⚡ Macbeth A Dead Butcher Analysis

Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, Macbeth A Dead Butcher Analysis life is a struggle with heavy looks. Notice Did Martin Luther King Jrs Actions Impact The Civil Rights Movement Shakespeare builds the drama as the opposing forces Macbeth A Dead Butcher Analysis Macbeth grow. Macbeth is in Dunsinane but his men are rising up against him, some calling him mad. Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Dexter cartoon characters, death, and welcome. Benvolio Why dost thou Macbeth A Dead Butcher Analysis Disappointed with their lack of enthusiasm, Messina went over the departmental heads, forwarding his proposal directly to Director of Programmes, Alasdair Milne and Director-General, Ian Trethowanboth of whom liked the idea. I put it on the bedside table and I vaguely recall thinking about buffalo as I slowly slid into lincoln second inaugural address lost world of dreams.

Macbeth 2.2 FULL MARKS ANALYSIS - Edexcel, AQA, CIE

King Duncan's son Malcolm reports that he confessed and died nobly. Duncan thanks them both for their part in the battle and announces that his eldest son, Malcolm, will inherit the throne from him when he dies. Macbeth decides to go on ahead to tell his wife. Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband about his encounter with the witches. She is interrupted by news that the king is coming to the castle that evening and that Macbeth is already on his way. Macbeth arrives home and Lady Macbeth immediately plants the seed of her murderous intentions. Macbeth confides in his wife about what happened with the witches. Lady Macbeth immediately sees an opportunity to kill Duncan when she hears of his visit to their castle.

She welcomes him into their home, taking him to see Macbeth. Lady Macbeth greets the guests as they arrive. Act 1 Scene 7 Outside the banqueting hall, Macbeth considers his complex thoughts about killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth tells him off for leaving the hall. Macbeth is further persuaded by the strength of their plan. Macbeth needs to be persuaded to kill Duncan as he doubts it is the right thing to do. Lady Macbeth has at least one child. Things to notice in Act 1.

Act 2. They are surprised he is still awake. Banquo gives Macbeth a diamond from Duncan to thank him for an enjoyable evening. He hears a bell and goes to kill Duncan. Duncan generously thanks Macbeth for the evening by giving him a diamond. Banquo has dreamed about the witches and is thinking about the prophecies. Macbeth sees a vision of a bloody dagger but we do not know if this is caused by magic or hallucination. Macbeth returns, alarmed that he heard a noise. She sees that he has brought the guards' daggers with him rather than planting them at the scene of the crime.

She urges him to return the daggers, but he is too scared. Lady Macbeth goes instead. Whilst she is gone, someone begins to knock on the door of the castle. Lady Macbeth returns with bloody hands. The knocking continues. Play Act 2 Scene 2. Donalbain is sleeping nearby in the second chamber. Someone unexpectedly arrives at the castle and begins to knock repeatedly on the door. Macduff remarks that the household must have gone to bed very late to sleep in so long. They sound alarms which wake all the sleeping thanes and Lady Macbeth. Macduff questions why Macbeth did this. While Macbeth tries to explain his reasons, Lady Macbeth faints. Led by Banquo, the lords swear to investigate the murder. Fearing for their lives, Malcolm decides to go to England and Donalbain decides to go to Ireland.

Duncan had asked Macduff to visit him this morning. Macduff arrives and tells Ross that he believes that the guards who murdered Duncan were bribed by Malcolm and Donalbain, which is why the two sons have fled the country. Ross reports that Macbeth has been named king and he plans to go to Scone for his coronation but Macduff heads home to Fife instead. Unexpected things have been happening in nature recently, which reflect the unnatural death of Duncan.

The thanes have decided that Macbeth should be the next king. He will be crowned at a place called Scone. Macduff will not attend the coronation of Macbeth. Act 3. Banquo and his son Fleance are going out riding that afternoon, but Banquo promises to return in time for the banquet. Macbeth tells Banquo that he has heard that Malcolm and Donalbain are spreading terrible rumours.

He convinces two murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan to hold a banquet for all the thanes that evening. Malcolm and Donalbain have reached England and Ireland. Macbeth has sent murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to put on a brave face for his guests that evening. Macbeth is having nightmares that stop him from sleeping. Macbeth does not confide in Lady Macbeth about his plot to murder Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth feels that there are more crimes to commit before they are secure in their position as a king and queen. Act 3 Scene 3 The murderers attack Banquo and Fleance.

