Background to Shakespeare’s Macbeth
... The material for the play was drawn from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587), but Shakespeare and subsequent readers and editors classified it as a tragedy, not a history. This is perhaps due to the fact that the story contains many fabrications, including the entire character of Banquo, who was invented by a 16th-century Scottish historian in order to validate the Stuart family line. In addition to these fictionalizations, Shakespeare took many liberties with the original story, including manipulating the characters of Macbeth and Duncan to suit his purposes. In Holinshed's account, Macbeth is a ruthless and valiant leader who, after killing Duncan, rules competently and fairly for many years, while Duncan is a young and soft-willed man, not a particularly good ruler. Shakespeare heightens certain aspects of these characters in order to create a polarity between them, making Duncan out to be a venerable, kindly older king and changing Macbeth into a younger, indecisive, troubled man who could not possibly rule well. One aspect of the story of Macbeth that, surprisingly, Shakespeare did not invent, was the part played by the witches. Holinshed's account also contains these witches. Macbeth is certainly not the only play with historical themes that is full of fabrications. However, there are other reasons why this play is considered a tragedy rather than a history. One of these is the play's universality. Rather than illustrating a specific historical moment, Macbeth presents a human drama of ambition, desire, and guilt. Like Hamlet, Macbeth speaks soliloquies that articulate the emotional and intellectual anxieties that all readers have felt at times. For all his lack of values and "vaulting ambition," Macbeth is a character who seems infinitely real to audience members. This power to reach viewers is perhaps wh...