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Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue

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    There's a play so powerful
    that an old superstition says
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    its name should never
    even be uttered in a theater,
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    a play that begins with witchcraft
    and ends with a bloody severed head,
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    a play filled with riddles, prophesies,
    nightmare visions,
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    and lots of brutal murder,
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    a play by William Shakespeare sometimes
    referred to as the Scottish Play
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    or the Tragedy of Macbeth.
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    First performed at the Globe Theater
    in London in 1606,
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    Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.
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    It is also one of his most action-packed.
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    In five acts, he recounts a story
    of a Scottish Nobelman
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    who steals the throne,
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    presides over a reign of terror,
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    and then meets a bloody end.
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    Along the way, it asks important questions
    about ambition,
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    power,
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    and violence
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    that spoke directly to the politics
    of Shakespeare's time
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    and continue to echo in our own.
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    England in the early 17th century
    was politically precarious.
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    Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603
    without producing an heir,
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    and in a surprise move,
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    her advisors passed the crown
    to James Stewart, King of Scotland.
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    Two years later, James was subject
    to an assassination attempt
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    called the Gunpowder Plot.
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    Questions of what made
    for a legitimate king
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    were on everyone's lips.
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    So Shakespeare must have known
    he had potent material
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    when he conflated and adapted the stories
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    of a murderous 11th century
    Scottish King named Macbeth
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    and those of several
    other Scottish nobles.
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    He found their alums
    in Hollinshed's Chronicles,
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    a popular 16th century history
    of Britain and Ireland.
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    Shakespeare would also have known
    he needed to tell his story
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    in a way that would
    immediately grab the attention
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    of his diverse and rowdy audience.
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    The Globe welcomed
    all sections of society.
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    Wealthier patrons watched the stage
    from covered balconies
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    while poorer people paid a penny
    to take in the show
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    from an open-air section called the pit.
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    Talking, jeering and cheering
    was common during performances.
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    There are even accounts of audiences
    throwing furniture when plays were flops.
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    So Macbeth opens with a literal bang.
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    Thunder cracks and three witches appear.
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    They announce they're searching
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    for a Scottish nobleman
    and war hero named Macbeth,
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    then fly off while chanting a curse
    that predicts a world gone mad.
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    "Fair is foul and foul is fair.
    Hover through the fog and filthy air."
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    As seen later, they find Macbeth
    and his fellow nobleman Banquo.
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    "All hail Macbeth," they prophesize,
    "that shalt be king hearafter!"
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    "King?" Macbeth wonders.
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    Just what would he have to do
    to gain the crown?
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    Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth
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    soon chart a course of murder,
    lies, and betrayal.
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    In the ensuing bloodbath,
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    Shakespeare provides viewers with some
    of the most memorable passage
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    in English literature.
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    "Out, damned spot! out, I say!"
    Lady Macbeth cries when she believes
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    she can't wipe her victim's blood
    off her hands.
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    Her obsession with guilt is one
    of many themes that runs through the play,
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    along with the universal tendency
    to abuse power,
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    the endless cycles of violence
    and betrayal,
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    the defying political conflict.
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    As is typical with Shakespeare's language,
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    a number of phrases
    that got their start in the play
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    have been repeated so many times
    that they now feel commonplace.
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    They include "the milk of human kindness,"
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    "what's done is done,"
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    and the famous witches' spell,
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    "Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble."
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    But Shakespeares saves the juiciest
    bit of all for Macbeth himself.
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    Towards the end of the play,
    Macbeth reflects on universality of death
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    and the futility of life.
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    "Out, out, brief candle!" he laments.
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    "Life's but a walking shadow,
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    a poor player that struts
    and frets his hour upon the stage
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    and then is heard no more.
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    It is a tale told by an idiot,
    full of sound and fury
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    signifying nothing."
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    Life may be a tale told my an idiot,
    but Macbeth is not.
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    Shakespeare's language and characters
    have entered our cultural consciousness
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    to a rare extent.
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    Directors often use the story
    to shed light on abuses of power,
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    ranging from the American mafia
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    to dictators across the globe.
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    The play has been adapted
    to film many times,
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    including Akira Kurosawa's
    Throne of Blood,
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    which takes place in feudal Japan,
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    and a modernized version
    called Scotland, PA,
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    in which Macbeth and his rivals
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    are managers of competing
    fast food restaurants.
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    No matter the presentation,
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    questions of morality,
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    politics,
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    and power are still relevant today,
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    and so, it seems,
    is Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Title:
Why should you read "Macbeth"? - Brendan Pelsue
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TED-Ed
Duration:
06:09

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