The Tragedy Of Macbeth, William Shakespeare
The Tragedy Of Macbeth, William Shakespeare
25 Rating(s)
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

The Tragedy Of Macbeth
The Classic Tale

Author: William Shakespeare

Narrator: Cyril Taylor-Carr, The Cliff

Unabridged: 2 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/22/2022


Synopsis

"What’s done cannot be undone."

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, Macbeth most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy.

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.

Shakespeare's source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish Play". The play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on May 18, 2010

Don't you kind of hate how we've entered the decadent phase of Goodreads wherein perhaps fifty percent (or more) of the reviews written by non-teenagers and non-romancers are now naked and unabashed in their variously effective attempts at being arch, wry, meta, parodic, confessional, and/or snarky?......more

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on July 12, 2024

This play always holds a place in my heart and the top spot of most embarassing moments in my life. To be fair it was probably my fault as I’d never heard the superstition about not calling the “Scottish play” by name, and since it was my role I’d been shouting Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth all day. In fi......more

Goodreads review by Bill on April 25, 2019

Macbeth is Shakespeare's darkest play not only because of the restricted palette of its images--shades of black varied with bright red blood--but also because, in the play's world of warfare and witchcraft, its hero is half-damned from the start. Inured to violence, prone to superstition, Macbeth st......more

Goodreads review by jessica on October 31, 2019

highlights of this play include, but are not limited to: - the witches! they are the original halloween qweens. they are serving some major spooky realness. also, they went and haunted a woman just because she wouldnt share her hazelnuts. that is the exact level of petty that i aspire to be. - lady m......more

Goodreads review by هدى on June 04, 2018

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing هذا في رأيي هو أفضل سطر كتب عن العدمية في التاريخ وهو السطر الذي استمد منه فولكنز عنوان روايته الشهيرة -الصخب والعنف هذا هو كتابي المفضل رقم (1)‏ وسيظل كذلك ما حييت نبوغ شكسبير لا يحتاج أحدا ليدلل عليه فأكيف بالله عليكم أحلل أو أناقش عملا له ل......more