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The Tragedy of Macbeth (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

Published:
2024-05-02 20:32:43
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2026-06
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  • Macbeth Book Club Shakespeare Project.mp3

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Content

'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'

Our journey through the works of William Shakespeare continues, and we have now arrived at the darks tragedy of Macbeth.

We’re discussing prophetic power, instruments of darkness, hiding truth in the mist, evil ambition, complex poetic syntax, guilt before the deed, daggers and scorpions of the mind, and much more.

Timestamps:

0:00 finding your psyche in the tragedies

1:00 astonishing burst of dark creativity

2:00 moving from King Lear to Macbeth

3:00 Macbeth as one of the lyrical plays

5:00 the prophetic power of this tragedy

6:00 ‘when shall we three meet again?’

7:00 King James I & Daemonologie

8:00 all states contain their contrary

9:00 hiding the whole truth in the mist

11:00 the weird sisters’ first prophecy

13:00 hailed in past, present & future

14:00 ‘the instruments of darkness…’

15:00 the history of Macbeth & Banquo

17:00 ‘nothing is but what is not’

18:00 dark ambition, evil & conscience

20:00 meeting the iconic Lady Macbeth

21:00 Lady Macbeth’s previous marriage

22:00 Shakespeare’s exploration of PTSD

23:00 too full of the milk of human kindness

25:00 ‘you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts’

27:00 feeling the future in the instant

29:00 what if tomorrow never comes?

30:00 Shakespeare’s complex poetic syntax

31:00 ‘if it were done when ’tis done…’

33:00 time reveals consequences of actions

35:00 intention as only vaulting ambition

37:00 Lady Macbeth on Macbeth’s manhood

38:00 rejecting compassion as a sign of grief

39:00 no two performances are ever alike

40:00 a knell summoning to one to hell

41:00 ‘is this a dagger which I see before me?’

43:00 experiencing remorse before the deed

44:00 sleeping and the dead but as pictures

45:00 denying the deed by denying oneself

46:00 why Macbeth is darker than Othello

47:00 ‘who could refrain that had a heart to love?’

49:00 Macbeth’s fruitless crown & barren sceptre

50:00 ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind…’

51:00 ghost of Banquo at Macbeth’s banquet

53:00 the brains were out, the man would die

54:00 ‘double, double, toil and trouble’

55:00 Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill

57:00 predicting the lineage of King James

58:00 the somnambulism of Lady Macbeth

59:00 appreciation for Marion Cotillard

1:00:00 ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’

1:02:00 ‘life’s but a walking shadow…’

1:04:00 Macbeth meets his violent end

1:05:00 what did you make of this tragedy?

1:06:00 next play & upcoming discussions

1:07:00 Shakespeare, Molière & Austen

1:10:00 where does Macbeth rank for you?

Recommended Resources:

  • Film Appreciation: I highly recommend the cinematic masterpiece that is Justin Kurzel's 2015 film adaptation, with Michael Fassbender as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, is a cinematic masterpiece. I put this film up there alongside the Hollow Crown series when it comes to magnificent adaptations of Shakespeare.

  • More Adaptations: If you've already seen my recommended version, then you might fancy trying out Joel Coen's recent 2021 film adaptation with Denzel Washington available on AppleTV. For a classic option, Trevor Nunn's 1976 RSC production sees the great thespians Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the title roles and is available on YouTube. If you liked Kurosawa's King Lear inspired 'Ran', then check out his Macbeth inspired film Throne of Blood. 

  • Book Edition: The Arden edition of this play is excellent, but if you would like a slimmer choice then I highly recommend the Penguin paperback version. The introductions for the Penguin editions are superb, and it isn't full of distracting annotations. I personally used the beautiful Shakespeare Birthplace Trust special edition of this play for this reading.

  • Critical Appreciation: I continue to recommend Harold Bloom's series of books for the greatest personalities in Shakespeare's works. He has dedicated works for Falstaff, Hamlet, Iago, Lear, Macbeth, and Cleopatra. His 'A Dagger of the Mind' makes a great complement to this dark tragedy.

  • Discussing Macbeth: I love Sir Ian McKellen's sublime breakdown of the iconic 'tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' speech here. If you're interested in the history of the play, then Stephen Greenblatt has a fantastic interview about the play here. If you enjoy that discussion, you'll love his book 'Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics.' For an exploration of the facts behind the legend of Macbeth, the wonderful Tony Robinson also has a great documentary called 'The Real Macbeth'.

  • Our Journey Thus Far: If you want to jump into any specific play, you can check out the works we've enjoyed thus far as part of our read-through here.

Questions for You:

1) To what extent can you sympathise with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?

2) How does Macbeth compare with the other tragedies for you?

3) What line, passage, idea, or character most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for Macbeth?

Happy reading, Bardolators!

