Primogeniture In Macbeth

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Act III.i ▪ Preference given to the 1st born son in inheritance of titles and property is called primogeniture ▪ It is important to know that primogeniture was NOT in effect in Scotland in Macbeth’s time, and Duncan’s naming of Malcolm as his successor in Act I was actually illegal on two counts. ▪ Not only did a law exist that restricted the succession to those who had reached adulthood (which Malcolm had not), but another law explicitly prohibited a son from succeeding his father on the throne. ▪ The man who actually had been next in line for the throne after Duncan was murdered was Lady Macbeth’s son by an earlier marriage, but he (LM’s
▪ With the Renaissance, however, came a rebirth of interest in the dramas of ancient Greece and Rome. These plays fell into two main categories: ▪ comedies—dramatic works with a happy ending and did not need to contain humor ▪ tragedies—works in which the main character, or tragic hero, came to an unhappy end ▪ Tragedy: arouses pity and fear in the audience—pity for the hero and fear for all human beings, who are subject to character flaws and an unknown destiny ▪ seeing a tragedy unfold produces a catharsis, or cleansing, of these emotions, for by the end the audience is watching in awe as the hero faces defeat with great courage and dignity ▪ Shakespeare often eased the intensity of the action by using comic relief—the following of a serious scene with a lighter, mildly humorous one ▪ Characteristics shared by Shakespearean tragedy and class Greek tragedy: ▪ the main character, called the tragic hero, comes to an unhappy or miserable end ▪ the tragic hero is generally a person of importance in society, such as a king or a
▪ a series of causally related events lead inevitable to the catastrophe, or tragic resolution—this final stage of the plot usually involves the death of the hero, but other characters may also be affected ▪ the tragic hero usually recognizes his/her tragic flaw by the end and so gains the audience’s sympathy ▪ the tragic hero meets his/her doom with courage and dignity, reaffirming the grandeur of the human spirit

Shakespeare’s tragedies that have been made into movies: ▪ Romeo and Juliet—Shakespeare’s first great tragedy, is a tale of teenaged lovers from two feuding families in medieval Verona, Italy—a 1997 film version featured Leonardo Di Caprio and Clare Danes ▪ Julius Caesar—focuses on Roman emperor Brutus, a close friend of Julius Caesar’s who reluctantly joins the plot to assassinate him—Marlon Brando played Mark Anthony in the 1953 version ▪ Hamlet—tells the story of a prince of Denmark whose procrastination leads to disaster—Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in the 1996 epic film that uses all Shakespeare’s original script ▪ Othello—focuses on a North African soldier whose great flaw “is the green-eyed monster,” jealous—in 1995, Laurence Fishburne appeared in the title