The murderers decide to return to the castle and tell Macbeth. Banquo is murdered. Fleance escapes. Act 3 Scene 4 Guests arrive for the banquet. Macbeth is visibly shaken but Lady Macbeth calms the guests by saying that it is a momentary fit. Alone, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth discuss how Macduff declined their invitation and did not come to the banquet. Macbeth decides that he will visit the witches again the next day. Macduff has declined an invitation to the banquet. Act 3 Scene 5 Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft, is angry with the witches for giving prophecies to Macbeth without consulting her. Hecate did not know of the witches' plan to meddle with Macbeth. Hecate thinks Macbeth is only ambitious for himself. Lennox has noticed that the people who have upset Macbeth are dying.

This idea was quickly rejected, however, as it was felt to be an unacceptable compromise and it was instead decided to simply have one season with seven episodes. Initially, Messina toyed with the idea of shooting the plays in the chronological order of their composition , but this plan was abandoned because it was felt that doing so would necessitate the series beginning with a run of relatively little known plays, not to mention the fact that there is no definitive chronology.

Measure for Measure was selected as the season's "obscure" play, and King Richard the Second was included to begin the eight-part sequence of history plays. When the production of the inaugural episode, Much Ado About Nothing , was abandoned after it had been shot, it was replaced by The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight as the sixth episode of the season. Almost immediately, however, the concept for the historical octology ran into trouble. Messina had wanted to shoot the eight sequential history plays in chronological order of the events they depicted, with linked casting and the same director for all eight adaptations David Giles , with the sequence spread out over the entire six season run.

The second set of four plays were then directed by Jane Howell as one unit, with a common set and linked casting, airing during the fifth season. Another early idea, which never came to fruition, was the concept of forming a single repertory acting company to perform all thirty-seven plays. The RSC, however, were not especially pleased with this idea, as it saw itself as the national repertory. However, before the plan could be put into practice, the British Actors' Equity Association blocked the proposal, arguing that as many of its members as possible should get the chance to appear in the series. During the planning for season two, when it came to their attention that Messina was trying to cast James Earl Jones as Othello , Equity threatened to have their members strike, thus crippling the series.

This forced Messina to abandon the casting of Jones, and Othello was pushed back to a later season. Messina's initial aesthetic concept for the series was realism , especially in terms of the sets, which were to be as naturally representational as possible. This was based upon what Messina knew of TV audiences and their expectations. His opinion, supported by many of his staff, was that the majority of the audience would not be regular theatregoers who would respond to stylisation or innovation. Both [director] Rakoff and Messina were sure that the play should be staged as naturalistically as possible. I would love to have tried to do Romeo outside in a Verona town somewhere. John Wilders, for example, preferred the "fake realism" of the first plays, which he felt were "much more satisfactory than location work because the deliberate artificiality of the scenery works in harmony with the conventions of the plays.

Unfortunately, it may create the impression that we have tried to build realistic sets but have failed for want of skill or money. When Jonathan Miller took over as producer at the start of season three, realism ceased to be a priority. Prior to the screening of the first episode, UK publicity for the series was extensive, with virtually every department at the BBC involved.

Once the series had begun, a major aspect of the publicity campaign involved previews of each episode for the press prior to its public broadcast, so reviews could appear before the episode aired; the idea being that good reviews might get people to watch who otherwise would not. Other publicity 'events' included a party to celebrate the commencement of the third season, at The George Inn, Southwark , near the site of the Globe Theatre , and a similar party at the start of the sixth season, in Glamis Castle, which was attended by Ian Hogg , Alan Howard , Joss Ackland , Tyler Butterworth , Wendy Hiller , Patrick Ryecart and Cyril Cusack , all of whom were on hand for interviews by the many invited journalists.

Another major aspect of the promotional work was supplementary educational material. For example, the BBC had their books division issue the scripts for each episode, prepared by script editor Alan Shallcross seasons 1 and 2 and David Snodin seasons 3 and 4 and edited by John Wilders. Each publication included a general introduction by Wilders, an essay on the production itself by Henry Fenwick, interviews with the cast and crew, photographs, a glossary, and annotations on textual alterations by Shallcross, and subsequently Snodin, with explanations as to why certain cuts had been made. As well as the published annotated scripts, the BBC also produced two complementary shows designed to help viewers engage with the plays on a more scholarly level; the radio series Prefaces to Shakespeare and the TV series Shakespeare in Perspective.

