The world of the playSocial, historical and cultural context in Macbeth

You can also offer an interpretation that stays closer to the original play’s contexts and still speak to a modern audience. To do this, you need to look closely at the social, cultural and historical context of the time when the play was written.

Macbeth is a play about an ancient Scottish king who turns to evil in the pursuit of power. He accepts that he must commit murder if he is to seize the throne. The real historical figure was not nearly as bad but Shakespeare was trying to win favour for his theatre company by pleasing the new king, James I. He succeeded in doing this by including the following themes in the play:

• its Scottish setting
• making Macbeth evil and Banquo, whom James thought of as his ancestor, virtuous
• using witchcraft in the play as the King had written a book on witchcraft and considered himself something of an expert.

Witchcraft was something that was taken very seriously during this period. You’d be missing the point if you criticised the inclusion of witchcraft in the play as silly or childish. You might have comments to make about how it was presented but it wouldn’t be fair to criticise its presence in the play.