to character studies because his observations about English society, observations that his original audiences would have immediately recognized, may be difficult for us to discern today. There are three time periods that are essential to understanding Shakespeare's plays: the environment in which Shakespeare wrote his plays, the period in which we live, and that between the writing of the plays and the present. Detail for actors is characteristic of Shakespeare, even in small parts. Shakespeare was clearly attracted to the story of Macbeth because a Scottish king was on the throne of England, but the Gunpowder Conspiracy and Garnet's trial made that story the perfect vehicle for examining an England that was now suddenly thrown into a state of fear by the near-murder of its king.