Prefaces was a series of thirty-minute shows focused on the performance history of each play, with commentary provided by an actor who had performed the play in the past. He or she would discuss the general stage history, as well as their own experiences working on the play, with each episode airing on BBC Radio 4 one to three nights prior to the screening of the actual episode on BBC 2. The TV supplement, Shakespeare in Perspective , was a more generally educational show, with each twenty-five-minute episode dealing with various aspects of the production, hosted by various well-known figures, who, generally speaking, were not involved in Shakespeare per se.

However, the series often ran into trouble. For the show on Hamlet, Prince of Denmark , for example, when the crew turned up to shoot, the presenter stated simply, "This is one of the silliest plays ever written, and I have nothing to say about it. For example, poet Stephen Spender 's comments about The Winter's Tale being a play of great beauty which celebrates the cycles of nature seemed at odds with Jane Howell's semi-stylised single-set production, where a lone tree was used to represent the change in seasons.

The most commented upon example of this disparity was in relation to Cymbeline , which was hosted by playwright and screenwriter Dennis Potter. In his review for The Observer of both the production and the Perspective show, Julian Barnes wrote "several furlongs understandably separate the left hand of the BBC from the right one. Only rarely, though, do we witness such a cameo of intermanual incomprehension as occurred last week within their Shakespeare cycle: the right hand seizing a hammer and snappishly nailing the left hand to the arm of the chair.

He was correct; Potter's Perspective had been recorded before Cymbeline had even been shot. According to Barnes,. Potter was first discovered lurking among the mossy rocks and echoing grottoes of the Forest of Dean , fit backdrop, he explained, to introduce a play full of "the stonily mysterious landscapes of both my own childhood and all our fairytale -ridden memories. Your eyelids are drooping [ Elijah Moshinsky , the director, obviously hadn't heard. Faerie was out; rocks were off; stonily mysterious landscapes could get stuffed. Ancient Britain in the reign of Augustus Caesar became a foppish 17th-century court, with nods to Rembrandt , Van Dyck and when Helen Mirren was caught in a certain light and a certain dress Vermeer. The fairytale Mr Potter had promised became a play of court intrigue and modern passion: a sort of offcut from Othello.

However, because the show aired on public television , many US newspapers and magazines would not cover it. The main representative was Anthony Quayle , who had been cast as Falstaff for the second season Henry the Fourth episodes. It also helped that, unlike many of the other actors appearing in early episodes, Quayle was well known in the US. James Earl Jones was initially scheduled to appear, in anticipation of the second season production of Othello , but by the time of the reception, Messina had been forced to abandon casting him. This created something of a media circus when they half jokingly asked Joseph Papp if he would be interested in hosting it.

However, when the early episodes of the show did not achieve the kind of ratings which had been initially hoped, financing for publicity quickly dried up; a Shakespeare variety show planned for PBS in , set to star Charlton Heston , Robin Williams , Richard Chamberlain and Chita Rivera , failed to find an underwriter and was cancelled. Much as the UK promotional efforts by the BBC focused at least partially on education, so too did US publicity, where the underwriters spent as much on the educational material as they did on underwriting the series itself. Educational efforts were focused on middle school and high school, which is when US students first encounter Shakespeare.

Tel-Ed had a three-pronged goal; to make students familiar with more plays most schools taught only Romeo and Juliet , Julius Caesar and Macbeth , to encourage students to actually enjoy Shakespeare, and to have Shakespeare taught more frequently. Tel-Ed's aim was to make the entire series available to every high-school in the US. During the first season, they sent out 36, educational packs to English departments, receiving 18, requests for further information. The concept of the show was that episodes of the BBC Television Shakespeare would be presented specifically as educational tools.

Planned as a three-year show with five episodes per year over a fifteen-week season, the series would group plays together thematically. Walter Matthau was hired as host, and each episode featured documentary material intercut with extensive clips from the BBC productions themselves. However, the show achieved very poor ratings and was cancelled at the end of the first season.

The scope of the series meant that from the very beginning, scheduling was a major concern. Everyone knew that achieving good ratings for thirty-seven episodes over six years was not going to be easy, and to ensure this could be accomplished, the BBC were at first rigorous about the show's schedule. Each of the six seasons was to be broadcast in two sections; three weekly broadcasts in late winter, followed by a short break, and then three weekly broadcasts in early spring. This was done so as to maximise marketing in the lead up to Christmas, and then capitalise on the traditionally quiet period in early spring. All episodes were broadcast on BBC 2 on a Sunday, and all began at eight o'clock, with a five-minute interval around 9 for News on 2 and a weather report.