Files

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Comments

Rebekah Sunday

This was a rapturous lecture and I do believe this most recent reread has cemented Macbeth in the spot of my favorite Shakespeare play - especially since I got to read it in Scotland this time. One question: how do we know Lady Macbeth was previously married? Is it just because we know she had a child and don't believe it was Macbeth's? The copy I used for this reading pointed out something that I found fascinating: the author of the introduction, Stephen Orgel, puts forth the theory that Macbeth is a misogynistic fantasy, a sort of "if it weren't for all these damned women!" play. Women (the witches, Hecate, Lady Macbeth) are the root of the drama in this play, and Lady Macbeth's ability to control her husband's thinking places her in a party of one in Shakespeare's works, ultimately leading him to his downfall, much like Eve did to Adam. Orgel writes about how McDuff's being born via c-section makes his birth an erasure of womanhood, as with most normal deliveries, the woman would have been helped by midwives and there would have been no men present, but C-sections were performed by surgeons, who would have all been male. And the mother would almost always die. So McDuff is all man, not even born of a woman. The question of "what does it mean to be a man?" is such an interesting one, and it feels just as prevalent today as it did in Shakespeare's time...

Thomas Davidson
>>137523135

Rebekah: earlier on this thread I commented on the question you raised about the Lady being previously married. Load more comments and you'll find it. I also had even earlier post where I name-checked you being in Inverness! :)

Caroline H

Definitely my favourite Shakespearean tragedy, brought to life in this wonderful lecture. Appreciated the insight about regicide not being allowed on stage - that was new to me. My preferred film adaptation is Roman Polanski's 1971 version. It's graphically brutal in places, but the wild location filming really brings the play to life to me. It stands the test of time quite well.

Deborah Norwod

It took me a while to get into this…but I finally read along while watching one of the movies. It worked…I finally was able to get into it and really follow the story. I also did the same for King Lear. I’ve said before, how in high school we all really did NOT love our Shakespeare lessons. But as I watched the movies and read along I was reminded that Romeo and Juliet was the one exception, and that’s because there was a really popular movie version (this was the early 70’s) that we girls, anyway, swooned over. We were told that Shakespeare wrote R & J as a jab at teens and the folly and waste of their youthful suicidal death. We spent a great deal of time talking about other options and how the families’ petty squabbles lost everything for them. Was it worth losing their very children? Of course not. But my current question…did he really write it as a tongue in cheek sarcastic jab at two young teens too young to really know their minds yet? Or as the great romance it has become in history? This was a Catholic high school…an excellent school…but I wonder, now, if it colored how they presented the suicide theme to us? Hmmmmmmmm….. By the way, your lectures are very good…thorough and thought provoking.

Mary Elkins

I enjoyed reading the play once again. During this reading, I was also reading another book, Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma: An Essay on the Apprehension of the Bible, and found it to be an example of Shakespeare's relatability to other works with existential questions, implied by Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 5 when he hears of the Queen's death: " life, ..a tale...told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing."

Stephen Conroy

I was surprised by my latest re-read of Macbeth, in that I noticed just how many quotable lines there are in the play. Macbeth was part of my English Lit curriculum when I was in school and I had to memorize the famous "Is this a dagger I see before me" speech, which I can still remember after so many years. Not something a 14 year old wanted to do! However, I now realize there are so many lines that have entered into the general vocabulary of the language and are used today, though many may not realize the origin. I also watched the Michael Fassbender movie. I loved how they used real Scottish locations for nearly all of the movie and had a very realistic medieval settlement for Macbeth's home. The adaptation took some liberties with the play, such as the depiction of the 3 witches, but overall this was a great atmospheric take on Macbeth.

Christopher Tiernan

I’m going to see the recent “stage” version of Macbeth starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma in a few days. It’s been filmed and is screening at the local (Sarasota, FL) Opera House. The last version I watched was the one with Michael Fassbender as MacBeth and it was spectacular. This is another example of being grateful to have access to the HBC archives so I can up my game and refresh my memory before the curtain opens. I’ll check back in after to share thoughts in case anyone is interested in seeing this version. I saw Fiennes in Antony and Cleopatra and he was superb. 🤓📚

Steven McVicar

Thanks for the lecture Benjamin. Fascinating as always. Macbeth is an A+ for me. Even though being Scottish makes me a bit biased and being more familiar with Macbeth than any other play seems to make me appreciate it more, I still think this is one of Shakespeare's very best. Maybe the best.

Daniel green

In wondering how people like trump can act as they do today I see Macbeth, vaulting ambition, hidden stars, and I can understand it. Love this play, tomorrow soliloquy is forever stuck in my mind, the finest chunk of literature ever penned.

Karen Beard

Very compelling dark tale of unleashed relentless ambition. Also would land in my top 5, definitely!! That 2015 film adaptation blew me away!!!! Really feel like it captured the essence of Shakespeare's narrative. Highly recommended.

Alex

Disappointed you didn't go into depth about arguably Shakespeare's best ever line - "what, you egg"