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Ambition and Death - the Story of the Renaissance in Macbeth

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Ambition and Death - the Story of the Renaissance in Macbeth
Ambition and death - the story of the Renaissance in Macbeth

In the tragic drama Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in 1606 during the English Renaissance, the hero, Macbeth, constantly declines in his level of morality until his death at the end of the play. Because of his change of character from good to evil, Macbeth 's attitude towards other characters, specifically Duncan, Banquo, Lady Macbeth, and the witches, is significantly affected." In a larger sense, the theme of bad versus good kingship, embodied by Macbeth and Duncan, respectively, would have resonated at the royal court, where James was busy developing his English version of the theory of divine right. "The main point of this paper is to discuss the historical Context in which William Shakespeare 's Macbeth was written, which is the Renaissance and the characteristics related to this period that you can find in the play. During the British Renaissance, in the period beginning in around 1500 and lasting until the mid-1600s. The main point of transformation was in the literature and in the language, when it moves from the medieval Middle English literature period and into the more modern Elizabethan literature. "The period is characterized by the influence of the classics (in literature, language, and philosophy), as well as an optimistic forward-thinking approach to the potential of humans, known as Renaissance humanism." The concepts of the Renaissance were seen not only in literature, but also in art and architecture. "In literary terms, the study of the classical poets led not only to their translation into English but the adaptation of their verse forms and systems of poetical metre, as well as the embracing of their themes and genres." Also during this period, the development of printing press took the country to a communication revolution and helped to spread literature in general. Another important fact of access of literature was the great navigations started by Italy, where the



Bibliography: SHAKESPEARE, William. Macbeth. Penguin Popular Classics, 26 May 1994, 128 pages, Popular Classic http://www.engl.uvic.ca/Faculty/MBHomePage/ISShakespeare/Resources/Women/mutuality.html http://www.field-of-themes.com/shakespeare/essays/Emacbeth2.htm http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0097743.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Right_of_Kings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

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