However, the schedule then began to run into problems. The fourth episode, Twelfth Night was shown on Sunday, 6 January , but the fifth episode, The Tempest was not shown until Wednesday, 27 February, and the sixth, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark which had been held up because of Derek Jacobi 's schedule did not air until Sunday, 25 May. Moving into the third season, under Jonathan Miller's producership, the scheduling, as was commented upon by many critics at the time, seemed nothing short of random. The next group of episodes did not air until the fifth season in September , under Shaun Sutton 's producership. Sutton's scheduling, if anything, was even more random than Miller's; the fifth season began with King Lear on Sunday, 19 September, but this was not followed until The Merry Wives of Windsor on Tuesday, 28 December.

The first historical tetralogy temporarily regularised the schedule, and was aired on successive Sundays; 2, 9, 16 and 23 January The sixth season began with Cymbeline on Sunday, 10 July, but the second episode did not follow until Saturday, 5 November Macbeth. US scheduling was even more complex. In the UK, each episode could start at any time and run for any length without any major problems, because shows are not trimmed to fit slots; rather slots are arranged to fit shows. In the US however, TV worked on very rigid time slots; a show could not run, say, minutes, it must run either or minutes to fit into the existing slot.

Additionally, whereas the BBC included an intermission of five minutes roughly halfway through each show, PBS had to have an intermission every sixty minutes. Several of the shows in the first season left 'gaps' in the US time slots of almost twenty minutes, which had to be filled with something. In seasons one and two, any significant time gaps at the end of a show were filled by Renaissance music performed by the Waverly Consort. When Jonathan Miller took over as producer at the end of the second season, WNET suggested something different; each episode should have a two-minute introduction, followed by interviews with the director and a cast member at the end of the episode, which would be edited to run however long, was necessary to plug the gaps.

Running a total of fourteen hours, WNET felt that airing the shows in four straight back-to-back segments would not work. First, they changed the schedule to air the episodes on Sunday afternoon as opposed to the usual Monday evening screening, then they divided the three Henry VI plays into two parts each. Finally, they cut a total of 77 minutes from the three productions 35 were taken from The Third Part of Henry the Sixt alone. In an effort to help trim The First Part of Henry the Sixt , much early dialogue was cut, and instead a voice over introduction recorded, ironically, by James Earl Jones was added, informing viewers of the necessary backstory.

Strangely, however, The Tragedy of Richard III the longest of the four was aired as one piece, with only 3 minutes cut. Because the US investors had put up so much money for the project, the backers were able to write aesthetic guidelines into the contract. However, as most of these guidelines conformed to Messina's vision of the series anyway "to make solid, basic televised versions of Shakespeare's plays to reach a wide television audience and to enhance the teaching of Shakespeare" , [58] they created no major problems. The most important of these stipulations was that the productions must be "traditional" interpretations of the plays set in either Shakespeare's time to or in the period of the events depicted such as ancient Rome for Julius Caesar or c.

A two and a half-hour maximum running time was also mandated, although this was soon jettisoned when it became clear that the major tragedies in particular would suffer if truncated too heavily. The initial way around this was to split the longer plays into two sections, showing them on separate nights, but this idea was also discarded, and it was agreed that for the major plays, length was not an overly important issue. The restriction regarding conservative, traditional interpretations was non-negotiable, however.

The financiers were primarily concerned with ratings, and the restrictions worked to this end, ensuring the plays had "maximum acceptability to the widest possible audience. All of them are, for want of a better word, straightforward productions. Many people, they hoped, might see Shakespeare performed for the first time in the televised series, a point Messina emphasised repeatedly; others would doubtless recite the lines along with the actors [ Being acceptable is not always synonymous with being good, however, and initially the goal seems to have been the former, with a few forays into the latter.

Partly because of this aesthetic credo, the series quickly developed a reputation for being overly conventional. As a result, when Miller would later try to persuade celebrated directors such as Peter Brook , Ingmar Bergman , William Gaskill and John Dexter to direct adaptations, he would fail. In light of such criticism about the conservative nature of the early productions, Jac Venza defended the strictures, pointing out that the BBC was aiming to make programs with a long life span; they were not a theatre company producing a single run of plays for an audience already familiar with those plays, who would value novelty and innovation. They were making TV adaptations of plays for an audience the vast majority of whom would be unfamiliar with most of the material.

They wanted to reach a wide audience and get more people interested in Shakespeare, and as such, novelty and experimentation was not part of the plan, a decision Venza calls "very sensible. Unfortunately for everyone involved in the series, production got off to the worst possible start. No reasons were given by the BBC for this decision, although initial newspaper reports suggested that the episode had not been abandoned, it had simply been postponed for re-shoots, due to an unspecified actor's "very heavy accent," and concerns that US audiences would not be able to understand the dialogue.

Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that BBC management simply regarded the production as a failure. While Messina was the man to plan the series, it seemed he was not the man to produce it. He was part of too many power struggles; too many directors would not work for him; he proceeded with too many of the traditional production habits. The battle over Much Ado was actually a battle over power and the producership; once Messina lost and the show was cancelled, his tenure as producer was jeopardized.

Another early problem for Messina was that the US publicity campaign for the show had touted the productions as "definitive" adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, prompting much criticism from theatre professionals, filmmakers and academics. The claim that the show would feature "definitive" productions was often raised and attacked by the US media during its seven-year run, especially when an episode did not live up to expectations. From a practical point of view, during his tenure as producer, Messina was not overly involved in the actual taping of each episode. While he chose the director, assisted in the principal casting, attended some rehearsals, visited the set from time to time, and occasionally watched the editing, the director was responsible for the major aesthetic decisions — camera placement and movement, blocking, production design, costumes, music and editing.

That we have the televised Shakespeare series at all is entirely due to Messina; that we have the Shakespeare series we have and not perhaps a better, more exciting one is also in large part due to Messina. During Messina's tenure as producer, as per the financiers' restrictions, the adaptations tended to be conservative, but when Jonathan Miller took over at the start of season three, he completely revamped things. On a superficial level, for example, he instituted a new title sequence and replaced William Walton 's theme music with a newly composed piece by Stephen Oliver.

Miller's changes went much deeper, however. Whereas Messina had favoured a realism-based approach, which worked to simplify the texts for audiences unfamiliar with Shakespeare, Miller was against any kind of aesthetic or intellectual dilution. Messina's theory was based on his many years of experience in television, and according to Martin Wiggins, it was exactly Miller's lack of such experience that led to his aesthetic overhaul of the show; Miller came from. Miller saw them as products of a creative imagination, artefacts in their own right to be realised in production using the visual and conceptual materials of their period. This led to a major reappraisal of the original production guidelines.

Susan Willis makes a similar point; "instead of doing what the BBC usually did, Miller saw the series as a means of examining the limits of televised drama, of seeing what the medium could do; it was an imaginative, creative venture. If television was supposed to be based on realism, Miller took the productions straight into the visual arts of the period. If most earlier productions had been visually filmic, Miller emphasized the theatrical. If the previous interpretations were basically solid and straightforward, Miller encouraged stronger, sharper renditions, cutting across the grain, vivid and not always mainstream.

Miller himself stated "I think it's very unwise to try to represent on the television screen something which Shakespeare did not have in his mind's eye when he wrote those lines. You have to find some counterpart of the unfurnished stage that Shakespeare wrote for without, in fact, necessarily reproducing a version of the Globe theatre. Because there's no way in which you can do that [ Here was a writer who was immersed in the themes and notions of his time. The only way in which you can unlock that imagination is to immerse yourself in the themes in which he was immersed. And the only way you can do that is by looking at the pictures which reflect the visual world of which he was a part and to acquaint yourself with the political and social issues with which he was preoccupied — trying, in some way, to identify yourself with the world which was his.

The productions Miller himself directed reflect this belief most clearly of course, but he also evoked such an awareness in the other directors. If there was not to be a single stylistic "signature" to the plays under Miller's producership, there was more nearly an attitudinal one. Everything was reflexive for the Renaissance artist, Miller felt, most especially historical references, and so Antony of Rome , Cleopatra of Egypt and both Timon and Theseus of Athens take on a familiar late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century manner and look. As this indicates, Miller adopted a visual and design policy of sets and costumes inspired by great paintings of the era in which the plays were written, although the style was dominated by the post-Shakespearean 17th century artists Vermeer and Rembrandt.

In this sense, "art provides not just a look in Miller's productions; it provided a mode of being, a redolence of the air breathed in that world, an intellectual climate in addition to a physical space. According to Miller himself,. I think this was a misconception: the hypothetical version which they saw as being authentic was actually something remembered from thirty years before; and in itself presumably widely divergent from what was performed at the inaugural production four hundred years ago. I thought it was much better to acknowledge the open-ended creativity of any Shakespeare production, since there is no way of returning to an authentic Globe Theatre version [ Speaking more directly, Elijah Moshinsky assessed Miller's contribution to the series by arguing that "it was only Miller's appointment that pulled the series out of its artistic nosedive.

A monkey-trick that comes off is a stroke of genius. If you start out with a quite comprehensive self-denying ordinance of "no monkey-tricks," then you really are very much shackled. And I said, okay, fine, but, I'll disturb them with bizarre interpretations. His Othello had little to do with race and his Lear was more of a family man than a regal titan. Miller himself spoke of his dislike for "canonical performances," stating "I think there is a conspiracy in the theatre to perpetuate certain prototypes in the belief that they contain the secret truth of the characters in question. This collusion between actors and directors is broken only by successful innovation which interrupts the prevailing mode.

However, although there was definitely a new sense of aesthetic freedom with Miller as producer, this freedom could not be pushed too far. For example, when he hired Michael Bogdanov to direct Timon of Athens , Bogdanov proposed an Oriental themed modern-dress production. The financiers refused to sanction the idea, and Miller had to insist Bogdanov remain within the aesthetic guidelines.

This led to Bogdanov quitting, and Miller himself taking over as director. After appointing a director and choosing a cast, he would make suggestions and be on hand to answer questions, but his belief was that "the job of the producer is to make conditions as favourable and friendly as they possibly can be, so that [the directors'] imagination is given the best possible chance to work. Whereas the BBC had looked for an outsider to inject fresh ideas into the project at the start of season three, they turned inwards once more in finding someone to bring the series to a conclusion; Shaun Sutton.

Miller had rejuvenated the series aesthetically and his productions had saved its reputation with critics, but the show had fallen behind schedule, with Miller overseeing only nine episodes instead of twelve during his two-year producership. Sutton was brought in to make sure the show was completed without going too far over schedule. Sutton also produced the Miller directed King Lear , which was shot in March and April , and aired as the season five opener in October As such, unlike the transition from Messina to Miller, the transition from Miller to Sutton was virtually unnoticeable.

At the start of season six, Sutton followed in Miller's footsteps by altering the opening of the show. He kept Miller's title sequence, but he dropped Stephen Oliver's theme music, and instead the music composed specifically for each episode served as the opening title music for that episode except for The Two Gentlemen of Verona , which had no original music, so Oliver's theme music from seasons 3—5 was used.

When asked how he felt about Messina's time as producer, Sutton responded simply "I thought the approach was a little ordinary, and that we could do better. If you've got those three right, it doesn't matter if you do it on cardboard sets, or moderately lit — it doesn't even matter in television sometimes if it is badly shot [ Writers, directors, actors; if those three are good, you can do it on the back of a cart.

The project was Sutton's retirement job after twelve years as the head of BBC Drama and he was under strict orders to bring the series to a close, something which he did successfully, with the broadcast of Titus Andronicus roughly twelve months later than the series had initially been set to wrap. Messina's gamble in ultimately proved successful, as the series was a financial success, and by was already turning a profit. Writing for the Los Angeles Times in , Cecil Smith noted "the series has been the target of critical catcalls on both sides of the Atlantic, shabbily treated by many PBS stations, and often ignored or damned as dull, dull, dull. The fact that this artificiality was half accepted, half denied, told you that you were not in Verona at all, but in that semi-abstract, semi-concrete, wholly uninteresting city which is known to students as Messina.

Tradition and consolidation, rather than adventure or experiment, are to be the touchstones. However, even in the failures, he found qualities and as such, "it has not been a bad start, given some directors new to the problems of translating Shakespeare to television. Reviewing the second season production of The Tempest for The Times Literary Supplement , Stanley Reynolds opined that although "there is very little for purists to find fault with [ What we got was some more of the BBC's ghastly middle taste. As the series came to a close, Literary Review ' s Andrew Rissik wrote "it must now be apparent as the BBC wind up their Shakespeare with Titus Andronicus — that the whole venture has been reckless and misguided [ Miller's productions were a clear improvement; their visual style was precise and distinctive and the casting, on the whole, intelligently done [ Rebecca Saire was only fourteen when the production was filmed, an unusually young age for an actress playing Juliet, although the character is just thirteen.

In interviews with the press prior to broadcast, Saire was critical of director Alvin Rakoff, stating that in his interpretation, Juliet is too childlike and asexual. This horrified the series' producers, who cancelled several scheduled interviews with the actress in the lead-up to broadcast. The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by feminist academic and journalist Germaine Greer. The Shakespeare in Perspective episode which introduced King Richard the Second was presented by historian Paul Johnson , who argued that the Henriad very much advanced the Tudor myth , something also argued by Graham Holderness who saw the BBC's presentation of the Henriad as "illustrating the violation of natural social 'order' by the deposition of a legitimate king.

Director David Giles shot the episode in such a way as to create a visual metaphor for Richard's position in relation to the court. Early in the production, he is constantly seen above the rest of the characters, especially at the top of stairs, but he always descends to the same level as everyone else, and often ends up below them. As the episode goes on, his positioning above characters becomes less and less frequent. The production was shot at Glamis Castle in Scotland, one of only two productions shot on location, with the other being The Famous History of the Life of Henry the Eight.

The location shooting received a lukewarm response from both critics and the BBC's own people, however, with the general consensus being that the natural world in the episode overwhelmed the actors and the story. This, in turn, meant the harshness of the forest described in the text was replaced by lush greenery, which was distinctly unthreatening, with the characters' "time in the forest appear[ing] to be more an upscale camping expedition rather than exile.

The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by novelist Brigid Brophy. Director Herbert Wise felt that Julius Caesar should be set in the Elizabethan era , but as per the emphasis on realism, he instead set it in a Roman milieu. It's an Elizabethan play and it's a view of Rome from an Elizabethan standpoint. It's not a jaded theatre audience seeing the play for the umpteenth time: for them that would be an interesting approach and might throw new light on the play. But for an audience many of whom won't have seen the play before, I believe it would only be confusing.

The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by political commentator Jonathan Dimbleby. The role of the Duke was originally offered to Alec Guinness. After he turned it down, the role was offered to a further thirty-one actors before Kenneth Colley accepted the part. Director Desmond Davis based the brothel in the play on a traditional Western saloon and the prison on a typical horror film dungeon. Gradually, the shots then move towards each other's style so that, by the end of the scene, they are both shot in the same framing. The second of only two episodes shot on location, after As You Like It. Whereas the location shooting in that episode was heavily criticised as taking away from the play, here, the location work was celebrated.

I wanted to feel the reality. I wanted great stone walls [ The episode was shot in winter, and on occasions, characters' breath can be seen, which was also impossible to achieve in studio. However, because of the cost, logistics and planning required for shooting on location, Messina decided that all subsequent productions would be done in-studio, a decision which did not go down well with several of the directors lined up for work on the second season.

This episode was not originally supposed to be part of the first season, but was moved forward in the schedule to replace the abandoned production of Much Ado About Nothing. The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by novelist and literary scholar Anthony Burgess. The week prior to the screening of this episode in both the UK and the US, the first-season episode King Richard the Second was repeated as a lead-in to the trilogy. The episode also began with Richard's death scene from the previous play. The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by musician, art historian and critic George Melly.

This episode starts with a reprise of the death of Richard, followed by an excerpt from the first-season episode King Richard the Second. Rumour's opening soliloquy is then heard in voice-over , played over scenes from the previous week's The First Part of King Henry the Fourth ; Henry's lamentation that he has not been able to visit the Holy Land , and the death of Hotspur at the hands of Prince Hal. With over a quarter of the lines from the Folio text cut, this production had more material omitted than any other in the entire series.

The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by psychologist Fred Emery. Whilst they had been focused on rooms and domestic interiors, Henry V was focused on large open spaces. As such, because they could not shoot on location, and because creating realistic reproductions of such spaces in a studio was not possible, they decided on a more stylised approach to production design than had hitherto been seen in the series. Ironically, the finished product looked more realistic that either of them had anticipated or desired. The episode was repeated on Saint George's Day 23 April in He then shot the episode in such a way that the audience becomes aware of the logical geography, often shooting characters entering and exiting doorways into rooms and corridors.

The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by painter and poet David Jones. The episode used a degree set, which allowed actors to move from the beach to the cliff to the orchard without edits. The orchard was composed of real apple trees. They had been developed for Top of the Pops and Doctor Who. The Shakespeare in Perspective episode was presented by philosopher Laurens van der Post. But no more sights!

Come, bring me where they are. To leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion and his titles in a placeFrom whence himself does fly? He loves us not;He wants the natural touch. For the poor wren,The most diminutive of birds, will fight,Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. All is the fear and nothing is the love,As little is the wisdom, where the flightSo runs against all reason. Each new mornNew widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrowsStrike heaven on the face, that it resoundsAs if it felt with Scotland and yelled outLike syllable of dolor. What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.

This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,Was once thought honest. You have loved him well. He hath not touched you yet. Better MacbethThan such an one to reign. The king-becoming graces,As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,I have no relish of them but aboundIn the division of each several crime,Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I shouldPour the sweet milk of concord into hell,Uproar the universal peace, confoundAll unity on earth … Fit to govern?

No, not to live. The queen that bore thee,Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! Devilish MacbethBy many of these trains hath sought to win meInto his power, and modest wisdom plucks meFrom overcredulous haste. But God aboveDeal between thee and me, for even nowI put myself to thy direction andUnspeak mine own detraction, here abjureThe taints and blames I laid upon myself,For strangers to my nature.

I am yetUnknown to woman, never was forsworn,Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,At no time broke my faith, would not betrayThe devil to his fellow, and delightNo less in truth than life. My first false speakingWas this upon myself. Their malady convincesThe great assay of art, but at his touch—Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand—They presently amend. A most miraculous work in this good king,Which often since my here-remain in EnglandI have seen him do.

With this strange virtue,He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,And sundry blessings hang about his throne,That speak him full of grace. What, man! Give sorrow words. All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! What, all my pretty chickens and their damAt one fell swoop? I cannot but remember such things wereThat were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,Not for their own demerits, but for mine,Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now. But, gentle heavens,Cut short all intermission. Front to frontBring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself. In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her say?

She has light by her continually. Out, I say! Hell is murky! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Where is she now? You mar all with this starting. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh! The heart is sorely charged. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. Unnatural deedsDo breed unnatural troubles. Infected mindsTo their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all! Look after her,Remove from her the means of all annoyance,And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night. My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. I think, but dare not speak. But, for certain,He cannot buckle his distempered causeWithin the belt of rule. Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach. Those he commands move only in command,Nothing in love. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to DunsinaneI cannot taint with fear. Was he not born of woman? The mind I sway by and the heart I bearShall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. What soldiers, patch? Death of thy soul!

Those linen cheeks of thineAre counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face? I have lived long enough. Come, put mine armor on. Give me my staff. Seyton, send out. Come, sir, dispatch. Thereby shall we shadowThe numbers of our host and make discoveryErr in report of us. I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughtsCannot once start me. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing. If thy speech be sooth,I care not if thou dost for me as much.

Come, wrack! Whiles I see lives, the gashesDo better upon them. And be these juggling fiends no more believed,That palter with us in a double sense,That keep the word of promise to our ear,And break it to our hope. He only lived but till he was a man,The which no sooner had his prowess confirmedIn the unshrinking station where he fought,But like a man he died. Had I as many sons as I have hairs,I would not wish them to a fairer death. And so, his knell is knolled. My thanes and kinsmen,Henceforth be earls, the first that ever ScotlandIn such an honor named. So, thanks to all at once and to each one,Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone. Shakespeare attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her.

Around he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical acclaim quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I ruled and James I ruled , and he was a favorite of both monarchs.

Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in at the age of fifty-two. Consumed with ambitious thoughts and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and seizes the throne for himself. He begins his reign racked with guilt and fear and soon becomes a tyrannical ruler, as he is forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion. The bloodbath swiftly propels Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and death. Macbeth was most likely written in , early in the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 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.

It is a sharp, jagged sketch of theme and character; as such, it has shocked and fascinated audiences for nearly four hundred years. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their masculinity. Such acts show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about masculinity, violence soon follows. Their understanding of masculinity allows the political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos. When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air.

The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth also eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her hands are stained with blood that cannot be washed away by any amount of water. In each case, it is ambiguous whether the vision is real or purely hallucinatory; but, in both cases, the Macbeths read them uniformly as supernatural signs of their guilt. Violence Macbeth is a famously violent play. Interestingly, most of the killings take place offstage, but throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the carnage, from the opening scene where the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the endless references to the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife.

The action is bookended by a pair of bloody battles: in the first, Macbeth defeats the invaders; in the second, he is slain and beheaded by Macduff. By the end of the action, blood seems to be everywhere. Still, it is left deliberately ambiguous whether some of them are self-fulfilling—for example, whether Macbeth wills himself to be king or is fated to be king. Blood Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the wounded captain in Act 1, scene 2.

Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean. Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves. Macbeth Flashcards.